Early build · In progress
SimulCar — a toy car that drives like it has mass.
SimulCar is a Bluetooth-controlled toy car that runs a real physics model underneath — drive force, rolling resistance, aerodynamic drag, and braking — instead of just mapping a slider to a motor.
BLE · 50 Hz · Newtonian
Why simulate
RC cars are too small...
A real car glides through braking zones and turns because mass and momentum do the work. An RC car has barely any, so everything it does feels twitchy. That feel can't be bolted back onto a toy — so SimulCar supplies it through simulation: the firmware drives a full Newtonian model, and the motors only execute its verdict.
Mass you can't bolt on
Shrink a car and the square-cube law takes its weight with it — no toy chassis behaves like the original. So the model carries a virtual mass instead, and every force answers to it.
Momentum, supplied by the model
Without mass, inputs land instantly and the ride feels twitchy. The simulation restores it: speed builds and bleeds off over seconds, as the preset's mass and power dictate.
Physics engine
Every step runs on forces, not guesses
Each tick, the firmware integrates Newton's second law against the clock's actual elapsed time, not a fixed guess — so the model stays true no matter how the simulation loop jitters.
- drive
Traction, then power
Force is capped by tyre grip at low speed and by engine power once the car is rolling, so it can't out-accelerate its own motor.
- rolling
Rolling resistance
A steady drag from the tyres themselves, scaled to the car's weight — the reason it won't coast forever.
- drag
Aerodynamic drag
Grows with the square of speed, so top-end acceleration tapers off the way it does in a real car.
- brake
Braking & holding
At a standstill, the brake acts as a holding force — the car only pulls away once drive force beats brake plus rolling resistance.
Telemetry
It solves for its own top speed
Rather than hard-coding a number, the firmware finds the speed where drag and rolling resistance alone would consume all available power, using a bisection search run on every preset.
50 Hz
simulation rate
<1 ms
per physics step
BLE
control link
Roadmap
Presets today, your own car tomorrow
Pick a preset to feel the difference between a heavy sedan and a featherweight go-kart, or — once tuning ships — dial in mass, drag, power and grip yourself and feel the change instantly.
Live
Throttle, brake & steering
over Bluetooth LE
Physics engine
drive, drag, rolling, braking
Controller
web app (no installation)
In progress
Vehicle presets
a library of real vehicles
Custom car tuning
for experimentation
Planned
Handlng slopes
so it works anywhere
Take the wheel
Drive it from your phone
The controller pairs over Bluetooth LE and sends throttle and brake straight to the car — no app store, no account.