Chinese Bo and Duke in the hot seat

Making sports cars in a disused chicken shed whilst dreaming of taking over the automotive world was once the preserve of the English gentlemen, but Chinese DIY’ers are quickly taking to the stage and also on the receiving end of Miranda warnings.

Low down seating, 360 degree panoramic roof line, rear engined and light weight? Is this a super car? Of course not, it’s one mans DIY dream coming to an end on a Chinese public road in Jiang Ning City. The Jiang Ning City police pulled over the sports car in question owing to the driver having no license plates, and also no body work, no doors, no windows and what looked like no engine.

The police explained to Chinese media sources they found a driver of an unregistered vehicle in Jiang Ning’s Bing Jiang Development Zone driving illegally, Officers told the media that they saw ‘an F1 style’ sports car traveling pretty fast on the open road and they soon pulled the driver over, the officers described the car as being sporty in nature but looking overly crappy due to its test car status. The driver offered up his own explanation: “It’s a test car, we’re just taking it for a quick spin.” Officers were not happy with this explanation and towed it back to their station for extra investigation and possible punishment. The police let the driver go but warned him, and his factory, that the car in question must carry plates even if it is a testing vehicle.

Now Chinese media can smell a good story, they tracked down the driver and the company he works for to find out more about this Chinese F1 vehicle, it turns out to be less sporty in the flesh as its an electric AWD buggy with seating designed for four people. Production has just begun and pricing is set at 68,000RMB.