The World’s Smallest Motorized Car Is a Toyota AA the Size of a Grain of Rice

The Guinness Book of World Records is, at worst, a collection of strange accomplishments or feats that no one really asked for, let alone imagined possible. Think of more or less off-putting stuff like the deepest insertion of a finger in a nose, most lit candles put out by a single fart, the largest rat litter, that kind of thing. At best, it’s a celebration of the highest achievements in all fields, whether it’s art, the auto-moto industry, film, or sports.

This particular world record is nothing short of impressive, both because it exists and it hasn’t been beaten since it was set in 1995. It’s the record for the world’s smallest motorized car, which happens to be a 1936 Toyota AA sedan, a.k.a. the first Toyota passenger car in the world. This isn’t actually a Toyota product, though it is related to the carmaker in a way. It was created by a Toyota affiliate, Japan’s biggest auto parts manufacturer, Nippondenso, or Denso.

Creating the world’s smallest car that runs might seem, at first, a waste of time if you don’t plan on mass producing it. In reality, it was an exercise in craftsmanship, a display of skill. Denso was looking to showcase its ultra-precise machining and semiconductor capabilities, and it chose the smallest platform to do so. At the same time, it was meant to herald in an era in which micro-machines could be used in manufacturing, medicine and even the military.

For a car this small, the Toyota AA microcar took four years to become a reality. A team of 20 people worked on it, which makes sense if you consider it’s made of 24 individual parts, some of them no bigger than a speck of dust. The car is 4.785 mm (0.188 inches) long, 1.730 mm (0.068 inches) wide and 1.736 mm (0.068 inches) high. It is the size of a grain of rice, as you can see in the two videos at the bottom of the page, including a brief appearance on Tim Allen’s comedy Home Improvement (where it got fake-crushed by Allen’s knee after he dropped it).

Small as it is, the microcar has most of the stuff you’d expect on its life-size counterpart, including wheels and tires, with the Denso inscribed on the hubcaps in microscopic letters, axles, headlights, and taillights. The bumper, Guinness says, is 50 microns thick, half the width of a human hair). The motor comprises five parts, and its coil is 1 mm (0.039 inches) in diameter.

How’s this for incredible detailing and precision?

Perhaps the most impressive part of the project is that the microcar actually runs. A tiny blip of alternating current through the wires on top puts the tiny motor in motion, and it takes the Toyota microcar to a dizzying speed of 0.018 kph (0.011 mph). "Look at this baby go!" as Tim Allen puts it.

Jokes aside, this is an incredible feat of engineering and the undeniable product of a team of very talented people with dreams and dedication to match. A natural fit for a month-long celebration of Toyota.