WL Toys 124016 124017 Preview: First Factory Brushless WL Toys RC Cars

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!)

UPDATE! Banggood have kindly supplied me an exclusive code to bring the the pres-order price of the 124017 down by 10% to just $133. Use code BG124017R at this link That's pretty solid value - check the detail below to see if it suits your needs. This is a new exclusive code that is active until the end of August 2021

Brushless System - ESC

First you can see they have gone with a 60A ESC. I don't recognise this model but it looks like it has a decent sized heatsink and a fan meaning it should have a reasonable ability to cool itself. Clearly it's 2s capable since this car comes with a 2s battery (standard 2s 2200mah lipo from the brushed car). My guess it that it is probably 3s capable as well but this is something I'd want to test.

Brushless System - Motor

I'm really pleased that they haven't gone with a 3650 motor as I've always stated that these are too big for these cars outside of straight line speed runs. 2845 is still a decent sized motor but should offer improvements in handling, thermal management and efficiency. The only reason I've avoided this motor size is because the motor mount and pinion need minor modification so I'm super excited to see what is under under the gear cover (more on that in the gearing section). ​

The 3400kv rating of the motor is very interesting - very conservative for 2s which is clever. My estimate is that this will still be noticeably fast than stock with better acceleration but efficiency will be off the charts - I'm expecting over twice the battery life on the same battery. The reason I said this is clever because it won't place huge stress on the battery, ESC, driveline or other parts and so they won't be shown up as being inadequate. The last thing they would need is a whole lot of complaints on launch about ESCs burning up or cars breaking because they went with a motor that was too big and fast.

Control system - radio and servo

Very interesting they stuck with the same transmitter, definitely a way to help save on cost. I had heard of a magic receiver that works with the stock which I'd seen on Aliexpress before but sadly I haven't kept the link. As these become more readily available this will be a viable budget upgrade for those wanting to use a conventional receiver. A word of warning though, I'm still not expecting the range to be great.

You can see that a regular 3 wire receiver has been used here which is good news. Between the and the more conventional receiver it means that any specific electrical component can be upgraded separately. This is in contrast to the brushed system where the ESC cannot be separated from the receiver which cannot be separated from the servo - all need to be replaced in one expensive hit.

Tyres

This is probably the most obvious upgrade. For once WL Toys have not copied LC Racing and so far as I can tell have come up with a nice big chunky tyre pattern all on their own. The tread pattern looks perfect for offroad bashing compared to the tyres on the 144001 / 124019 / 124018 which was not good for anything really - maybe carpet but even then the rubber was too hard. Assuming they get the tyre hardness somewhere between that of the 124019 (hard) and the 104001 (very soft) I think we are in for a popular tyre upgrade set.

Cosmetics

Although they have stuck with the same graphics and terrible English, the primary colour chas changed from purple on the 124019 to blue on the 124017 which carries from the body, to the shock absorber components and to the wheel graphics. The motor and ESC heatsink are also the same blue.

The 124018 has changed from blue as the secondary body colour to red on the 124016 and the shock absorber components have remained red. Wheel graphics change from white to red. Early photos don't show if this red follows to the ESC and motor or if these are blue like on the 124017.

Gearing

Now this is the part I'm dying to have confirmed most but I feel I can make a fairly good assumption here. I know for a fast that the 2845 does not have the standard 550/3650 mounting holes, rather it has the same mounting points as the 2838 and 2440/2445 motors. This would suggest that it is mounted to the inner holes as used in my 2445 drop in brushless upgrade. This is confirmed in the image below where you can just see the unused 550/3650 holes.

Image of the new 124017 showing that the motor is mounted on the smaller inner holes

This image from my no-cut brushless upgrade shows a 2838 motor with the same bolt pattern in the inner mounting holes increased to 3mm with the bored out 15mm pinion gear.

Now the stock motor mount only has M2.5 holes but the 2845 motor use M3 screws as standard. This means that the motor mount has been modified to M3 screw holes as used in my no cut brushless upgrade OR they have a custom motor with M2.5 screw holes. Either presents and interesting new option for upgrades.

Perhaps the most interesting part of all though is that using these smaller inner holes requires a smaller pinion gear. Note: I've assumed a smaller spur gear is unlikely but will happily eat my words if I'm proven wrong). I know for a fact that after extensive testing, a 15t M0.7 pinion is the perfect size here for the right mesh. WL toys already make a pinion gear in this size, the magical M0.7 15t that I recommend from Aliexpress. However this pinion is only available with a 2.3mm bore hole meaning that although it will direct fit a 2445 or 2440 motor, it will need to be drilled out to 3.2mm to fit a 2838 or 2845, I did exactly this in my no-cut brushless upgrade however it is not an easy task and I know many have struggled with off-centre holes. What this mean is either WL toys have made a new 15t pinion with a 3.2mm hole or a custom 2845 motor with 2.3mm shaft. Both are tantalising options and both offer a great new option for modders.

Since the only available M0.7 15t pinion gear has a 2.3mm bore, it needs frilling to 3.2mm for a conventional 2838 or 2845 motor. I can't wait to see how they have solved this in the new car

The same pinion fits the 2445 motor perfectly since this motor has the smaller 2.3mm drive shaft.

So if the gearing is as expected above it offers a truly conservative powertrain. My guess is that this should be safe to run on 3s as well but I will wait for testing before I confirm.

Speed expectations

I can tell you now, based on my educated assumptions above it will not hit the advertised 70km/h on the stock battery. I've run a practically identical setup to this with a 3600kv 2445 instead of the 3400kv 2845 on this new car with the same gearing and go the speeds below on 2s and 3s in this article

2445 3600kv motor on 2s

2445 3600kv motor on 3s

As you can see above their claim of 70km/h would be plausible if you were able to run a 3s pack.

What next?

Needless to say I've already ordered both of these cars so I'm looking forward to sharing the details with you as soon as I can but hopefully I've given you and insight here as to what you can reasonably expect. I cannot wait to get my hands on them as this looks like a great value setup so long as the electronics are somewhat reliable. See more details on the product pages below:

Wltoys 124017 Brushless Upgraded RTR 1/12

• Product page at Banggood
• ​Product page at Makerfire

Wltoys 124016 1/12 RC Car Brushless Desert Truck

• Product page at Banggood
• ​Product page at Makerfire

UPDATE! Banggood have kindly supplied me an exclusive code to bring the the pres-order price of the 124017 down by 10% to just $133. Use code BG124017R at this link That's pretty solid value - check the detail below to see if it suits your needs. This is a new exclusive code that is active until the end of August 2021​

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