Upgrade or Buy New
 

Hello,

I am new to RC. I got my first car a few months ago and I've been having a blast with it. It's a Subotech BG1518 with a brushed motor. I would like the car to have a little more speed and was looking at upgrading to a brushless motor. I found an upgrade kit online and wanted to know if it makes sense to upgrade the motor, or should I take that money and put it towards a new car.

I'm also interested in performing the upgrade to get experience with repairing and working on my RC. Any advise or suggestions is appreciated.

I'm looking to purchase one of the cars below if I do not perform the upgrade.

Traxxas Rustler

Arrma Kraton 4s

JLB Cheetah

Thanks for your knowledge!

Most basher grade cars like the one you have is considered "disposable"... it's nice to have replacement parts for low cost repairs, but once you do upgrades to increase speed then you drastically increase the probability of breaking more parts. If you can work ARRMA into your budget, then that would be my top pick of those options you have listed. Some more brands worth considering here as well:

Which 1/10 4WD SCT is best?

Best of luck on your decision!

Thank you for information

From experience I'd lean toward a company that's still producing today and stock some parts that frequently break after you drive it...

Hopefully you found something at your local hobby shop by now.

All of the ones you listed will certainly be faster than the one you have. For its weight though, the BG1518 that you have should have excellent run time on that 1500mah sized battery. Take that into consideration when you're choosing your next RC. Sometimes people go with larger thinking faster, but that also means heavier so it needs the additional power just to break even. It's like how people think they want tons of range on an electric vehicle but forget that an empty battery weighs the same as a fully charged battery so the more your drive it, the less efficient it gets compared to a gas car that technically gets lighter during the course of usage. Odd comparison, but I think you get it.

The motor size is quite small for a 1/12 scale of your BG1518 relatively speaking. One thing to think about between upgrading and buying new is the chassis. If you like the existing chassis, the differential hasn't been giving your problems and you like the reliability of it overall, then upgrading is worth considering particularly if you like tinkering. I have a feeling if you bought a replacement RC, you'd still tinker.

The 144001 is a tinkerer's friend. That'll last you awhile. There's lots of part support for it. If you like the truck style though, the HBX 16889 brushless is hard to beat. When you're looking around, compare your findings with that car.