From Melted Gears to 35 km/h: Stress-Testing a 3D-Printed RC

Phoenix Was Never Supposed to Survive

This story did not start with The MadBaxRC.

It started with Phoenix — a 3D-printed RC car that refused to stay alive.Broken arms. Melted gears. Snapped chassis. Rebuilt… again and again.

Every failure taught a lesson. Every rebuild added strength.And eventually, I made myself a promise:

The next car would not be fragile.It would be stronger. Meaner. Built for chaos.

That promise became MadBaxRC:

Not Just a Build — A Stress Test

This is not a polished, showroom RC car project.This is a real engineering experiment, documented honestly — including mistakes.

Watch the Full Story

The full video shows:

• Every test
• Every mistake
• Every redesign
• Every performance jump

If you want to see how a 3D-printed RC car evolves from fragile prototype to a 35 km/h, 30-minute runtime beast, watch the video.

I did not baby this car.

I pushed it too hard.I overheated motors.I melted plastic.I made rookie mistakes on camera, so you don’t have to repeat them.

And the best part?

You’re not just watching destruction for entertainment.You can build the exact same car yourself.

All STL files, the complete parts list, and step-by-step assembly videos are available — but first, I wanted to see how far this thing could really go.

Measuring Speed… the Wrong Way (and Then the Right One)

Engineers use professional GPS modules.

I strapped an old phone to the RC car.

Not duct-taped - appropriately mounted - but still very much improvised.

The result?A disappointing 21 km/h.

And that was my fault.

The car was hauling an extra 300 grams of dead weight, and the speed app wasn’t designed for short sprints. Rookie move.

So I redid the test properly.

Using marked parking slots, slow-motion footage, and real measurements, the results came in:

32 km/h (20 mph).

Not a toy anymore.

When Reality Hits Back

Then came grass.

High-speed motor. Thick grass. Poor bumper design.

Bad idea.

The bumper acted like a plow.The motor overheated.The plastic softened.The gear slipped clean off the shaft.

Lesson learned: terrain matters.

But that’s the beauty of a 3D-printed platform — I could redesign, reprint, and improve everything. Better ventilation. Correct motor choice. Updated instructions.

Back to testing.

Fix, Fail, Improve — Repeat

Another run.

In 20 minutes, another strange noise came in.

The gear slipped again.

This time, I redesigned the drivetrain, added cooling, and installed a heat sink -

which turned out to be so poorly designed that the motor magnet literally stopped the cooling fans.

Six hours lost.Fans relocated.Everything rebuilt.

This time?

30 minutes of runtime on a single battery.

For comparison, many hobby-grade RC cars at this price point last 5–10 minutes.

That alone made the struggle worth it.

New Record: 35 km/h

Same test. Same method. Better setup.

The car covered the distance in 0.267 seconds.

That’s 35 km/h (22 mph).

A new personal record — and proof that the design was heading in the right direction.

But I wasn’t done.

Snow, Failure, and One More Fix

Winter arrived — and with it, snow drifting.

It looked amazing… until the motor failed.

Despite being labeled “waterproof, ” packing the car full of snow exposed another design flaw. Snow was being forced directly into the electronics.

The fix was simple:I closed the front opening and redirected airflow.

Problem solved.

Why This Matters

This project isn’t about pretending everything works perfectly.

It’s about:

• Designing
• Breaking
• Fixing
• Improving
• Documenting everything honestly
• And turning failure into a better design.

If you want to build it yourself, all files and instructions are linked in the video description.

And if you subscribe to the YouTube channel and leave a comment there, I’ll personally send you a 50% discount.

More tests are coming.Durability is next.

This thing is about to suffer again.