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A pioneer Cambodian car builder has called for foreign investments to help him realise his dream of building a first ever Cambodian-made car. He hopes to produce his Angkor 333 model for commercial sales very sooner.

Local car builder, Nhean Phaloek, said his custom-designed and home-built Angkor series will become the hot things in town when it is commercially available in the near future. He said his cars are equipped with modern technology and accessories unseen in other models. One special feature is that the car doors do not have locks, keys and door handles to open because they open telepathically.

He agreed to give interview with Mr. Khun Alex of ABC Radio Australia. Here is a summary translation of that interview:

Khun Alex: Please tell our listeners briefly about your backgrounds.

Nhean Phaloek: I am a Cambodian born in Phnom Penh. During the Lon Nol regime in 1975 I was a year 12 student (final year of high school). During and since the Pol Pot time up until now I have not attended any school because I was so busy earning a living to feed my family.

KA: What you do for a living nowadays?

NP: Nowadays I have a car washing business.

KA: What make you want to build cars?

NP: It is my in-born interests coupled with my interests in technology. And in 2000 I began to think about building a car. So I always pay close attention to all my customers' cars at my car washing business. I have inspected in all parts of the cars, underneath the cars, inside the cars, inspected the car engines to see how they were made and how they were able to run on the roads etc. So because of these interests I was always doing investigation about these sorts of things. And at the beginning of 2002 I started to build a car which I called it Angkor 2003. This is my first car which I have successfully built by fitting it with a motorcycle engine. And in 2004, after my first car made headlines around the world like in the United States and Australia, I started to build a second car called Angkor 2004, this time it was fitted with a car engine. From 2004 to 2009, I did not build any car because I was busy researching for new and modern technology on how to build a better car. And in 2008, I started to build my third car, which is the present Angkor 333 model.

KA: You have not studied mathematics, physics, chemistry or engineering and you have built beautiful cars. Can you tell our listeners about your Angkor 333 cars?

NP: Explaining in words is not like seeing with our eyes but they will have a good picture of what my car looks like. My Angkor 333 model has a small and cute body, can only be seated with two persons. It took me 19 months to build this car, from January 2008 until now. This car was hand-made by myself alone. This is including spray painting, connecting electricity, installing engine, installing windows and seat are done by me alone. And my car has a special window feature different from other cars. The paint that I use for the colour of the car is gold colour and it was mixed with seven special shining colours that shine beautifully when parked under the sun. And the car has two doors and when they are opened, if we look from the front, they look like the pigeons stretching their wings open. The most special feature in the car is that the car doors do not have any handles.

KA: If the car doesn't have door handles, how can they be opened?

NP: My car doesn't have door handles, from both the inside and they outsite and it doesn't have the key either. This car was made specially for me, like I told you earlier where I have dicovered new technology during my research from 2004-2009. I just use my brain wave to order/signal the car doors to open and they will be open automatically. I can even order the doors to open separately at any side, either right or left side. I use gestures like finger-pointing, hand gesture or even nodding my head then the cars door will open for me automatically.

KA: It sounds incredible because before the interview I told my Australian colleague about this and he did not believe me. I just interview you through telephone and is unable to physically test the car. I hope one day I can see you in person and physically test the car by myself. Look like this kind of technology is not yet unavailable anywhere?

NP: I think maybe not yet.

KA: You just said that you have cutting glasses and installed the car body and everything by yourself. Who design the car body?

NP: My eldest daughter was the designer of the car body, she was the designer. When I built my first car, she also designed it but at that time she hasn't completed her university studies yet. Now she has finished her studies.

KA: What is the weight of your car?

NP: When news of my car came out in public, I was so busy giving interviews to journalists and I forgot to weigh my car, but I think it weighs about 400-500 kilograms. It is 2.5 metres long, 1.40 metres wide, 1.30 metres tall. The car can run at the speed of between 60-100 kilometres per hour.

KA: What is the fuel consumption?

NP: The car consumes fuel for 6 litres per 100 kilometres. And my car has more special features inside the body.

KA: Can you tell our listeners about those features?

NP: After the telepathical door, my car has a special key. The key is simple flat piece of steel designed with the picture of Angkor Wat temple to signify that the car is truly Cambodian-made. And the car's lock has a very special feature because you cannot use other key which has the same shape to open it. For example, I made two keys which have exactly the same shape but when I tried to start the engine, my own recorded voice will say "the equipment you use is not the correct one, please check it again", and the light on the dashboard will blink also.

KA: Can you demonstrate this feature for our listeners?

NP: Yes, I can. I will show you after I explained everything to you first. And other special feature is that when we close the door too hard or when the car bump too hard, there will be a recorded female voice will say like "ouch! it hurts, please be gentle".(laughter)

KA: It is incredible. Does the car have any other special features?

NP: Yes, the car dashboard was dark but when we insert the key in, the dashboard will brighten up and on the left side of the dashboard there appear in a Khmer and English writing which tells the driver that it is ready to drive. My car doesn't have radio, a cassette player or a CD player. But it has an MP3 player use in conjunction with a mobile phone which has a much better sound than the CD player. We still can receive a phone call even when we are listening to the music. And we don't have to put the phone next to our ears, we just press an answer button and we can listen to the phone through a loud speaker.

KA: It is incredible, more modern than cars I have seen in Australia. (laughter)

NP: There are more special features. Inside the car, on the dashboard there are 13 swithces. They are special switches that are responsible for the car operating systems such as operating the doors, the engine and other electrical operating systems all contained in those 13 switches board. All the switches are very special. For example, if you are not the car owner and you try to operate the switches, there will be a recorded voice to tell them like I have told you earlier. And when they started the car, the car can only run for 30 seconds and the engine will stop.

KA: It is very safe and thieves cannot steal this car.

NP: Yes, I believe 100% that thieves cannot steal this car. There is one more special feature because the car steering wheel has a different shape from other cars, they are similar to the steering wheels of racing cars and the car seats don't have any seams.

KA: You said your car can run between 60-100 kilometres. Is it automatic or manual?

NP: It is automatic.

KA: How much did it cost to make that car, not including labour?
NP: It costs me $US5,000 for the materials, not including the labour that I spent 19 months building this car.

KA: I saw a picture of your car, its look small and cute like you said and I saw a small area at the rear end of the car. Can we put anything in that area?

NP: Yes, it is a small boot of the car where we can put some small luggage in there. And underneath the car boot is the engine of the car.

KA: It looks like the Volkswagon cars in the 1960s.

NP: Yes, this is my experiment. My first car I put the engine in front, my second car I put the engine in the middle and my third car I put the engine at the rear of the car.

KA: Why did you call your car Angkor 333?

NP: The reason I called my car Angkor 333 because I have so far achieved 3 things in the car-building. I so far produced 3 cars, 3 models, 3 ways of positioning the engine so I decided to called it 333.

KA: Do you intend to patent your car so other people can't copy your designs?

NP: Yes, I intend to patent my car models as my intellectual property but right now I have not 100% finished building all my car models yet. When all my car models are finished I will register the patent rights.

KA: When will your car be completed?

NP: Two more months, in around August (2009).

KA: So you will show it to the public?

NP: Yes.

KA: To drive it around the city to tell the public that Cambodia has its own-made car, right?

NP: Yes, in fact it should be like that. I just want to say briefly that in the past, Bayon TV had come to interview me and film my car. After the program went to air, I received hundreds, maybe thousands of calls, of supports and encouragements, so I was very, very happy and proud.

KA: You have built three exhibition models. When will they become commercially available to the public?

NP: In fact when people called me they told me they wanted to buy my Khmer-made cars to drive around the city to show them off to foreigners that Khmers can build our own car too. I have ideas to commercially build these cars, but most importantly is the money. If we have foreign investments in these projects we can move forward. If we doing things alone like I do now, we cannot move forward as fast like in foreign countries.

KA: Thanks so much for the interview, but before we finish can you start the car engine to show our listeners how it works?

NP: Yes, this is the sound of the car when I open the window, Can you hear?

KA: I can't hear.

NP: This is the sound of the engine when I start the car.

KA: Yes, I can hear, but can you rave the engine?

NP: No problem.(sound of engine raving). Now I took the key out and the engine stopped. I have another key which look exactly the same. Now I insert that key in, please listen to the recorded voice: (actual voice) "the equipment you use is not the correct one, please check it again". (recorded voices repeated 3 times). If we do not take out the key, the recorded voice will repeat forever and the car engine won't start.

KA: Any other voice?

NP: Yes, like I told earlier that when we close the door to hard or the car bumping to hard, we will hear this voice (actual voice) "ouch! it hurts, please be gentle".(laughter).

KA: I really want to see that car.

NP: Now I try to close that door very hard. (actual voice)"ouch! it hurts, please be gentle".(laughter).

KA: Mr. Nhean Phaloek, thanks so much for the interview.

NP: Thank you. In fact I received a lot of telephone call from Khmer people around the world, from America etc. They heard and saw the car pictures but they want to see the cars in persons.

KA: Thanks, bye!

NP: Bye!

ABC Radio, Khmer Language Program
Australia
Listen to audio interview

Translated from Khmer by Khmerization