I was in Maplin the other day, buying some essentials, and I took my kids with me.

They went exploring, as kids do, and discovered the “scientific” toy section. One particular box caught their attention. A cool looking kit car to build, but interestingly, it was not battery driven, but used the power from a salt water reaction.

I had to buy it [you can order it here: Salt Water Powered 4×4 car]

It took my 9 year old only a few hours of work over a couple of evenings (plus a bit of rebuilding of the engine block by me when i realised that the pistons needed to be pressed together harder to fit), but here we are.

A very clever 4×4 vehicle with a tilting body that allows it to climb many obstacles.

Lots of fun, and inspiring to a young girl who now wants to build a salt-water powered factory to build environmentally friendly vehicles.

Here’s a brief video of the results: