We’ve been having a lot of fun with the Desert Fox, it is so much more powerful than the brushed/NiMH powered Tamiya buggies we were used to, capably handling pretty much any terrain we throw at it.

There is a great RCGroups thread about it here, in there several people have warned that the supplied 40A ESC isn’t really up to it. Well on our fourth trip out the poor thing had smoke pouring from the ESC, I quickly removed the battery and thankfully avoided any fire.

Seeing as we were soon to go on holiday to visit grand dad I considered my options:

1. Go through the famous Hobby King RMA process, only to get another 40A ESC which is just as likely to blow up.
2. Take it on the chin and accept the cheap car was cheap and upgrade the motor/ESC.

Figuring option 2 would mean the buggy was usable for the vacation and also probably better off in the long run I took the plunge and bought a 3250KV motor and 80A ESC combo. It was pretty quick to fit, just requiring a battery connector to e added.

Happily this plugged right in and the car spent a happy week tearing up the beach in Teignmouth.