A madcap inventor reckons he’s got a surefire way to end up in the record books – by building the world’s smallest BURGER VAN.
Yannick Read constructed the fully-working, 75cm-wide van and cooks up miniature burgers and quail eggs for neighbours in the street – despite being smaller than a classic Mini.
The flaming van, nicknamed Super Tinkey, is made from an old barbecue, a mobility scooter and parts from a Harley Davidson with sheets of plywood and MDF nailed to the side.
It is designed to look like a Citroen H van, but is only about a third the size – and completely road legal.
Yannick said: “A friend gave me an old barbecue he didn’t need anymore, the wheels and motor are from an old mobility scooter I bought on eBay.
“The rest is from old motorbikes – the lights are from a Harley Davidson as they just happened to be the right size.”
Yannick’s three children, Noel, 12, Bertie nine, and Olive seven helped paint and build the mini-van as a project for their summer holidays.
The 44-year-old added: “I really like those Citroen H vans and it was a way to own one without having to buy the full size version.
“I’ve always liked them and the shape lends itself to being shrunk.
“It’s been something I’ve been working on for over a year just doing bits and bobs, but we did a lot of the work during the summer.
“I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out, it’s one of those things that stops traffic and people stop in the street.
“It’s a nice antidote to all the bad news at the moment – it puts a smile on people’s faces and makes them happy to see something unusual.
“When it is in the road everyone who comes past and stops and has a look as it is such an unusual thing.
“The kids make miniature beef burgers and we fry up little quail eggs – it’s been really popular.”
Yannick has been making unusual contraptions since he was a young boy and recently made the “world’s smallest caravan” as well as the “world’s loudest bike horn” already in the record books.
Now he hopes to also get this new invention into the Guinness World Record books.
He said: “I’ve built lots of unusual vehicles in the past like a flying bicycle, the world’s smallest caravan and lots of other stuff.
“It was really designed to be a summer family holiday project with the kids getting involved with the building.
“The kids are really enthusiastic about the Guinness World Records so we wanted to have a go at trying to get them into the book.
“It seemed like a great way to keep them occupied without using their iPads.
“It would make a great promotional tool for a burger restaurant so if someone sees it and likes it, that would be a good use for it. It would also be great for kid’s parties.”
Yannick, who also works as a copywriter, hopes to find out if the invention has made it into the Guinness World Records book in the next couple of months.
He added: “I would really like to do something like take it up to the top of the Shard as it is small enough to fit into a lift.”
