Updated: Aug 13, 2026

Out of the box, the LC Racing EMB series and LC12B1 are the best small scale off-road vehicles on the market.

With these upgrades, you can make them even better. See what we recommend, and why:

Aluminum hubs/steering blocks

Depending on your driving skill (and that of those around you), you may be able to get away with the included plastic components for a while.

At some point, however, you're going to make unexpected contact with a pipe, wall, or another car - and that's where the aluminum option parts help ensure you stay in the race.

They include plastic inserts to help absorb energy to limit the beating your bearings take, but bearings still take a beating on these little cars. If you can wiggle your axle significantly while holding a hub, it's time to swap in a replacement bearing. OEM are cheap and plentiful, our bearing sets are a little better.

Eventually, we'll have our own machined aluminum hubs to offer, but in the meantime, these are the way to go.

Servo

The OEM servo is on a limited lifespan due to its plastic gears. You can replace it with a stronger metal gear Batan D135F (the LC Racing optional part) but it’s really slow.

For an even better option, you can switch to a more common micro servo by using our mounts. We also made a strong and fast micro servo of our own, plus the servo horn to make it work.

While we're partial to ours, there's plenty of good micro servos out there, and they're all likely to be faster and better than the OEM options.

Class 12.9 Differential Screws

Something we didn't realize was an issue until it started occurring on practically every one of our rental vehicles: the little M1.4 screws (of unknown metallurgy) that secure the ring gear to the diff case can easily break.

This likely occurs due to hard driving where an abrupt stop/start or change in RPM occurs, such as landing a jump while on the brakes/throttle on a high traction surface, or just crashing into things at high speed.

The heavy metal ring gear needs to be clamped to the plastic diff case well enough that there's no side load applied to the screws. It's a steep request for the tiny stock hardware, but we've got the solution:

You’ll also need a tap, tap handle, and 1.3 mm hex driver (if you don’t have one) to make the screws work with the differential cases:

Aluminum Gearboxes

The problem:

  1. The OEM plastic gearboxes are not rigid enough to prevent the ring and pinion gear from flexing out of alignment, resulting in skipping teeth and damaging the gears. This is seen more commonly on the truggy, as it uses larger wheels/tires, with higher force applied.
  2. The molded shock tower mounting tabs can break off in a collision.
  3. The threads can easily strip out from minor over-tightening or anything that requires removal and reinstallation (like replacing a shock tower, or changing your diff oil).
Scale Speed 7075 Aluminum Gearbox (LC Racing EMB Series / LC12B1)

Our solution:

We designed practically indestructible CNC machined 7075-T6 aluminum gearboxes to provide maximum durability and rigidity.

  • Ring gear stays properly aligned with the center driveshaft bevel gear
  • No more breaking mounting tabs
  • No more stripping out threads

Get them here: 7075 Aluminum Gearbox

7075 Aluminum Drag Link

Tired of the OEM drag link almost immediately wearing out, leaving you with excessive steering slop? So were we.

  • Precision CNC machined from high-strength 7075-T6 aluminum, bead blasted, and laser etched, it's built to perform and look good doing it
  • Bushing hole diameters are held within 2 thousandths of an inch (0.05 mm) for flawless fitment and smooth, consistent steering
  • Curved shape allows easier access to gearbox screws

Available here: 7075 Aluminum Drag Link

Titanium Skid Plates

If you’re running on dirt/clay tracks or just general outdoor use, our titanium plates are awesome for wear protection, plus they make sparks when scraped.

L6261 Differential Outdrives, Hard 

Hard Differential Outdrives

These will keep your axles from digging into the outdrives. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s nice to have them last over a year without notching. Makes things feel more responsive when the pins are making contact with the outdrive slot properly at all times instead of having that little delay or slop.
L5092 Inner Hinge Pin, 2.5 x 40 mm, Hard (2)

Hard Hinge Pins

This is something we requested and tested with LC Racing.

It's easy to bend the stock hinge pins, but difficult to know for sure without removing them for inspection, leaving you chasing the root cause of any driveability and steering trim issues.

These pins have endured incredible crashes in our experience without issue. We have ripped arms off, bent the suspension mounts, etc. while the pin remains perfectly straight.

However, when pushed beyond their limit, these pins will break rather then bend. So with everything, it depends on what you'd rather have: a stronger pin that ensures consistent performance (but could break completely), or a pin that may bend causing things to steer oddly (but can continue to drive and make it to the end of the heat/race, while fighting to drive straight).

And for more ideas based on what's ordered the most, click the button below and choose your vehicle from the Filters. (Sorted by Best Selling by default)

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