CANNY youngsters spent £7,500 building their own kit car as part of a school project - and ended up with a dream machine worth £10,000.

The five boys, from Yarm School, east Cleveland, have spent three years working on the Blackjack Avion, a two-seater, three-wheeler, which is based on a Citroen 2CV.

Philip Hoey, Andrew Turnbull, Jari Habib, Daniel Finch and Steven Rogers came up with the idea after seeing an article in a newspaper.

They bought the old 2CV for £200 and spent months stripping it down and servicing components. They had only weekends and time after school to work on the car, but managed to fit it around their GCSE and A-level studies.

Funding for the project came mainly from the Yarm School Association and with a top speed of about 80mph, the 60cc car is now worth about £10,000.

Philip Hoey said: "We had a great time making the kit and getting to know our way around a car. It was a brilliant experience."