By Ross Ballot
“Is that fire? Shit, that smells like fire. Or at least smoke. I should probably disconnect the battery from the ESC.” Obeying my brain’s reactive orders, I try to pull the plugs out of their home in the Losi Micro T’s control unit. No dice; won’t budge. I pull harder. The wires rip out of the plugs they’re supposed to, and usually do, live in. Uh oh. The battery’s now exposed wires touch. Yay, sparks and smoke! So much fun. The wrong kind of fun. A few minutes ago I was laughing and smiling while driving the most fun RC truck I’ve played with in, well, possibly forever. How did it go so wrong so quickly?
What is the Micro T?
Based on the hugely popular Micro B, the T is a stadium truck variant of Losi’s smallest RC. It’s truly tiny, measuring in at 5.7” long and a scant 5.7 oz with a fully charged battery. Consider it the Miata of the RC world: It’s relatively inexpensive at ~$100, parts availability is fantastic, and anyone from a first-timer to an experienced racer can have fun with it.
Fun, you say?
Yes, fun. That’s the name of the game with the Micro T, perhaps even more so than the track-focused Micro B. The T is a nimble little thing that turns even a living room littered with kids’ toys into a massive obstacle course of a race track. Responsiveness from the steering is immediate, and though power isn’t huge there’s more than enough punch to find it hard to control at full throttle on even medium-grip surfaces. On wood and tile it’s a drift monster, but it thrives on high-traction textures like carpet or pavement.
Because it’s so small and light, the T is also a jumping machine. Anything can be a ramp with a car of this size, which makes even something like a magazine with a Hot Wheels car underneath one end into a makeshift launch pad.
Between how well it takes flight, how easily it lands, and how enjoyable it is to drive, the Micro T is just a good time. Its diminutive size and the ease of flicking it back and forth make you feel like a kid again, and creating that joy is really what the RC hobby is all about.
Mostly fun, at least
After about 15-20 minutes of run time through the first charge of the battery, the Micro T shut off. Usually there’s a drop in performance before a vehicle powers down but the T simply stopped moving and stopped responding to the remote altogether. I pulled the body off its front velcro mount and swiveled it back on its rear-mounted hinge and immediately smelled smoke and felt heat. In trying to pull the battery and motor leads out of the ESC to fully shut down the car’s power system, the metal wires came straight out of the plastic inserts leaving them stuck in the ESC. The plastic must have fused itself together somehow; needless to say, it shouldn’t do that.
The excitement really started when the battery’s now-exposed wire ends touched and sparked a remarkable amount for such a tiny little power supply. That one caught me off guard, as did the extremely hot battery itself. Thankfully there was no actual fire, but this was a new RC experience for me, and not in a good way.
That escalated quickly
When the Micro T was working, it was simply the most smile-inducing fun I’ve had with an RC vehicle in a long time. Obviously the truck had other plans, but Amazon is replacing the vehicle once they receive the return back. I have read of some people having issues with the OEM battery these trucks come with due to the provided charger not having any sensibility as far as what the end charge state should be beyond “full,” so we’ll see if the second round of Micro T is any better than the first one. I hope it is, because it’s a damn good time.