A Chinese farmer has made a scale model of a Lamborghini for his grandson. We look back at other homemade cars, submarines and flying machines made by amateur inventors in China.
Guo, a farmer in his 50s, watches as his grandson gets into his home-made scale replica of a Lamborghini in Zhengzhou, Henan province, ChinaReutersGuo spent six months making the model out of scrapped metal and parts from electric bicycles. It has five sets of batteries and can travel as far as 60km (37 miles) when fully chargedReutersGuo said the two-metre-long, one-metre-wide Lamborghini cost about 5,000 yuan (£500)ReutersBack in 2012, a mechanic named Wang Jian made a full-size replica of a Lamborghini Reventon out of an old Nissan and a VW Santana, in Suqian, Jiangsu province. This self-made roadster, which could reportedly reach speeds of up to 160mph, cost him around 60,000 yuan (£6,000)ReutersIn 2008, amateur inventor Chen Shungui, 54, made this solar-powered electric car in Jingjiang, Jiangsu province. The vehicle, which took him 13 months and 130,000 yuan (£13,000) to build, could reach a speed of 45kphReutersClean technology of a different kind was clearly on this man's mind. He created a road sweeper last year out of a tractor and 12 brooms, in Mohe, Heilongjiang provinceReutersIs it a bike? Is it a plane? Well, it's probably no good as either, but a farmer named Zhang Xuelin spent around 2,000 yuan (£200) building a plane around a motorcycle, using wood and plastic boards. The plane, which took 11 months to build, failed in its 2012 test flight in Jinan, Shandong provinceReutersDing Shilu, an automobile mechanic, had a little more success with his plane in 2011. During a test-flight in Shenyang, Liaoning province, he managed to get at least one wheel off the ground. The aircraft which weighed about 130kg (287lbs) was made from recycled materials including three motorbike engines, and cost about 2,600 yuan (£260)ReutersHe didn't have as much luck with his second plane, made out of components from motorcycles and electric bicycles. It crashed into a field during its test flight on the outskirts of Shenyang, Liaoning provinceReutersGraphic designer Gao Hanjie built this helicopter in Shenyang, Liaoning province in 2010. Gao claimed the 6-meter-long, 350kg contraption would eventually flyReutersA farmer named Shu Mansheng made this flying saucer at his house in Dashu village on the outskirts of Wuhan, Hubei province in 2011. The round steel flying device, which measured 18 feet in diameter, was powered by eight motorcycle engines. He managed to hover for 10 seconds at about one metre above ground during a test flightReutersAnd now for a couple of surprising success stories. Chinese farmer Wu Yulu, educated to primary school level, became obsessed with building robots. His earlier attempts, such as this tiny robot from 2003 that could do household chores, was fairly primitive...Reuters...but by 2009, Wu Yulu had built a rickshaw pulled by a walking robot. He was invited to showcase his work at the Shanghai World Expo, and now devotes himself full-time to making more impressive robotsReutersA farmer named Zhang Wuyi from Wuhan showed similar devotion to his obsession - submarines. This dolphin-shaped submersible, made in 2011, could travel at a speed of 20kph for 10 hours underwater...Reuters...Now he builds and sells more complex multi-seater submarines designed for harvesting sea cucumbersReutersPerhaps the most unusual invention in this gallery is this homemade breast enlargement machine, demonstrated at a Shanghai beauty fair in 2002 by Taiwanese inventor Huang Qingtang. We don't know if any women successfully went up a cup size, but it seemed to work on himReuters
