Remember when you were a kid and wanted to play for a few more minutes, but someone insisted it was bed/homework/dinner/something else time? And you begged to stay ‘till the end of (insert measurable timeframe here)? Well, a Chinese company is here to offer playtime until the end of stay. Literally, that’s their name – End of S.T.A.Y. Automotive Art Studio – and they make some awesome cars.
It’s long been known that the what separates Le Mans from Le Boys is a Porsche. You’ve probably seen the ad somewhere, as it was leaked out into car culture incognito, because it never made the printing press back when it was conceived.
While that was true when the Stuttgart House of Speed was dominating the French endurance race, the mantra was alive well before and it’s been like that ever since. I mean, just look at these miniature replicas and the smiles on the faces of the full-grown men doing donuts in them!
Imagine shrinking a legendary sports car into a perfect half-scale replica, respecting every proportion to the smallest margin, yet keeping enough raw power to drift around corners and make any grown adult giggle uncontrollably. This is not a dream, but a delightful reality explored by a Singapore company that has a very philosophical approach to toy cars.
Photo: YouTube/Hagerty | Capturing Car Culture
In a wonderfully energetic episode of Capturing Car Culture, Hagerty host Larry Chen travels to Shanghai to uncover the ultimate playthings for car enthusiasts who are the literal embodiment of George Bernard Shaw’s maxim: “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing”.
The magic behind these miniature marvels comes from a brilliant enterprise named End of S.T.A.Y. Founded in 2021 by an architect named Philip Zhu and an aviation engineer named David Chen, the company was born out of pure automotive passion. Their journey actually began back in 2017 with an ambitious project to build a full-scale Ferrari 250 GTO replica just for themselves, fueled by an absolute adoration for the priceless Italian masterpiece.
They did, but then they realized there was a lot more potential into their idea. To fund their growing ambitions and fuel research, they eventually sold that beautiful Ferrari replica in 2024 to a mysterious collector. The quirky name of their company is an acronym with a deeply poetic meaning, standing for the promise to stay together until the end of Space, Time, Aloneness, and Youth.
Photo: YouTube/Hagerty | Capturing Car Culture
Their mission is to craft meticulously designed mechanical art that genuinely resists the relentless elapse of time. They officially entered the high-performance mini-car market in 2022, starting with an adorable but highly capable Land Rover. Not a pedal car, but a perfect scaled-down replica of the original Defender 90, powered by an electric motor, with actual suspension, AWD, and real off-road capabilities.
Soon after, they achieved a major breakthrough with the half-scale Porsche 964. These are absolutely not regular children’s toys, but fully engineered vehicles designed for adults. Featuring custom-designed stainless-steel chassis and bodies made of aluminum or durable ABS plastic, they offer authentic proportions and delightful details.
The joyful lineup also includes icons like the Mazda Miata and the legendary Toyota AE86, complete with a tiny 3D-printed tofu delivery box. Every vehicle features working headlights, functioning odometers, disc brakes, and adjustable coil-over suspension. They even include hydraulic handbrakes specifically designed to lock the rear axle.
Photo: YouTube/Hagerty | Capturing Car Culture
The impressive engineering packed into a chassis weighing slightly under 200 kilograms (some 450 lb) is absolutely staggering to behold. But it gets better when the company reveals performance specs. This tiny adrenaline capsules will easily widen your eyes and make your heart race. The standard versions of the Mazda Miata, Toyota AE86, and base Porsche 964 utilize a 2,500-watt electric motor paired with a 72-volt battery system.
This perfectly tuned setup provides enough juice for a driving range of 50 kilometers (some 31 miles) and propels the tiny cars to a very respectable top speed of 50 kilometers per hour (same 31 mph). For those seeking genuine thrills, the company offers upgraded powertrain configurations for the miniature Porsche models.
The high-performance tier features a liquid-cooled motor pushing out 35 horsepower, and the ultimate version unleashes a mighty 75 horsepower. For a 450-lb junior car, that’s 375 bhp/ton (not counting the driver).
Photo: YouTube/Hagerty | Capturing Car Culture
Equipped with specially developed slick tires, this extreme configuration can reach a breathtaking (and slightly terrifying) top speed of 140 kilometers per hour, (87 mph) demanding real driving skills to master – and equally massive brass. It comes with electric ventilators for colling the brakes – see them in action in the video below (right about the 14:00 time stamp).
And it also has a dedicated key to unlock the full power of the motor. And the top speed can be adjusted via the app, from 5 kph all the way up to whatever the driver wants.
Despite the spectacular custom engineering, the prices remain somewhat accessible for dedicated automotive collectors worldwide. The Mazda Miata and Toyota AE86 models start at an inviting $7,000, deliberately kept at standard power levels to respect the real-world hierarchy.
Photo: YouTube/Hagerty | Capturing Car Culture
Meanwhile, the Porsche 964 lineup begins at $8,800 for the standard edition. The high-performance variant will cost $10,800, and the powerful top-tier goes for $13,000.
Every little car is built to order, offering limitless customization for paint colors, custom-tailored leather interiors, and personalized racing liveries. With a remarkably brief lead time of 4 to 6 weeks, End of S.T.A.Y. delivers an unparalleled, magical experience that will instantly teleport any gearhead back in time to a time when he was playing with cars on the rug.
It really doesn’t get any closer to the saying that the difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. And we were thinking China was taking over only the full-scale car industry. Then again, why hasn’t anyone else thought about this beforehand?
