A guy from Vietnam has built himself a fully functioning homemade wooden car. It has been built from high-quality wood and it’s creator has named it – Achilles.
The one-of-a-kind homemade wooden car was created by Le Nguyen Khang, owner of Binh Duong-based wood processing firm Le Lumber. He told reporters the idea of building a wooden car started off as a joke, while he was talking to an English friend who works in the travel business. One day, he jokingly asked Khang, “Working in the wood processing industry, can you make me a wooden car?”.
Little did he know the silly question would plant a seed in Le Nguyen’s brain, who started thinking seriously about making a car from wood. After all, he had all the materials he needed, and could count on the help of several professional woodworkers from his company.
The sketch for his unusual homemade wooden car was completed in April of 2011, and with the help of 11 of his best employees, he worked on it for 16 months. The Achilles was finally completed last month, and as soon as he started driving it around the city, people assaulted him with all kinds of questions and requests to have their pictures taken with it.
Khang named the car after Achilles, one of the greatest warriors in Greek mythology, whose entire body, except for his heel, is invulnerable. The entire body of the 4.6m-long and 1.8m-wide vehicle is made from various types of imported wood such as xylia xylocarpa, ash, and walnut.
Carved on the front of the car is Khang’s logo, on the back is a dragon and the sides are covered with patterns of a dragon, unicorn, turtle, and phoenix, the four traditional sacred animals which represent power, beauty, and nobility.
Le Nguyen Khang says his drivable masterpiece has one serious drawback – its weight.
The wooden body weighs nearly 1.5 tons, and he says that “only the BMW engine is able to withstand the heavy wooden body of the car.” So he imported essential parts of the car, like the engine, gearbox, chassis and transmission system from the German automaker, and tried to replace everything else with wood. Despite it’s strange look, the Achilles actually works like a normal car and reaches a top speed of 60 km/h.
The Vietnamese businessman said so far four customers, including foreigners, have expressed interest in his homemade wooden car, and offers average at around $24,000. He wants to sit down with all of them and find out if they want to buy it for “adequate reasons”.
The proceeds from this deal will go to charity. But he’s only parting with the Achilles because he has bigger plans to focus on. He’s negotiating with local authorities to allow him to build electrical wooden cars to carry international tourists around the city’s downtown.
