50 billion views Vietnamese carpenter creates the world's most unique wooden supercars
Even the rich rarely have the means to give their sons a collection of more than 30 supercars. Yet a father who is a carpenter surprised many people when every 3 months, he personally crafted and gave his son a new car, made entirely of wood.
Truong Van Dao - a carpenter who owns 2 YouTube golden buttons thanks to his videos of creating a series of wooden supercars (Video: Do Ngoc Luu - Thanh Binh).
From a stroller for boys to a "million dollar" car collection
10 years ago, after graduating with a degree in business administration in Hanoi , Mr. Truong Cong Dao (Tu Son, Bac Ninh) still decided to return to Huong Mac wood village - his hometown - to continue his family's carpentry profession.
Mr. Truong Van Dao - owner of 2 YouTube channels attracting millions of subscribers thanks to videos creating a series of wooden supercar versions.
Like every other household in the village, he also makes handmade tables and chairs. In his spare time, he makes some models for his children to use as toys, then posts them on Youtube to keep as souvenirs.
One time, when taking his son to the playground, he saw that his son especially loved electric cars. The idea of letting his son own one of his own urged Mr. Dao to take a saw, carve, and turn the model he had given his son into a bigger car.
After 40 days, the heavy wooden panels transformed into a Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta convertible supercar. This car is spacious enough for two children to sit in.
“This Ferrari can only go straight and has an engine that ‘runs on rice’. Someone has to push it to make it go,” Mr. Dao recalls the first days of his journey of “carving supercars”.
The first Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta in Mr. Dao's "super car" collection is a gift for his young son (Photo: character provided).
Like the previous models he made for his son to play with, Mr. Dao continued to record the process of completing the wooden car and posted it on YouTube. The 13-minute video, simply edited and without dialogue, unexpectedly attracted the attention of international viewers.
“This is truly a meticulous and unique work”; “The best gift a father can give his son”… More than 8,000 comments praised Mr. Dao’s talented hands and his great love for his son. The video of the first wooden car alone attracted more than 30 million views.
A bold idea began to form in the young father's mind: instead of continuing his work making fine woodwork, he would devote himself to making wooden cars and developing a YouTube channel to make a living.
In the eyes of many, that decision was somewhat crazy and impractical – because wooden cars cannot run, and "making YouTube" is too strange in the countryside. But Mr. Dao was not discouraged. He started working on his second car: a replica of CR7's Bugatti Centodieci.
This time the car could run, with front and rear lights. When the car was taken to the square for a test drive, the father and son immediately became the center of attention.
From there, a special "brand" was born: a carpenter gave his son wooden supercars crafted by himself. More than 30 models from supercars, motorcycles to... tanks, were introduced by Mr. Dao to the online community, carrying a simple yet touching message: a father's love can turn even pieces of wood into a mobile dream for his son.
Not only does Mr. Dao create realistic car models, the supercar versions he creates also have many unique details such as "dragon scales" that can be raised and lowered or the car body that can glow in many colors.
Carving the world's most unique wooden supercars
Dozens of wooden supercars were born afterwards from the hands of carpenters in the craft village.
The talent and creativity of Mr. Dao and his colleagues is shown in the interior and exterior of each car, although more meticulous and detailed than previous cars, the unique appearance is made from things that seem to have no value.
1 million pieces of leftover wood, old pistons through saws, cutters, welders and his hands turned into a Lamborghini Revuelto supercar with doors that can be raised and lowered just like a real car.
Close-up of the Lamborghini Revuelto version made from 1 million pieces of wood received 96 million views and 1.4 million likes on Facebook of a carpenter from Bac Ninh.
Simply carving the wood into the shape of a car would not be possible. Mr. Dao and his team needed to weld a metal frame first, then attach pieces of wood cut to precise proportions to complete the car's appearance.
To run, Mr. Dao took advantage of electric motors taken from old cars. For parts that were not available, he bought them on e-commerce platforms or researched and manufactured them with his colleagues to suit the car.
“I have ideas, but I can’t always imagine how to design something unique. So recently I started using AI to create the exterior design of the car,” Dao said.
Few would expect that these are the details under the hood of a fully functional wooden car.
The cars from AI blueprints can be completely new or based on Mr. Dao’s original ideas. Some of the completed cars from AI drawings include the ICar or the car with many gears that attracted 2.2 million views on YouTube alone.
“AI helps me have more creative ideas, so the later cars I can make are more unique and interesting to entertain my viewers,” he said.
50 billion views "feed" a family of luxury drivers with wood
Every 3 months, a new supercar is introduced on Dao's YouTube channel.
In addition to videos that compile many cars, the duration of each video on Dao's channel is 15-20 minutes. This is a moderate capacity to keep viewers focused on a DIY video (Do it yourself). According to Dao, this type of video can be popular all over the world.
For each car, Mr. Dao's team has to spend months researching and manufacturing.
“From the very first days of creating the channel, I knew that many foreigners would watch my videos, so I chose to make videos in English from the beginning,” Dao said. Right from the naming, he emphasized the name and brand to create more curiosity among viewers about his wooden cars.
Mr. Dao's cars attract viewers of many ages and many countries.
There is no dialogue throughout the video, simply fast-forwarding the process of a car being made. This will make it easier for foreign audiences to follow without spending a lot of time translating subtitles.
According to this content creator, he can usually only release one video per month about how to make a complete car. During that month, he will edit old videos to repost, changing the editing so that the audience does not feel like they are watching again.
“This video may be about the process of completing the frame, but in the next video I will use the painting and decoration scenes. This is how I respect the audience and keep them on the channel,” Dao shared his experience.
Just for the wood alone, each car costs 300 million VND, depending on the type of wood he uses.
“These cars cannot be sold widely because they cannot be driven. People who want to buy them mainly want to admire or display them,” he laughed, talking about previous orders, “but how can I sell them at a price that will be worth the effort and dedication I put into them?”
Although only used for collection and display, each car that leaves the factory helps Mr. Dao generate income by attracting millions of views on different platforms.
By having a certain number of subscribers, not violating community standards and complying with YouTube's policies, content creators can enable monetization from this platform. The income from this helps him maintain his passion for making wooden cars, and helps him pay his salary and his colleagues.
Mr. Dao has more than 30 wooden supercars to date, not to mention a series of wooden motorbikes, trains, and tanks (Photo: character provided).
Through observation and research, he continued to build both Facebook and TikTok channels for the carpenter father brand that makes wooden supercars for his children.
According to him, the total number of views of his videos on all platforms is about 50 billion views - a testament to the huge appeal of simple, easy-to-follow, creative and meticulous content in the products he creates.
“I think content creation is a profession that never gets old, and in the future it will still be an effective job. However, to maintain its own identity, each content creator needs to always be creative, update trends, and constantly update new things so that the audience does not leave them,” Mr. Dao shared his opinion.
Vietnamese carpenters' hands carve international dreams into wood
Mr. Dao's videos of making wooden cars quickly attracted the attention of major car manufacturers, including Audi.
“After I posted a video of the process of making the Audi Skysphere Concept, an Audi representative in Germany proactively contacted me, expressed his admiration and thanked me for my dedication to their car model,” Dao emotionally recalled. “Early last year, Audi invited my whole family to Germany to visit their headquarters. That is one of the most precious memories that the wooden car collection has brought me."
Mr. Dao during his visit to Audi's headquarters in Germany in early 2024 (Photo: character provided).
Not only did he have the opportunity to go to Germany, he also accepted invitations to participate in exhibitions or export his cars for non-commercial purposes. His goal was simply to let international friends know about the ingenuity and intelligence of the Vietnamese people.
Sharing about his future orientation, Mr. Dao cherishes an even bigger dream: Having an exhibition area for his wooden car collection to attract visitors to admire, test drive and experience being a carpenter in Huong Mac craft village - Bac Ninh.
For Mr. Dao, creating wooden supercars is a way to preserve and honor the values of his hometown's carpentry village.
“Born and raised in a craft village, I have always wanted to preserve the handicrafts of my hometown. Making wooden cars for social media content is just one of the things I can do to “take advantage” of all the experience of a Bac Ninh carpenter,” said Mr. Dao.
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/khoa-hoc/50-ty-luot-xem-anh-tho-moc-viet-sang-che-dan-sieu-xe-go-doc-nhat-the-gioi-20250614214535964.htm
Comment (0)