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Travelling down a rural canal, the last thing you would expect to see is a Reliant Robin perched halfway up a tree. But that is exactly the bizarre sight that is greeting passers-by on the Stratford-Upon-Avon Canal in Preston Bagot, Warwickshire.
After their initial shock, most shrug it off as a work of modern art.
But it was only placed there thanks to a spur-of-the-moment decision by a car enthusiast who owns the land the royal oak tree is on.
Gregan Thompson, 54, had removed the Reliant Robin's engine and placed it in a classic car he races.
But he was then unsure what to do with the car's white fibreglass shell so decided to dump it up the tree.
With the help of three friends, he first attempted to haul it up the oak using a piece of rope and a sit-on lawnmower.
But when the lawnmower proved not powerful enough, they tied the Reliant Robin to a Vauxhall Vectra and used that to hoist it onto the branches.
Mr Thompson said: 'I race classic cars and we needed the engine out of the Reliant for another car.
'I was left with the fibreglass shell and thought what am I going to do with it? I didn't want it rusting in the driveway.
'So it was a spur of the moment decision to put it in the tree. My friends thought I was mad but they still agreed to help.
'We tried a lawnmower at first to hoist it up with some ropes and the four of us pulling it but it obviously wasn't going to work.
'But we got it up there eventually using a Vauxhall Vectra. It took about an hour-and-a-half. We were shattered by the end of it but it was completely worth it.
'I have had lots of people asking is it trying to be modern art but it's really not.
'I really just put it up there for the hell of it. It's really only people on the canal who see it and you hear the odd comment of "What on earth is that doing there?"'
Boat user Gemma Collins, 28, from Birmingham spotted the car while heading down the canal last month.
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