Young inventor stopped in his tracks

An interesting idea - but going nowhere fast kapo.sg.ch

Hybrids may be touted as the vehicles of the future – but not the kind put together by a teenager in the eastern Swiss village of Jonschwil.

The unnamed 17-year-old welded together the front of a moped and the back of a Renault Clio, and stuck the back of the moped on the end. To make sure it would stop, he combined the car’s handbrake and the moped’s front brake, as Monday’s edition of the online 20 Minuten newspaper reported.

And he gave it a souped-up engine which would have enabled it to reach a speed of 80-90 kilometres an hour.

But he didn’t get the chance to put it to the test: he was driving at about 25 kph with two friends when he was stopped by police, who promptly confiscated the vehicle. The young designer faces a fine.

The police may not have been impressed, but 20 Minuten readers at least gave him the thumbs-up.

“Just brilliant! And at least he’s doing something with his free time, instead of going round being violent. I hope he’ll find an apprenticeship or a job where he

can use his skill,” was one typical response.