QUADIFYRC RC Car Review and Upgrade Guides

The WLToys 284010 is a 1/28 mini scale 4wd RC Car. They are cheap, Ready To Run (RTR) out of the box and a lot of fun. This particular model is a new and improved version of the very popular WLToys K989. In this review I'll give you more detail on the car and how it performs and point out the improvements over the earlier models

WL Toys make a wide range of budget RC cars that typically do a great job of mixing low cost with good performance. Their most well known car is probably the 1/14 scale 144001 and the variants they have spawned which I've covered extensively on this website. Next most successful for them would then be the K9XX series which have recently been updated and renamed as the 284XX series such as the 284131 Hoonitruck which I reviewed here. The 284010 as reviewed in this article is the latest and includes all of WL Toys latest improvements building on what is already a very enjoyable little RC Car. First lets look at what is included:

The ​DumboRC X6PM-350 is a new, compact 6 channel transmitter from DumboRC, my favourite budget wheel/trigger radio brand. Alongside the launch of this new transmitter, DumboRC have also released a whole lot of new receivers - 8 in total. This means they have something for every application from micro to full scale, gyro, no gyro, built-in brushed ESCs and even full lighting controls for your scale rigs. In this article I'll review the radio in full and help you understand which receiver will suit you best.

DumboRC have been really successful in the budget RC area with their X4, X5 and X6 range that I covered extensively in this guide here. The reason that they were so successful is that the price was sharp but more importantly they were VERY reliably even over a long range and they offered useful features like gyro and lighting control without overcomplicating the operation of the transmitter. For these reasons we have see DumboRC radio gear get used more and more as an OEM with companies like ZD Racing and Rlaarlo.

Clearly they lack multiple model options and digital adjustments but at this price you could have separate controllers for separate cars/tanks/boats/trucks etc. The new X6PM-350 as reviewed here offers all of the benefits of the X4-6 range but in a more compact package that fits easily into a backpack plus at an even sharper price.

The Diatone (SNT) Y60 3005 is an absolute mouthful of a name but this is a super tiny 1/64 scale 4wd Crawler RC truck that I have reviewed. The version I have reviewed has a built in First Person View (FPV) camera that transmits the image to a set of goggles that gives you a view from the car in real time. The amount of technology crammed into this tiny hotwheel-sized cars is just crazy and I hope to give you a full feel for it in the review.

If you haven't been involved with quadcopters before you probably won't know the brand "Diatone" but if you have you will know they are one of the bigger and well-supported brands that have become very popular due to the balance of quality and performance they have struck plus have the most aggressive product development schedule I've ever come across. They have partially re-branded to "SNT" as they start making consumer RC cars, working exclusively on the micro (1/64) scale which is roughly the size of a hotwheels car. I've reviewed 2 generations of these in the Q33 buggy and the Q25 240z replica which have both shown substantial improvements over the models they replace. Both are bult for speed but the weight and location of the FPV camera lets down the experience. As you'll see in this review the Y60 truck  is built to crawl slowly over bigger obstacles and so is much better suited to FPV.

If you are looking for a review of the Rlaaro AM-X12 then check out Geoffrey's Chan's super in depth review of this mid-spec 1/12 RC buggy here. If you are looking for his to 10 tuning tips the read on...

If you are not already familiar with crawlers, they are a subset of RC cars that run at much slower speeds with a lot more torque and rather than travelling around tracks at speed, they are design for traversing rough terrain (like a full sale 4x4) with a scale look. Although the WPL C24 Waterproof has a fairly basic plastic build in order to achieve it's relatively low price point, there is a massive amount of upgrades available - everything from wheel weights for more grip to metal 2 speed gearboxes to larger diffs and of course grippier tyres. As you'll see from my review that follows though you'll realise that this truck performs great out of the box as is and will give you a great feel for crawling in all conditions (including water) with a minimal outlay.

Recently I was given the opportunity to look at the CrazyFastRC CF1401: a new RC Car based on the ever popular WL Toys 144001 1/14 scale 4wd buggy I have written over 40 articles on. The CrazyFastRC CF1401 and is a pre-modded rolling chassis version of this popular car, exclusively available from their new Aliexpress store. A rolling chassis is the basic car only and you will need to add your own radio, motor and ESC and battery and this is typically how higher end race cars are sold. As such, these are a very good option if you were planning to mod anyway, something these cars are so well suited to. In this review I'll be reviewing the CrazyFastRC CF1401 as ordered and in future articles I will be showing you the components I will build with.

The CrazyFastRC store can be found on Aliexpress here and have a number of common Chinese RC car brands like WL Toys, ZD Racing, UDIRC and more but it is their own branded CF1401 I am most interested in and will be reviewing here. As I said before this is a rolling chassis and you will need your own radio, power system and battery to run this car. Now that that is clear, lets get on with the review:

This article has kindly been written by Geoffrey Chan one of the original members of the QuadifyRC facebook group. This first article is of the review and the top 10 tuning tips for this car will follow shortly.

​Rlaarlo is a new kid on the block in the market of affordable ready-to-run (RTR) Chinese RC’s. Having only been on the market for about a year, they have launched several models in the 1/18, 1/16, 1/14 and now their latest 1/12 scale AM-X12 buggy. Their cars are attractive and are heavily inspired by some of the very well known Arrma vehicles like the Typhon and Kraton, which is not a bad thing. The new AM-X12 has generated a lot of buzz and I purchased mine as a part of their pre-sale promotion for USD$149 delivered during November 2022. It is also available as a roller without electronics, but you don’t get all the spare parts and the nice carrying case. It is a nice option, but for the slight cost difference the RTR with all the extras is a better deal, even if you remove the electronics and use it in another project later.

Of all the WLToys cars, the 144010 and 124017 are my favourite and embody all of the incremental improvements over the hugely popular original 144001 they have made over the years. You can see my review for the 144010 here which is essentially the same as the 124017. At this price point they have their downsides but they are fast, efficient, handle well and have a wealth of options for modification. They do run well out of the box but I thought I'd share the budget mods I personally use to help you with your own decisions around upgrades.

As a start point I have chosen to use my WLToys 144010 as reviewed here. It is already very quick but I wanted to make this a better general purpose car that can be adapted to any situation.

The WLToys 184016 is a small scale brushless RC car from WL Toys. It is clear on closer inspection that rather than being an updated version of the poorly-designed A959, it is in fact a compact version of the widely known 1/14 scale 144001 and 144010. I say compact rather than shrunk because it shares all the main parts from the driveline and suspension setup albeit with a smaller track and shorter wheelbase. My full review will follow soon but for now please read on for which parts you can swap between the two cars (and why you might want to do this).

The new WLToys 104072 is a 1/10 scale onroad "basher" truck. It is ready to run (RTR) and includes radio and powerful brushless power system. For those familiar with the WLToys models it is based on a modified 104001 / 104002 chassis and includes a well-proportioned resto-mod truck style body like Ken Block's Hoonitruck. Closer to the RC world we've seen this design on the larger Arrma Infraction and even the small scale WL Toys 284131. This truck is designed to be driven hard onroad.

On road bashing is a category that has been made popular by the 1/7 scale Arrma Infraction and Felony and more recently by the slightly smaller 1/8 Infraction 3s and Vendetta. This 1/10 scale 104072 by WL Toys looks to take advantage of that new market with a similar look on their 1/10 scale chassis. The underpinnings are based on the brushed 104001 (reviewed here) and brushless 104002 (reviewed here) that have been extensively modified from their buggy origins to a lower, narrower and strengthened onroad-only chassis with the 104072. In this review I'll look more closely into the systems that make up the car and then review it as a whole for driving experience. 

I'll let you know now that driving experience out of the box was not great but I've recommend some simple and inexpensive/free changes that resolve these handling issues. First let's look at what's included.