I've now built up quite a library of articles for the WL Toys 144001 (and 124019 / 124018) and thought I would use this page to share them. As of 3 August 2021 I've finally done a bit of an overhaul to make sure all articles are included and have added some new categories plus reviews. Enjoy!

A quick Recap: Geoffrey is building a special build from a WL Toys 124018, taking time to build the car that he wants. This is a very methodical build going deeper into each component and looking at many options. There’s a reason why this project car is called the WLC Racing 124018: several of the upgrade choices are sourced from the LC Racing catalogue and are a direct replacement. This goes to show how heavily “inspired” WLToys was with their 1/12 scale models. The parts mentioned in this article are also compatible with the 144001 and 124019. ​

The WL toys 124016 and 124017 are faster and more efficient brushless version of the hugely popular 124018 and 124019. If you want to know more about these new brushless cars then check out the preview article I wrote here: ​WL TOYS 124016 124017 PREVIEW: FIRST FACTORY BRUSHLESS WL TOYS RC CARS
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In this  article I'll be taking you through my top 5 mods for this car

If the stock car is anything to go by, the brushless model will be at least as fast but with much stronger acceleration and better battery life. With the understanding that you will be going faster for longer, there is an increased change of breakages on what is not an especially weak but not an especially strong car either. In addition, the extra speed and acceleration will show up the handling. For these reasons and but one of the 5 best mods below to improve your 124016 or 124017 will focus on DURABILITY and HANDLING and maybe just a little more POWER

The WL Toys 104001 is an all new 1/10 scale 4WD offroad RC Buggy that was released in 2021 and you can find my full review of the 104001 here. I found this to be a great handling car but felt a little on the slow side. I was able to get some more speed out of it for very little money by increasing the size of the pinion gear here but performance is still a little on the lack-lustre side. Clearly this car is crying out for a brushless upgrade so it's my pleasure to present the one I have put together and have been testing over the last few months and I'll call the 104001 big brushless upgrade. 

WL Toys have just announced that they are releasing a brushless version of the hugely popular 124018 and 124019 1/12 scale ready to run RC cars. Of course they have gone with predictably boring names - 124016 and 124017 🤦‍♂️. I've set this blog up to discuss the specs and what we can glean from the images. I do no have the cars (yet) so this is not a hands on review but of course I expect to review these as soon as they are available.

Firstly if you want to see my reviews on the brushed version of these cars, here is the one I did on the 124019 and the differences for the 124018. Based on initial pricing, the new brushless 124016 desert buggy and 124017 race buggy this looks to be only around $20-30 more than the brushed version which represents really good value. I made a guide on the cheapest brushless upgrade worth doing and at best mine had a $50-$60 premium although it did include replacement radio gear, servo, esc and motor. The benefit on coming from the factory is that you won't be left with a spare brushed setup in a cardboard box in your shed somewhere (True story, I have a box full of 5 stock brushed systems!)

The ZD Racing EX-07 Is a massive 1/7 scale street bash RC car based on the looks of Ken Block's restomod Hoonicorn Mustang V1. It is available as a ready to run car with everything or a kit version without the electronics and I've chosen the latter. They have got the looks 90% of the way to looking amazing but let themselves down on the final execution, with the body drooping badly around the front of the windscreen it kicks the nose up awkwardly and makes it weaker too. In this guide I will show you how to fix that and make some other easy improvements to the stance to make it look even better than the Arrma Infraction and Felony that it competes with.

A quick note that this is not a review - I plan to do that soon but it's taking a while since I bought the kit version knowing that the stock electronics are a little sketchy. This allows me to choose my own servo, ESC and motor to get the performance and reliability I want. In this article I'll show you how to fix the horrible sag in the body the makes the nose point up, adjust the stance to make it more even by modding the body posts and droop screw settings and lastly an option for different wheels which in my opinion really set the car off.

The WL Toys 124019 is a small and fast car out of the box - it'll do 55km/h on the old technology brushed motor that comes stock out of the box. For bashing and off-road I prefer to upgrade with physically smaller and more efficient brushless motors but if straight-line on road speed is your objective as is the case here, then using a 3650 sized motor can get you massive speed... there are many examples where this car can go well over 100mph. The objective of my build here is to see what kind of speed I can get without pushing the budget or modifications too far - bolt in parts, stock body and a car than is as reliable as stock and can easily be converted back.

For this build I've chosen the WL Toys 124019 which is a long-wheelbase version of the popular 144001. The reasons this car makes for a good speed run build is:

1. It's cheap - around $100-$120
2. It has a fairly strong and efficient 4wd drive line
3. The comparatively massive brushed motor can easily be replaced with a comparatively massive brushless motor
4. The long wheelbase allows for more room for large components (namely ESC and motor)
5. The car is relatively durable with low cost replacement parts

Let's get on to the build which I have broken down into sections. We'll start with the powertrain which most of you are here for but I'll also cover important lessons in wheel/tyre choice, suspension set up, aero, speed measurement and driving technique. Read on for more

As we all know by now the WL Toys 144001 (and 124018 / 124019 by extension) is a budget copy of LC Racing EMB-1 that utilises cheaper materials and electrical components to make it a lower cost offering. LC Racing spares for the EMB series are surprisingly cheap - often cheaper than the WL toys parts. In the list below I've made it clear which parts are a direct fit and which parts will fit with a little modification.

Link below are to the AliExpress store that I trust - they have been running successfully for over 7 years and will ship worldwide. You may of course have other options locally like Troy Remy in Canada (find him in the QuadifyRC Group), Warren RC in USA, RCMart out of Hong Kong and direct from LC Racing themselves.

The WPL C24 1/16 2.4G 4WD Crawler Truck Is a highly realistic 1/16 scale radio “crawler” RC truck. It has proportional steering and throttle (forward and reverse) and has a huge list of upgradable parts making it a legitimately hobby grade vehicle. Being a crawler it runs at low speed but is very powerful = this in combination with 4wd, grippy tyres and large suspension range makes it very capable in scaling obstacles. Best of all it is extremely cheap - less than $50 with everything you need to run. In this article I will review this truck in full

The small scale crawler market has really taken off recently based on the following because they can be used in so many ways:

• Small scale and low speed means you don’t need to travel to find fun spots to run – in your backyard, local park or even inside your house or garage. This also makes them really suitable for beginners
• Price is very low for a hobby grade car
• Reaplcement parts are inexpensive
• There is a huge range of upgrades – more powerful motors, metal parts, grippier wheels with weights and even a 2 speed gearbox controlled by a third channer
• Even stationary the plastic moulded body looks fantastic and is very presentable even as a scale model of the legendary Toyota Hilux

The ability to solder cleanly and safely is useful tool for RC car enthusiasts if you have more than a passing interest in the hobby. Like most hobbies, mass manufacturing in China has meant prices for tools and consumables have come right back but you'll need to make sure you have the right products. In this guide I'll cover some soldering basics as it relates to RC cars and which gear I recommend for the beginner to intermediate user that is budget friendly yet gives a good outcome.

I am by no means a soldering expert but even then I take my ability to get a good clean, and effective joint a little for granted since my dad taught me when I was very young. When I got into quads about 4 years ago this was crucial as you simply cannot fly FPV without being able to solder. With RC cars you can procrastinate the need to solder a bit longer through use of adaptor plugs and the like but at some point it becomes necessary when you want a reliable, safe and fit for purpose finish with your wiring.