HAYNES FIRES UP YOUR IMAGINATION WITH A 'REAL' ENGINE IN MINIATURE

Available Now, Priced: £24.99

The latest release from Haynes, famous worldwide for its indispensable Haynes Manuals range, is an internal combustion engine you can build for yourself. And you don't even need a garage, oil or power tools to create your very own mechanical masterpiece - just a tabletop and a rainy afternoon.

Haynes' 'Build Your Own Internal Combustion Engine' is a remarkable new educational model kit that builds up into a realistic working model of the power unit typically found under the bonnet of today's family cars.

Using, of course, the specially commissioned Haynes Manual provided, the highly detailed metal-and-plastic engine can be studied, assembled and then displayed on its own custom-made display stand.

And that's not all: its own battery-powered energy source allows the constructor to fully understand the workings of a car's internal combustion engine by lighting up key parts - such as pistons, valvegear, fanbelt and sparkplugs - and providing authentic sound.

Easy yet absorbing to construct, Haynes' 'Build Your Own Internal Combustion Engine' provides genuine insight into how real engines work, as well as being enormous fun to complete. It's an ideal way, perhaps, for children (aged from 10upwards) and parents to 'bond' over a common engineering goal.

Once finished, your engine, which will measure 180mm x 270mm x 140mm, can be registered on-line at a dedicated section of the Haynes website, and a certificate of authenticity downloaded to go with it.Haynes' 'Build Your Own Internal Combustion Engine' is available at bookshops, gift stores, toyshops and many other stockists, and is priced at £24.99 (RRP).