WLToys K989 vs K969, which is best? Can they both race and drift?

Both the WLToys K989 1/28 race/touring car and the K969 drift car are great and fun little cars. But which one is best, which should you buy? In this video we do a comparison and some vs race to see which would suit you best.
Both cars are cheap, they can be bought here:
WLToys K989: www.banggood.com/custlink/vKm...
WLToys K969: www.banggood.com/custlink/DDv...
Increase steering angle fix: • Upgrade WLToys K989/K9...
Tight drivetrain and diff fix: • Upgrade drive train WL...
Vector Vectors by Vecteezy www.vecteezy.com
0:00 Intro
0:17 Talk: Comparison
5:08 Modifications/Improvements
5:48 Test 1: Stock tires on carpet
6:50 Test 2: Drift tires on carpet
7:59 Test 3: Race tires on carpet
8:38 Test 4: Stock tires on wooden floor
9:16 Test 5: Drift tires on wooden floor
9:45 Test 6: Race tires on wooden floor
10:17 Conclusion

[@denrico777]

This video is PERFECT.

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks mate, it makes me happy to hear 👍

[@RCBirds]

Awesome testing and comparison. I aggree with your conclusion completely

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks, we did our best to show their differences. Glad you agree, then it’s not all bad 😃

[@matthutch5919]

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH for uploading this video. I am now 100% with the perchance I'm about to make

[@LyhneRC]

Great, I'm glad it helped you out. Which car will you purchase?

[@zz-tama]

Thanks for sharing. Nice compilation!

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks, glad you liked it 👍

[@Fonzierc]

Very good compareson great explanation sweet driving on both Btw

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks a lot buddy, we tried our best to show the differences 😃

[@jasonking8937]

Really good video . happy I watched this before buying

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks, and I am happy that you liked it 😀. I have made a similar but newer video with the whole family: WLToys K989 vs K969 vs 284010 vs 284131 vs 284161 | Which to buy? kzbin.info/www/bejne/aGKaaIqAZZaXgKM

[@GaveitagoRC]

Well explained and good demonstration.

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks, glad you liked it, we thought a lot of how to best show the differences of these great cars

[@RC-CARS-WORLD]

Awesomw bideo my rc friend, great comparison and run, great race 😃👍

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks, glad you liked it 😀 the good driving credits goes to my son, he is much better at the micro RC than me 👍

[@andersand3055]

Great review, very creative comparison :-)

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks buddy 👍

[@rcplaytime]

excellent video 😀 red one drifts like a beast😀👍👍

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks, I wish it was me that drifted that well with the K969, my son is a pro at that 😃

[@RCDRIVERSTUDIO]

Great video 👍 I have K969 and I´m happy with that :) You have great drifting skills :)

[@LyhneRC]

It's an awesome little car, I will pass you nice words on to my 9 year old son, who is the drift king 😀

[@stiletto9]

@@LyhneRC 9 year old?! wow and he drifts like that? he has some talent

[@LyhneRC]

Yes he has, he is 10 now and is racing for the National championship 😀

[@torontorc4637]

Nice video man 👍🏾

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks for watching and commenting. Glad you like the video 👍

[@maxmixrc]

Nice racing, good k989 bro 😊👍

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks Buddy

[@jspeedrc]

Great video 👍🏽

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks buddy 👍

[@islandrc-duke1972]

Cool rc's and great tests and driving

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks, the cool drifts were made by my son, I’m a noob at that 😃

[@mikealexis]

Very nice video bro

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks mate 😀👍

[@JF-RC]

Hi there and very detailed and perfectly explained difference between the cars having the different tyres and differential setup. Great to see this in action on the different surfaces too. Great work, might have to get myself a WLToys car! But which one K989 for racing or the K969 for drifting? Hmmmm…. Thank you for the demonstration. Take care and best wishes 😊😉😊

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks a lot John 👍 the choice is simple, you need them both 😀 or wait for next week where we compare the K989 to the 284131😀

[@JF-RC]

@@LyhneRC think you might be right! 😉😊

[@mattiasrc]

Great test and comparsion between the two models. I guess it´s best to buy one of each then 🤣😂

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks, yes you need one of each, but before you buy the K989 wait for next week where we compare K989 with the 284131 “mini fraction”

[@anshaldrin1346]

I did the same😂😂

[@lupierz]

Totally agree, great from both the RC and mechanical perspective and it's much easier to understand the principle and test compared to a full size car.

[@PakWahyu]

Very cool video my friend😎😎😎👍👍👍

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks buddy, glad you liked it 👍

[@rcloner1895]

I had both. Swapped the diffs so they both had locked rear and open front. Got a set of drift tires for the k989 and they’re both great awd drift cars

[@LyhneRC]

Hi, interesting with swapping the diffs. Did you end up having this setup (open front, locked rear) because you prefer it that way or just because it was easier and you didn't have to buy 2 locked diffs for the K989? Maybe I should try this?

[@rcloner1895]

@@LyhneRC at first I did it to save the money. But once I got extra diffs and tried every setup I ended up sticking with the open front diffs. It seems to want to kick it angle a bit easier at low speeds which helped a lot. Is for sure worth a try. Only takes 10 or so minutes so swap the diffs

[@loga_912]

@@LyhneRC Many people use open diff for front, Locked diff for rear for this k989 / k969 rc car. For drifting, in my opinion front open diff and rear locked diff is better for drifting. If you're using it for rally. You can keep it stock no problem

[@LyhneRC]

@@loga_912 Ok, I will try that. Thanks for the tip 👍

[@manta1121]

It was an interesting experiment, you can see it in the video and understand it well ❗✨👍 Even so, I envy having a large room. 😂

[@LyhneRC]

Hi Man Ta glad you could use it 👍 if you have a smaller room you just need to go slower or be a better driver 😄. Thanks for watching and commenting

[@beejayOne]

Thanks for the video! Just getting interested in RC drifting (or RC racing at all). In parallel i was asking myself all the time, why some people recommend installing a locked diff (or better said: limited slip 60%) instead. But they seem to install it, because it raises traction instead of adding "slip" in comparison to the original differential...i'm a bit confused.

[@LyhneRC]

To drift, you want the wheels to slip (at least the rear ones) and you want both tires on the axle to slip, so you need some lock on the diff. I once saw a video where they demonstrated that on a 1:1 RWD car. When it had open diff it could make some kind of drift, but sometimes one wheel got grip while the other slipped and the drift was broken - With a fully or partly locked diff, you ensure that both tires slip and the car drifted perfectly. With the hard nylon tires on the K969 there is not much grip, so maybe a fully locked diff isn’t needed to make sure all wheels slips, but with open diff it will get grip and drifts badly. I have two other videos where I experiment with combinations of locked and open diffs. Have you watched those?

[@markshomehobbies]

Nice job on the comparison, very helpful. You might try adding a cheap gyro to the 989 with hard tires for better competition without much mods. Cheers my friend.

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks, glad you can use it. Do you mean gyro and hard tires for making the 989 better drift? That’s an interesting idea, I might try that. We also have a Mini-Q which has a gyro but I always turn the gyro off as it doesn’t really do any good: Cheap Kyosho Mini-Z alternatives: WLToys K989 and Sinohobby TR-Q2 Mini-Q kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z2e2q4airb6jg80

[@markshomehobbies]

@@LyhneRC Yes try your gyro on the K989 with hard tires. Mine works great that way.

[@LyhneRC]

@@markshomehobbies Which gyro did you use? Did you have to replace the esc/receiver too?

[@markshomehobbies]

@@LyhneRC I used the RBRC GY-300 and I have just installed the updated GY-400 in my K969. You dont have to replace anything just plug in between servo and receiver. I am working on the video of it.

[@LyhneRC]

@@markshomehobbies I tried to google GY-300 and GY-400, not sure if I found the right product, but all products I found was a gyro with standard 3 wire futaba connector. But the K9x9 uses the 5 wire servo. Are there a gyro with 5 wires?

[@Boogie_the_cat]

Hi! I liked your video. Being a novice I didn't realize about the differential difference between the 969 and 989. I just ordered the 969 plus some street tires (treaded) to go with it. I'm most interested in doing powerslides and drifting, but i got some treaded tires as well for what i hope will be a more traditional driving experience. Thanks for the helpful comparison. Being my first rc drift car, I was first interested in the mini z. however... 1) maybe i won't like drift cars 2) mini z has plastic body 3) mini z takes AA (or AAA i forget) batteries 4) mini z has no out of box gyroscope 5) mini z is 4X the price roughly.

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks for the kind words, I’m glad you liked it. The Mini-Z beats any of the Wltoys 1:28 scale when racing on a carpet, but Mini-Z is RWD so it will be hard to drift

[@LyhneRC]

A cheaper alternative to Mini-Z is this one, but is slower and handles worse than Mini-Z

[@wizl4035]

@@LyhneRC the wltoys cars are actually faster, running on lipo makes a huge diffrence. also there is rear and front wheel drived mini z's depending on wich model u pick. And there is one more diffrence between the two wltoys cars, the k969 have locked differentials

[@LyhneRC]

I raced against a Mini-z on a Mini-z track with my K989 with upgraded radio (I have another video about that), because the mini z handles much better it beat the K989 even though mini z is slower. Control beats speed in many cases 😃

[@BangForYourBuckRc]

I’d say they both did very well! Now where did you get your track?👍🏻💯🍻it’s awesome!😃

[@LyhneRC]

They are both great cars, one good for race and one good for drift. The carpet type is called “needle felt” for temporary or exhibition use and is the cheapest kind of carpet you can get. In Denmark you can buy it in all stores that sells carpets. Here is a video on how to make it: Mini Z, WLToys K989 Track Ideas - how to make/build/create track kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4iVmIqAac2pl5Y

[@BangForYourBuckRc]

@@LyhneRC wow! That’s awesome! Thank you! Just watched your link ! Amazing brother!😃

[@LyhneRC]

@@BangForYourBuckRc You should try that. We are racing with 1:10 touring cars on carpet track kzbin.info/www/bejne/qmaXZGmje92kgck and thought maybe we could make something similar, but in living room size. And it turned out that it was surprisingly simple to make and works perfect. The first carpet track we made was used many times and rolled in/out several times and still in perfect shape (we sold that carpet as we wanted a bigger one) I didn't know that simple heat glue was so flexible that it doesn't break when the carpet is rolled. 😀

[@mikesmith42069]

verrrry interesting. I saw the K989 offered online, with drift tires included as part of a package deal, and wondered if it would drift well. Your video proves no. I assume putting drift tires on the new truck version (284131) would perform similarly to the K989?

[@LyhneRC]

Yes K989 and 284131 are the same, I have another video that compares those two. When the car is new the drivetrain and diffs are very tight, on some cars they are so tight they are like locked diffs. So depending on how tight your car is, it might race or drift well, but not both. I have a video on how to free up the drivetrain, I recommend that.

[@fpv_proximity_drone_freestyle]

Hi. Super comparision. Why my 989 is original with Drift diffs and racing wheels?

[@LyhneRC]

Hi. I have freed up the diffs on my K989 (see kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKiTkKR9obWCitU) so it handles much different from the K969 that has locked diffs. But if I didn't free up my K989 diffs, it wouldn't race that well - but it probably would drift just as well as the K696. So depending on how locked the diffs are, the K989 either works best as racer or drifter, or maybe somewhere in between 😀

[@sogor123]

Verry good explanations! Thank you so much! If I have k989 and buy diffs for k969 I will have drift car and It will works like a k969?

[@LyhneRC]

Yes that would work fine, except for the body is different, the only other difference is the diffs

[@sogor123]

@@LyhneRC thank You verry much for the answer! Congrats for your work!

[@LyhneRC]

@@sogor123 Thanks 😊

[@cmkpikes]

Excellent video comparison. I was on the fence of which one I wanted to buy because I only thought the bodies were different but after watching your video I see there is a difference in the performance of the vehicle. So now I'm going to buy both of them. But my question is how difficult is it to swap the bodies? I would like the Porsche body on the race version and the drift car body on the drift version. Would I be able to do this?

[@hellix3um376]

I would say if you have no tools and abit of pocket money you cant really swap it because you need to do some measuring before you buying a shell

[@LyhneRC]

Hi, thanks for watching and the nice words 👍. Buying both is great, and you are right about swapping bodies between the K989 and K969, it suits better that way. You only need to swap the rear body post when you swap bogies, that’s easily done with a small screwdriver. Good luck with the cars 😀

[@LyhneRC]

You are right about Buying a new shell not made for these cars can require some work. But swapping bodies between K969 and K989 luckily just require swapping rear body post.

[@cmkpikes]

@@LyhneRC thank you for the response and the information. And yes after watching your video where you did a differential swap I noticed the rear body mount was attached to the body with the screws you mentioned. So I assume that they could be traded between cars. When I get the vehicles I will be looking forward to doing the modifications you describe in your videos to adjust the steering and free up the gearing. Also I have been searching all over the Internet for track ideas and I think that you have one of the best setups I've seen. Very convenient and looks like a ton of fun for both the drift car and the race car. Can't wait to give it a shot making my own.

[@cmkpikes]

@@LyhneRC and yes you are correct I am not interested in modifying different bodies to these vehicles. In my opinion it just looks like the black and green one is more of a drift style vehicle. And the red and black one looks more like a race car. So I just wanted to swap the bodies between the two vehicles.

[@thunderstormrc]

The K969 drifts really well

[@LyhneRC]

Thanks, it’s Lyhne RC Junior that does the drifting 😀

[@brownriceprod]

so how badly did the plastic wheel scratch your flooring? that's prob what id use it on

[@LyhneRC]

No damage at all, but it makes a terrible noise 🤪

[@warmfreeze]

it kind of annoys me because these cars are soo good and most of the upgrade parts for them are geared for DRIFTING.. and NONE of us that race 1/28th give 0 fsks about DRIFTING so we stick to mini Z.. super annoying..

[@LyhneRC]

I fully agree. The radio on the K989 is bad, so I have upgraded that (kzbin.info/www/bejne/lX2klmqnmKp2obs), but besides that I run all my WLToys 1/28 stock. Because as you mention there is really no upgrades that makes the cars handle better, and there is no setup options available (like adjustable camber links and the like). I recently bought two Mini-Z, so videos about that is coming up.

[@colbyhann1808]

holy shit the beginning of this video was so freaking looud lol

[@LyhneRC]

Haha, yes it's a little too loud 🙈. In my newer videos the intro starts more softly... Thanks for letting me know 👍

[@fusion4373]

if you really need one but want to race and drift, just get the k969 with grip tires

[@LyhneRC]

Maybe you could, depends on the surface you race on. On carpet the k969 don’t drive well with grip tires, but on wooden floor it’s usable

[@Hamderangus]

Er du fra Danmark? Og hvis du er sælger du så en af bilerne?

[@LyhneRC]

Hej, ja jeg er fra Danmark, men vil ikke sælge dem, er alt for glad for dem. De er ikke ret dyre, og ikke noget problem at købe fra feks Banggood, der er link til dem i beskrivelsen 😃

[@germainbilodeau1826]

Is someone tried race tires in front and drift tires on rear?

[@LyhneRC]

Yes I have tried that. It’s impossible to drive the car like that, and so is the opposite combination 😀

[@s5m]

What makes the k969 drift better even when they both have drift wheels? Aren’t they the same

[@LyhneRC]

It’s the diffs that makes the difference. K969 has locked diffs, which is good for drifting. K989 has open diffs which are good for racing. I experiment more with diffs in this video WLToys K989 K969 284131, Will it drift better with locked rear diff and open front diff? kzbin.info/www/bejne/d6LdooWLd8R5e80

[@s5m]

Thank you so much for the quick reply! Hopefully you can help me if I get stuck on some modding in the future. The k969 is going to be my first car. 😊

[@s5m]

Do you reckon this is a good rc to learn drifting with? Or would you have any better recommendations

[@LyhneRC]

It's a 1/28 scale car which means it's harder to driver than a smaller car, but it fits perfectly indoor. In this size it's a good car for the price. If you want a bigger car like a 1/16 scale (suits best outdoor) you could consider a UDIRC 1608 www.banggood.com/custlink/G3KHp1Gj5P it comes with both drift and race tires. It does have open diffs but can still drift ok (you could close then with glue if you only want to drift). This car comes with many bodies, not all sets includes drift wheels.

[@s5m]

@@LyhneRC thanks for the recommendation. I see they have both a brushed and brushless version, what’s the difference in that? And which is better if I mainly want to learn to drift

[@tonyduong70]

They both are the same car right?

[@LyhneRC]

They are almost same car. Only difference is that K969 has locked diffs and K989 has open diffs. And then the body of course 😀

[@TheNekoSmile]

how to lock diffs?

[@LyhneRC]

Hi, I just bought some diffs that was locked, so that I can swap between locked and not locked. If you want to permanently lock a diff, you can open it up and add some glue, for instance hot glue on the small gears inside

[@TheNekoSmile]

@@LyhneRC Was thinking about that too! Thanks a lot!

[@LyhneRC]

No problem 😉

[@GyunSB]

So, k989 or k969?

[@LyhneRC]

If you want to race: K989, if you want to drift: K989. If you want both, buy both 😉