When it comes to what 14-year-olds do with their free time, building a car may not exactly be one of them, but Kelvin Ordartey is the exception.

During his young days, Kelvin would walk around picking up empty containers and scrap metals to build small vehicles for exhibitions — something his mother was totally against at the time.

“I was trying to stop him because I don’t want my son to be a vagabond,” said his mother, Abigail Perbi.

It wasn’t until a few years later that Kelvin manufactured his own stylish sports car which he calls “Kelvinsuik-2020,” and like many others, Perbi is now proud of her son’s feat.

Kelvin, now 18, is a student of the Chantan M/A Basic School in Accra, Ghana, and just completed his Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). After videos of him driving in his Lamborghini-like car to school on the last day of his BECE exams went viral on social media, Kelvin began to gain recognition.

According to Face2Face Africa, the young creative first began to build his car when he was only 14.

“I saw a moving plane passing by and something told me to build a plane so from that day I started building an aeroplane,” said Kelvin. “It led to a stage, when it reached that stage, how I wanted the aeroplane to fly, I couldn’t have it like that so I decided to build a car.”

Not only did he pivot from building an aeroplane, his decision to build a car turned out to be a huge success.

“Then I started building a car to exhibitions, for showing to people, and one day I got friends who are very excited for it, and they came part so we all work together,” he said. “So one day, I started building this big project.”

One person who pushed him to do well — with endless encouragement and support — was his teacher, Patrick Yaw Adjei.

“I will say that Kelvin is the type of student who is very… I mean he always wants to explore with every opportunity that comes his way,” said Adjei. “When you give him something to do, he wants to do and do it very well and even do it extraordinarily.”

Thanks to support from Adjei — plus family and friends — young Kelvin never gave up on his dream despite facing challenges.

“I learned how to build the car on my own, and if I find any difficulties in it, I go to one of my friends to solve my problems and also get the functions and names of the other car parts,” said Kelvin.

In the future, Kelvin plans to build a car and manufacture cars not only in Ghana but all over the world.