WELCOME to Alex Eckford's Weird World of Wheels.

Each week, we'll be bringing you the essential strangest motoring news from around the world.

Don't forget to come back every Friday for your new helping.

Got any stories you think we should feature in the Weird World of Wheels? Send them to us at editorial@autotrader.co.uk.

This week:

Don't lose your head

Being a racing driver, you might expect a few bumps and knocks. Accidents happen.

But junior racing driver Chris Stewart survived decapitation.

After a 50mph barrier smash during a children's race, the 12-year-old's skull became detached from his spine.

The skin was not broken, and doctors spent six hours reattaching the bones using metal plates and bone grafts from Chris' hip in a ground-breaking piece of surgery.

Now, just two months after the operation, Chris is not only walking again, but swimming and cycling.

Chris, from Alton in Hampshire, said: "I wasn't scared when the accident happened but I couldn't move anything - I was quite annoyed."

Can I have a 999 please?

Police in New Zealand have become so enraged with locals telling other drivers where drink driving checkpoints have been set up, they've resorted to some interesting tactics.

Rather than using unmarked Ford and Holdens as patrol cars, the Kiwi force has started using ice cream vans.

Senior Sergeant Nick Dobson said: "If we have to be sneaky to catch these people then we will be. It's pretty easy to tell what an undercover police car looks like. Now anything could be a police patrol car. We could be in an ice cream truck. We're trying to get people to think a bit more, but I don't want to give away too much."

The plan unravelled slightly when children in Palmerston North tried to buy ice creams from the van.

Laughing oil the way to the bank

As far as I knew, motor oil only had one use.

But US doctor Daniel Serrano has been jailed for 18 months for using motor oil as an anti-wrinkle treatment for his clients.
Women including Lionel Richie's ex-wife Diane Richie paid £270 a time to have the 'silicone' injections into their faces.

But the substance was really industrial grade car lubricant from Serrano's native Argentina.

Video: Lamborghini prang

If you love supercars, look away now...

Click the play button below to start the video.

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Got any stories you think we should feature in the Weird World of Wheels? Send them to us at editorial@autotrader.co.uk.