From serendipity in making wooden cars to unprecedented opportunities
Thank you for accepting the interview. Your recent trip to Germany was truly impressive. How did that opportunity come about?
The trip started with me making a wooden model based on the Audi concept called Skysphere for my daughter to play with. The video showcasing this car on social media platforms gained a lot of attention.
Afterwards, the Audi representative from Germany contacted me directly. However, due to my limited language skills, my wife took care of the email correspondence and direct communication with them. After several conversations, they officially invited my family, including my wife, myself, and our child, to visit and explore their headquarters in Germany, and most importantly, to talk to the person who created the actual Audi Skysphere Concept.
Audi sponsored all the expenses including accommodation and transportation. They arranged a round-trip business class flight for us. However, upon arrival at the airport in Germany, there was no representative from the airline to pick us up. Instead, they had prepared an Audi Q4 e-tron for us to drive ourselves during our stay.
It sounds like a fascinating journey, but I’m sure it wasn’t easy…
Indeed, that’s the case. The first and biggest challenge was obtaining a visa, as our family had never been to Europe before. I wanted to bring a filmmaker along, but the visa success rate for that person wasn’t high, so my wife and I were quite worried. Having a filmmaker was crucial for us.
But in the end, everything went smoothly.
Another challenge was language. As I’m not proficient in foreign languages, I required a lot of assistance for communication on the plane during midnight flights or while on the road.
And what did Audi say about your wooden Skysphere Concept car?
They praised and showed admiration for my work. They mentioned that my family was the first to be invited to Audi’s headquarters in Germany because they admired and loved this creation. The creators of the Audi Skysphere Concept did not expect to see a second car like it anywhere in the world.
“I’m always careful when replicating designs from major car manufacturers”
Some car manufacturers in the world do not want any entity to replicate their products, such as Ferrari, and they can take legal action. Have you encountered such cases?
I haven’t encountered such a situation yet, despite creating many wooden car models until now. After completing any model, I always send an email or message to those car manufacturers and thank them for inspiring me to create that car. Most of the manufacturers reply positively, as long as I’m not doing it for commercial purposes. Also, the way I create my wooden cars is different from exactly replicating the real cars – it’s more like a wooden interpretation rather than a 1:1 copy. So maybe that’s why they haven’t objected.
Recently, I worked with Rolls-Royce, and they advised me to inform them if I plan on making a wooden car resembling theirs in the future.
Ferrari is a very cautious car manufacturer; they even prohibit their customers from modifying their own cars. In Vietnam, there was a group of young enthusiasts who modified a Ferrari replica, but Ferrari contacted them and stopped them from doing so. From that, I learned that I need to be more careful and if I want to make a “thoroughbred” car next time, I will need to ask for permission in advance.
But if someone were to commission you to make a customized wooden car and pay for it, would you accept?
There have been such orders, but our team hasn’t accepted any of them yet. So, for now, there are no copyright or legal issues.
I believe that once I have finished making a car, and I have received approval from the manufacturer, the car belongs to me, and I have the right to give it to anyone I want. Furthermore, I only create one unique car; I don’t make ten or twenty cars for sale.
Alternatively, I can gift the car to someone, and they can pay me for my craftsmanship while they take it for collecting and displaying purposes. I think this is a normal practice.
When someone asks me for the price of a wooden car, I tell them the exact value and cost that I have put into making the car. I usually respond by saying, “I have put a lot of effort and cost into creating this car. If you are interested in collecting it, you can consider a price that reflects its value.”
My wife often tells me to ask for a higher price, but I don’t care much about that. It means that I quote the car’s true value. In other words, I publicly share the cost of production rather than engaging in a business transaction.
However, this is something our team needs to carefully consider and review to avoid potentially affecting others in the future.
Your work definitely requires coverage. So why haven’t you replicated a VinFast car?
Many people ask me why I haven’t made a wooden VinFast car. The truth is, I have considered doing it in the past. However, because VinFast is a domestic car manufacturer, I’m a bit concerned about copyright-related issues.
I understand that VinFast has a strong media system, so it’s not impossible for them to be aware of my creations. But until now, they haven’t contacted me, so maybe they don’t want their products to be interpreted as wooden cars. My family and I love our country and even drive a gasoline-powered car from a Vietnamese brand, so it’s not accurate to say that I don’t care about this young brand.
These wooden cars are certainly not authorized for road use. How are you going to handle that issue?
In reality, I have never taken these cars out on the main roads. Most of the time, I film them on empty streets, in sparsely populated urban areas that are not occupied yet, to showcase them a bit and then put them away. Furthermore, these wooden cars move very slowly and have brakes.
After completing a car in the woodworking workshop, I emphasize to my fellow craftsmen that we should not play around or drive the car on the roads. If we need to transport the car from the workshop to the storage warehouse, we always hire a small truck to do so instead of driving it ourselves on highways.
For example, the most recent one, the Tesla Cybertruck. It’s the largest wooden car and also the fastest one in the collection, but I only drove it around on unfinished roads that were still closed for operation.
“I will have many changes in 2024”
In 2023, your wooden car models increased significantly in size compared to when you first started. Is there a reason behind this change?
Initially, I made very small car models, followed by cars that my daughter could drive. Gradually, as I gained more experience, I was able to create larger cars that run faster, have more powerful engines, and even put in air-filled tires… That’s why I had to upgrade to bigger cars to accommodate these new features.
With small-sized cars, the frames are not strong enough or sturdy enough to integrate the technologies and options that I want to upgrade the cars with.
So the 1:1 scale will be very close, right? And will there be features like air conditioning, radio, that are no different from real cars?
Indeed, 1:1 scale cars will be introduced shortly on the internet. I have thought a lot about these cars and wanted them to be even more perfect, or even cars that I design myself.
In reality, I can make 1:1 scale cars anytime. However, I worry that if I make them at all times, I might not have anything left to strive for. So, I will try to make the smaller scales as accurate as possible first, then gradually upgrade.
As for the features, I admire the technologies available worldwide. People in Vietnam are talented, but we still need to learn from the outside world. I don’t intend to showcase overly intricate technologies. I only imitate unique or necessary technologies.
For the rest, I will focus on aesthetics, exterior design, interior design, to showcase the skill of the Vietnamese people, our craftsmanship, and wooden materials.
At this point in time, you have created quite a number of wooden car masterpieces. Do you plan to open an exhibition or a showroom to allow people to come and appreciate them in person?
Since I started making wooden cars, I have thought about owning a large collection of “supercars”. I want people to be able to admire these models up close instead of just watching them through videos.
Last December, a very large company in Hong Kong (China) invited me to bring my wooden cars there for display. This has further strengthened my consideration of opening a showroom or exhibition for charity purposes or even holding auctions in the future.
This is a distant future, and nothing can be said for sure. However, I will try my best to use the wooden car collection in the most meaningful and practical way possible.
With the flourishing development of YouTube, do you have any plans for your channel in 2024?
I will continue creating creative content as I do currently. Perhaps the direction will change to create 1:1 scale models. I will also improve the quality of new products and possibly create completely new and innovative designs based on the ideas generated by artificial intelligence (AI).
In general, I just want to wholeheartedly focus on this creative work to produce the best products. It’s been around two years since I first met all of you, and things have changed a lot. Back then, I had only made two or three cars and mentioned that I would soon make a car with air-filled tires. Now we can see that many cars are equipped with air-filled tires, right? Next, I’m preparing to make a 1:1 scale car, and maybe even create cars designed completely by myself.
Thank you for sharing with us. We wish you and your family a healthy and peaceful new year!
