The car, designed by high-school students, made the Guinness Book of World Records 2013

Sep 28, 2012 07:54 GMT  ·  By

A group of high-school students in Asakuchi, Japan, designed the world's smallest working car, that fits requirements to be allowed on the road.

The students were helped with their project by teachers at the Automobile Engineering Course of Okayama Sanyo High School. The car was completed on November 15, 2010, and will be included in the Guinness Book of World Records 2013, Guinness advertises.

The contraption was called the "Mirai," the Japanese word for future, and it is about as big as a Japanese high school student would need it to be.

Measuring from the ground to the highest part of the car, the vehicle is only 45.2 cm (17.79 in) tall, making it the shortest 4-wheel-ride ever built, by Guinness standards.

The slick design of the vehicle took about a year to put together, and the manufacturing itself was done in another six months.

Students borrowed the driving unit, including the engine, batteries and other controlling components, from the "Q-car" produced in Japan by the CQ motors company.

The switching console was taken from a motorbike, and the chassis, body, suspension, steering system and LED lights were built by students for this project particularly.

The car runs on six batteries, and can only really be good for a short drive.

School principal Harada Kazunari expressed his concern about actually taking the car out in Japanese traffic, the Huffington Post reports.

“It can be frightening to drive Mirai on a big street, especially when the speed goes over 40 km/h because the road is very close to the driver’s eye point. […] Also, you can feel afraid that you will be run over by other cars. So, we make it a rule, when we drive Mirai on a busy street, to place a leading car to the front of Mirai, and a guarding car in the rear,” he said.