Matt's Ford Escort MK2 124019 "HillClimb Special"

My fellow countryman Matt has chosen to share his modded WLToys 124019 Hillclimb special for the last COTM for 2022. As you can see it has a pretty striking Phat Bodies MKII Ford Escort Body with clever guard extenders. Learn more about his build below and of course join our Facebook Group if you want to be the first to know about these builds.

​I bought the car as my first RC at age 42 after having owned a Tamiya QD 1:14 Thundershot as a teen. I took it indoor off-road racing, and had a lot of fun, and quickly got hooked on racing. The club also had an onroad class which I was keen to run in, but I didnt have an onroad car, so I decided to convert my 124019 to get racing. We have a 'silver can' class at the club which allows a number of different chassis to race. These are limited to brushed silver can motors, and have gearing restrictions to keep the field even. Unfortunately with a 540 Tamiya silver-can motor, the 124019 was much too fast with it's high gearing, and was overheating the motor with the smaller can size. With extremely limited options to re-gear the car I was forced to buy a slower motor, hence the 25t 550 with variable timing. Even with this motor I had to dial the throttle dual-rate back to 60% to have it at the same speed as the other cars. This is also why it runs so much downforce. With it being a significantly shorter wheelbase than the rest of the field and such high downforce, the turn in and cornering are brutally fast, and the very low CG means it out performs anything in the turns. it gets called 'The Hybrid' by the other racers, probably because it looks a little 'Frankenstein's monster'!

Where are you from?
Wellington, New Zealand
Favourite place to race/brash/drive?
Our local race track, Capital Model Racers​ 
Preferred places/websites to source parts?
Aliexpress 
Favourite mod/upgrade on the car?
Probably the wheel arches.​ 
Future plans for the car?
I'm likely to convert it back to a buggy at some point, as it's such a fun car in that format
Model
WLToys 124019 'Hillclimb Special'
Motor
Surpass Hobby 25t 550 brushed
ESC
Stock/Hobbywing Quicrun 1060
Gearing
Stock
Servo
Stock/Surpass Hobby 17g S0017M
TX/RX
Spektrum DX3c/SR3100
Battery Choices
Gens Ace 4000mah shorty LCG
Wheels/Tires
Sorex 28R touring car wheels/tires 
Body/Shell/Wing
Phat Bodies Mchassis Escort Mk2, 144001 rear wing, corrflute front splitter, 3D printed wheel arches 
Other Mods/Upgrades
Aliexpress uprated CVD all round, Tamiya on road springs, LC12b1 sway bars, diy carbon shock towers, LC Racing Rally bumper, AMB Transponder, droop screws all round, 3D printed battery clamps, diy carbon rear body mount