An overseas-based Guyanese entrepreneur has announced that he hopes to set up in Guyana, a factory that will manufacture the world’s smallest cars and other vehicles.
Faizal Khan is a part-owner of the revived manufacturing company Peel Engineering. This company became known when its name was inscribed in the Guinness Book of World Records for manufacturing the world’s smallest car – the Peel P50. However, the company halted manufacturing activities in 1969. Khan and his business partner, car enthusiast Gary Hillman, later brought the brand back into the limelight and began producing the tiny cars exactly to the original specifications.
In an interview with Guyana Times International, Khan explained that he and his partner then took their efforts to the BBC Television programme “Dragon’s Den” — a reality show in which various entrepreneurs would pitch business ideas to five millionaires in hope of having them invest in those ideas. “We were lucky to get through, because it is a very hostile environment. We were one out of the only five winners on that show that received any investment for (their) ideas,” Khan said. Since then, Khan boasted, Peel Engineering has been exploding all over the world, and has given them great success, since millions of people are now becoming more and more interested in the world’s smallest car. “Peel cars are selling all over the world. There is a massive push to have these cars on the streets. I hope that Guyanese will be very proud that half of (the company that manufactures) the world’s smallest cars is Guyanese-owned,” he said.
Khan revealed that he may have plans for Guyana in the future. Khan is the son of Kadim ‘Kads’ Khan, founder of Guysons Engineering. With this type of experience running through his blood, the younger Khan is looking to possibly set up a factory in Guyana where Peel cars and other motor vehicles can be manufactured. “We can build cars in Guyana and sell them for half the price of other cars. We can even sell them to Caricom countries and other countries in South America,” he said. However, he acknowledged that this initiative will take some time but that it is definitely on the agenda.
Khan attributed his success to ‘learning how to hustle’ in Guyana. He stated that he spent many years living in Guyana, and he knows the Guyanese culture and ways of the people very well. “My parents are from Skeldon, and even though I was born in England I have both passports, so I am a Guyanese; and as they say, ‘home is where the heart is’,” Khan said.
The Peel series are three-wheeled micro-cars which were manufactured in 1962 and in 1965 by Peel Engineering on the Isle of Man. Those cars retailed then for £199 when new. They currently hold the record for the smallest-ever automobile to go into production. Designed as a city car, the Peel car was advertised as capable of seating “one adult and a shopping bag.” The vehicle’s only door was on its left side, and equipment included a single windscreen wiper and only one headlight.
Peel Engineering cars can currently be seen in Ripley’s Believe it or Not museums. Ripley’s 15 million paying customers per year see the Peel car in the busiest tourist locations in the world, like New York, London and Niagara Falls. The plan of Peel Engineering is to produce a range of merchandise to sell within retail outlets and via their website, to capitalise on their car’s popularity. Since the Dragon’s Den, the duo has launched an online competition to design Peel-inspired products. Inventors, designers and amateur enthusiasts are encouraged to apply.
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