Geek Toys: MicroCar Smackdown

Lets face it. If you're an ExtremeTech reader you're probably fiddling with computers because today's cars are just too expensive and too complex to mess with. No more! The latest Asian imports will bring out your latent grease monkey.

It's not a beetle or virus. Nope, this latest Asian infestation is a tiny toy that's poised to become the latest productivity sapper from the western shores of the Pacific. Pocket-sized radio controlled cars, available for $20 or less with controller -- and infinitely customizable -- are now taking the New World by storm. These tiny cars, which measure about 2 ½" long, have been a favorite of salarymen and schoolboys in Japan and throughout Asia. Imports have been available in the US for a while; some using illegal radio frequencies. In fact, Hobbico has been selling a US-friendly version of Tomy's Bit Char-G, the R/C MicroSizers, since the end of August.

Just a few weeks ago, Radio Shack upped the ante by releasing its version in the US, called ZipZaps. With distribution in over 7,200 stores around the US and on the Web, these pint-sized speed demons are ready to hit every briefcase and knapsack in the US.

But how good are these cars, really? Just a passing fad, or real fun? And which offers better performance – the MicroSizer or the ZipZap.

Here at ExtremeTech we take our technology, and our fun, very seriously. So we set out to apply the same rigorous approach we use for testing motherboards and CPUs, and apply them to these pocket rockets.

To get an idea of how these cars compare, head to the Inside the MicroCar section. For an analysis of performance, battery life, handling and wireless range, head to our How We Tested, and Test Results sections. We tested the stock, out of the box version of each car, but also added a faster engine to the ZipZap to see if it would boost speed.If you just want to know what to buy, head to our Conclusions and Recommendations So let's fire up the engine, and put these babies to the test!!

Both the ZipZap and the Microsizer are built around the same general platform, and arrive with the same component parts. In each base package you get four rubber wheels, a tiny micromotor, a car chassis and body and a wireless remote control.

Let's take a look at each part separately.

Motor and Gears: Both cars use similar motor technology-- it's essentially a small cylinder with a high-speed motor embedded into it. The motors themselves are the same as those used to vibrate cell phones. Speeds range from 10,000 to 26,000 RPMs. Motors are interchangeable, and along with the right gears, can be swapped to give either better speed, or more control for tight turns. Notice how small the stock ZipZap motor is.

There are three gears that also determine how fast your car goes-- the Pinion, Idler and Spur gear. The Pinion gear is part of the motor itself, and can't be changed. The Spur gear is fixed onto the rear wheel / axle set, and is color-coded to match the motors and the idler. Finally, the Idler has two sets of teeth, and sits between the Spur gear on the rear axle, and the Pinion gear on the motor.

Speed and acceleration are based on gear ratio, which tells you how many times a Pinion (or motor gear) needs to go around for the Spur gear -- and hence the back wheels -- to make one rotation. Ratios can be low, like 6:1, delivering great performance, or higher, like 12:1, for better acceleration. The picture below shows a range of different motors and gears from both cars.

If you're looking for top performance -- and lets face it with a wireless car, the faster the better -- the MicroSizer gets the edge here. The stock car ships with a 22,000 RPM motor, while the ZipZap gets a relatively poky 16,000 RPM model.

With either model, however, you can purchase expansion kits to increase performance. Radio Shack offers 10,000, 21,500 and 23,500 RPM motors, with corresponding gears to crank up performance, while the MicroSizer has motors ranging from 10,000 to 26,000 RPMs.

Although the motors look similar, the ZipZap motor is actually slightly larger. We found in our testing that this means the MicroSizer motors will work in the ZipZap, but unless you apply dangerous force, the inverse is not true –although some hot-rodders on the Web have reported success putting the ZipZap motor into a MicroSizer.

Tweakers looking for more speed can find even faster motors at aftermarket locations on the web. If you can believe it, 30,000, 32,000, even 38,000 RPM motors are available – but they are really only good for drag racing. Try turning at top speeds, and your car is sure to flip-out. Literally.

Car Chassis: The car body includes the turning mechanism for the front wheels, a circuit board that connects the battery to the charging mechanism, and a cavity to plug in the appropriate engine.

This first picture shows the car body, with the stock ZipZap motor seated on the right side. An electromagnetic device turns the front car wheels, located under the plastic on the left. The red cable is the antenna.

In the photo below, we've removed the plastic covering to expose the guts and the circuit board. As you can see, it's a fairly simple design. The large yellow capacitor-type device in the back is the NiCad battery – it holds a few minutes of drive time. You can also clearly see the electromagnets under the plastic covering the front wheels.

Body Style: The ZipZap is slightly larger, at 1:64 scale, than the MicroSizer, which are modeled at about 1:70. That means that bodies are not interchangeable.

You can adorn your chassis with a range of different cars. The ZipZap comes in PT Cruiser, Mustang, Honda Civic, Toyota Supra, and others, while the MicroSizers feature the Mazda RX-7 , Toyota Celica, the Honda S2000, and the Mitsubishi Lancer. You can also get clear bodies for your MicroSizer, which lets you paint on your own designs.

Curiously, the BMW Mini-Cooper is not currently represented – certainly an oversight.

You can also enhance your cars with special tires designed for speed or performance, special hubcaps (ZipZaps only), and torsion bars for better steering control. Rear tires can be exchanged between models, but the front tires on the MicroSizers are smaller than those on the rear – unlike the ZipZaps where all wheels are the same size.

Charger/Controller: In Asia, these cars communicate on four different channels-- 27MHz, 35MHz, 45MHz, and 57 MHz – which means 4 cars can race together at once. Here in the US only two frequencies, 27MHz and 49 MHz are licensed for wireless toys, and are used. That means only two cars can race each other at once, because otherwise the signals will conflict. You can find Asian imports in some places that operate at the other three frequencies, but they are not FCC-approved for the US.

Both microcars ship with a combination charger and controller. Typically the car is plugged into the side of the wireless controller, and recharged for 45-50 seconds.

Each controller has a pull-out antenna, and two buttons – one controls forward and reverse, while the other steers the wheels to the right or left.

There are real differences when it comes to the controller/chargers. Overall we liked the MicroSizer controller better for a few reasons. First, it was much easier to charge the car. On both chargers you have to snap the car onto the mounting brackets to power it up. The MicroSizer was relatively easy to figure out, but we had real trouble reliably getting the ZipZap car to sit on the charger. In fact, we had to return to Radio Shack to get a lesson in proper charging technique from a sales clerk, who said he has already had a number of people attempt to return ZipZaps because they couldn't be charged reliably.

The control buttons on the MicroSizers are also easier to learn and use. These are rocker-switch style buttons, much like the "D-pad" on a console or computer game pad. The ZipZap controller used small buttons that you push up/down or right/left, and those were harder to push and use.

If you're purchasing for a smaller child, the MicroSizer remote buttons are much easier for little fingers to push. Although not recommended for under 8, my 3 year old took to the MicroSizers with glee – but he couldn't push the ZipZap buttons at all.

Of course these are subjective results. Try out both controllers and see which one you like better. Both are fully functional, and despite the small buttons being harder to use, we actually found the ZipZap steering response on the car itself slightly easier to operate – although that's probably a function of its slower speed.

The ZipZap controller also wins on one important feature – the antenna. The ZipZap uses a telescoping antenna much like an AM/FM radio, only shorter at a diminutive 7 ½ inches. The MicroSizer uses a wire-like whip antenna, which extends a full 18". The antenna bends easily, seems more fragile, and has to be wound in like a kite when you're done with it.

Oddly enough, as you'll see in our testing, the longer antenna does not translate into better range.

We put the two microcars through our "standard" set of performance benchmarks, including battery life, performance, and wireless range. We also raced them around various environments, including our carpeted office, on top of lab benches, in our garage at home, and around the kitchen floor. Our tests are described below:

Speed: We cranked up each car as fast it could go, and then timed each one on a 25 foot straight line linoleum-clad course carved out of the access hall from elevator to garage in our San Francisco test center. Three trials were conducted for each car, and the best overall timing was selected.

Battery Life: The manual suggests cycling the battery a few times before optimal performance can be reached. After battery conditioning, we ran each car to exhaustion four times, performing three recharges, and we picked the longest run time for each car. To minimize any environmental impact from the surface, or from any random turns, we conducted the discharge test by inverting the cars and letting wheels spin until the battery drained. Like most synthetic battery tests, this is not indicative of actual run times, but does give a good approximation of which car has the better battery life. OK sure, differing weights, tire friction, and aerodynamic drag variations will certainly alter the run down times in a real scenario, but hey, these are $20-$40 toys and we already spent entirely too much time doing this analysis <g>!

Charge Time: After our initial battery cycle, we charged each car three times and took an average of those charge times for the overall score.

Wireless Range: On our 25-foot course, we placed each car and charger at the starting line, and then without moving the charger from that point, powered the cars down the course until they stopped moving. We conducted two tests with antenna pointing up, and two tests with antenna parallel to the ground. The best distance posted was used.

Handling: We set up various obstacle courses around our kitchen, and also used them to chase toddlers, various and sundry domesticated animals, and any other moving creature who wandered into range. This was arguably the most fun we've had testing in a long time.

Clearly speed is the most important aspect of these little cars. Handling is important too, but if they don't go fast, they aren't a lot of fun.

As we detailed earlier, the MicroSizer came with an engine rated at 22,000 RPMs, while the ZipZap included just a 16,000 RPM engine. We expected the ZipZap to be slower, but we were very surprised at how sluggish it performed compared to the MicroSizer.

In addition to testing the stock engine on the ZipZap, we also tested using a 21,500 RPM engine (shown as the "Turbo" results) You get this engine as part of the $7.99 "ZipZaps Performance Booster Upgrade Kit", which includes two motors, and a range of gears, torsion bars and an extra heat sink.

We expected times much closer to the 22,000 engine on the MicroSizer, and we got that. However, the MicroSizer was still 27% faster than the Turbo ZipZap– much more than the 2% increase in RPMs would indicate.

Why the difference? Hard to say, but since the MicroSizer's are smaller and presumably weigh less, that may play a part.

Neither car was incredibly fast, and a number of other factors beyond the engines enter into the performance, including the tires, steering and other capabilities. Neither car was capable of traveling in a completely straight line for 25 feet, which certainly affected the score – although presumably one of the torsion bars in the performance kits should help with straight-line driving.

And the performance was quite variable. After a long weekend of play, we couldn't get the MicroSizer to repeat some of its more impressive times, so the best we can conclude is that your mileage, such that it is, will vary. Still, at 22,000 RPMs or so, these are pretty speedy little cars. And because you have to follow them as they run around, they're probably fast enough!

As you can see, they top out at a little over 3 miles per hour. Still, we'd like to see the MicroSizer with a 38,000 RPM engine. That baby must really cook!

Don't expect to charge up either of these and have them run all night. They're really designed to run just a few minutes. The good news is that they charge pretty fast as well.

In our laboratory based run-down test, where we kept the motor running constantly with wheels in the air to eliminate interference from friction, we found that the slower motor delivered longer battery life.

Although these tests show 10 and 12 minute battery life, in reality you'll probably end up with just 2-4 minutes of hard driving over normal surfaces. And although it's not in the chart, we did some battery life testing with the faster motor in the ZipZap, and as you would suspect, battery life dropped to near the MicroSizer. Faster engine = more RPMs = less battery life.

Charging Despite our struggles with the ZipZap charger, we did manage to come up with some decent charging results. On average, charges take between 45 and 50 seconds, with the MicroSizer loading up on juice just a few seconds before the ZipZap. We've listed the average recharge time of our three runs.

These were probably the most variable of all the tests. We performed our initial speed and range benchmark testing in a long narrow hallway, leading from the elevator to the garage in our San Francisco test center – it was the only long, uncarpeted, and undimpled floor we could find.

Our results from that test were significant – the ZipZap had almost seven times more range than the MicroSizer, as you can see from this chart.

However, we believe that the characteristics of that hallway, surrounded by elevator equipment, and with the shielding of a standard office building gave an unfair advantage to the ZipZap. So we conducted numerous tests in other places, without a tape measure, but simply to see which car went further.

The ZipZap still won all those tests, but with much less of a winning margin. In general, the ZipZap car went two to five feet further than the MicroSizer – and the MicroSizer typically maxed out at about six to eight feet. How important is range? Well if you're lazy and drag racing, you'll want the best range possible. But since you're likely to be racing in relatively small surfaces, in constrained areas, it's probably not a big deal. Still the shorter range, combined with the less than ideal antenna, certainly prove to be a disadvantage for the MicroSizer. However, tweakers can mod the car for better range – instructions are available on internet fan sites – we lead you to our favorite in the Conclusions section.

So what about on the curves? How do the two systems work? Well here, we didn't really come to any real conclusions. We raced through a few tracks, and ran into some usability issues with the controllers, particularly the buttons on the ZipZaps However, over time, those issues may melt away as you get more familiar with the controls. While we were slaloming around, we did find that our test ZipZap car handled slightly better than the MicroSizer. It might have been the speed – the faster car won't handle nearly as well than a slower one in most cases. Still, it wasn't noticeable enough to tell, and because we weren't running at the same speeds, it's hard to draw any definitive conclusion.

At any rate, both are fun to run through racecourses, and both Radio Shack and TableTopRacers.com sell a $3-$4 kit so you can set up your own test tracks. Either kit will work with both types of cars.

Whichever car you choose, fasten your seatbelts: These things are FUN. They're addictive too. First you'll buy a car, then a performance mod kit. Two weeks later you'll turn around and discover six bodies, three engines, five sets of tires and a full racetrack. Your half-built Pentium 4 2.8 GHz system will be languishing on the bench, as you race tiny cars across the floor.

So which one to buy? Both are certainly worthwhile, but there are a few key differences.

For low cost, but lackluster performance out of the box, we give the nod to ZipZaps. These cars are fun to race, fun to modify, and look great. If you're giving a gift, or buying one for your kids, the $20 Radio Shack version is the right way to go.

However, if you're feeding an obsession, or think you'll start one, buy yourself a MicroSizer. Even though the range is short, you, you'll probably end up racing these in smaller areas anyway. The controls are more responsive for extended racing, the lighter-weight and smaller cars just look cooler, you can get some radical bodies for cars that aren't even available in the US, like this Toyota bB.

Because they're exactly the same as the Tomy cars sold in Asia – except for frequency – you can import Asian parts and become the envy of your race-buddies. You can even get a completely clear body, and paint it any way you want. How's that for the ultimate modification?

Finally, if you want to go all out, there are a bunch of great sites on the web that will help you modify your MicroSizer to get more performance, longer range and other great capabilities. Because the MicroSizer is just the US version of Tomy's BitChar-G cars, a huge knowledge base of tweaks can be easily found.

I expect similar sites to emerge for the ZipZap, but it's been on the market for a lot less time.

One of my favorite Bit Char-G sites is Micro RC Resource Center

What would we buy ourselves? The MicroSizer. At around $39.99 in stores, it's double the price (although our source, TableTopRacers sells them for $29.99). But they feel better, and you get the satisfaction of knowing you're driving the real thing, just like the salarymen of Japan!

Product: ZipZaps Company: RadioShack URL: www.radioshack.com URL: www.zipzaps.com Price: $19.99, modification kits from $4.99 to $12.99 Score: 7 out of 10 stars Pro: Inexpensive, Wireless Range Con: Slow out of the box Summary: Lots of fun for anyone, a great gift, buy these for all your pals

Product: MicroSizers (Bit Char-G in Asia) Company: Hobbico (Tomy in Asia) URL: www.microsizers.com URL: www.tabletopracers.com (this is where we got our $30 car, they have good prices and selection) Price: $40 or more, accessories $4 and up Score: 8 out of 10 stars Pro: Fast, Small Con: Wire antenna, Short Range Summary: The one to buy for yourself, fun and fast

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in ExtremeTech.