Taking remote-control cars seriously
Print Edition
TO Minhang resident Xu Chao, 28, remote-control cars are more than mere toys. The cars are his career. His goal is to make them as close to the real cars as possible.
Xu’s bedroom is his workshop. He makes parts for the cars using a machine that he has worked to adapt to his needs. His parts are so popular online that he is praised as a “guru” by the Chinese remote-control car community.
“My main interest has shifted from playing with remote-control cars to making them,” said Xu. “I’m gratified that other aficionados think the parts I make are better than the originals.”
According to Xu, remote-control cars share the same mechanical principles as real cars. They’re not toys, but rather, replicas of real cars.
“When you participate in a remote-control car race, the pleasure and gratification you feel is no less exciting than racing real cars,” he said.
Xu’s major in college was 3D-animation. He once dreamed of designing electronic games. After graduation, he worked as a city sculpture designer and an interior decoration designer. At that time, remote-control cars were just a hobby, albeit a very passionate one.
“When you go look carefully at remote-control cars on the market, you find that factory products don’t meet the quality you want,” said Xu. “So I started to think about refitting such cars.”
The Internet was Xu’s teacher. He studied how parts worked and how their functions could be improved. He learned that without proper tools, he couldn’t accomplish what he wanted to do. So he set about designing his own hand-operated tool machine, which he used to make his first set of self-designed parts.
“That period of time was a bit crazy,” he said. “My family thought I had gone bonkers because my life was reduced to three things: eating, sleeping and making remote-control car parts.”
Xu shared his parts online, attracting people who wanted to try them on their own cars. With more exchanges and communications, Xu improved his skills and the quality and intricacy of his parts. Gradually, he decided to make it his profession.
Like many business start-ups, finance was a problem. Xu couldn’t afford to rent a workshop, so he turned his bedroom into one.
He needed a numerical control machine because his hand-operated version couldn’t ensure the quality and precision of every batch of parts.
He managed to buy a scaled-down machine that he could afford, but it had only the most rudimentary functions. So he started by making the easiest car parts and used the money he earned selling them online to upgrade his machine, step by step. It took nearly two years to get the machine up to the level he wanted.
Neighbors, however, complained about the vibrations and noise of the machine. His parents still wondered why he had given up a promising career to make what they viewed as “toy parts.”
“It was impossible for me to give up what I love, so I tried to solve the problem,” he said. “I refitted the machine, improving its operational speed and giving it a pedestal, so that it was more stable and quieter. As for my parents, I had to show results to convince them that I wasn’t throwing away my life.”
Technology difficulties also troubled Xu for a while. In the beginning, he received some customer complaints that his parts weren’t precise enough.
“I had to keep reminding myself that as a grass-roots developer, I had to learn from my mistakes,” he said.
Xu said the key to making quality car parts was to place himself in the shoes of remote-car owners. He knew how a factory part would wear out faster than expected, and how many owners had to buy the same parts over and over.
A good part should be durable but light, so that it doesn’t weigh down the car. To fulfill the purpose, Xu experimented with various kinds of materials.
“It is a win-win situation for me and the players,” said Xu. “They receive better car parts and I receive satisfaction from the process.”
Now, after years of efforts, half of China’s remote-control car community is using Xu’s parts. There have also been overtures from investors interested in turning his small venture into something larger. So far, he has not been tempted, preferring to confine his work to personal orders.
“I’m not considering to volume production for my designs yet,” said Xu. “Right now I am focused on developing more products and serving my individual customers better. I still have room for improvement.”
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