Vaios Panagiotou's teachers at Brighton University dismissed it as impossible - he proved them wrong. In his spare time he constructed the first car that can be neatly packed into a suitcase. It only took him two weeks and cost him a mere 300. The car has working headlights, indicators and a horn. It can reach 35mph and can run for three hours on fuel it stores in its one-litre plastic tank. The car has seven gears, a 35cc lawnmower engine and is steered by bicycle handlebars. All that is neatly contained in the car's frame, which is constructed from two light aluminium alloy boxes. The final touch: its total weight is just 20kg.

Vaios - whose nickname at high school was Mcgyver (after the resourceful TV hero) due to his penchant for problem solving - claims to have been inspired to construct his very own fold-up car in order to make the journey back to Greece, in his term breaks, much simpler. However, his revolutionary fold-up car is not a one-off. Vaios had already constructed his first car at the tender age of 16. In his hometown of Messorahi, a short drive from the city of Larissa (maps> home page), Vaios had put together his own go-cart by assembling odds and ends from his father's garage. In just two weeks Vaios had put together the 80cc Saks motorbike engine that he had found, along with several parts from the scrapyard and ended up the talk of the town.

Pangiotou is once again the talk of the town, as he drives to classes at Brighton University in his fold-up car. He has also had his fair share of coverage in the world press, as news of his fold-up car has created excitement in all four corners of the earth. One such example is the director of a Parkinsons' Disease Research Clinic in Virginia, USA, who wrote to Panagiotou expressing interest in the car for the purposes of those suffering from the disease. The potential is there and, in Pangiotou's own words, "I am sure that you will hear about me again."