This guy made a Transformer out of an old Ford Fiesta

What have you done lately?

Do you remember your first car?

If you came of driving age during the mid- to late eighties, chances are it was one of these - a Mk2 Ford Fiesta.

Maybe one just like this, which belongs to a UK artist named Hetain Patel.

And can you remember what happened to yours? Chances are it was traded in for a slightly better model as age began to take its toll and circumstances demanded something a little more upmarket.

Hetain hung onto his*.

But today, it looks a little different.

He made it into a Transformer

Yep.

Of course, as Patel is an artist by profesion, the Fiesta Transformer isn' t just something he knocked up in his garage at the weekend, but the latest in a series of commentaries on identity, culture, class and immigration.

Here he is with it.

The sculpture, started in May of this year and completed in six months, is Patel's first ever.

"Born in the U.K. to immigrant Indian parents, the passing of a car between generations provided me with my first taste of independence," he said in a blog post explaining its origins.

"In this new work… this car stands as a symbol of working class Britain — a native body, albeit a metal one.

And the significance of the Transformers?

"For me, these ‘robots in disguise… stand as a metaphor for the other, in a fantasy world where they can transform out of a marginal position into one of empowerment," Patel said.

The artist explains that Fiesta Transformer was also a family endeavour, with his dad - who gave him his first car, and whose day job is to convert cars into hearses and limousines for funerals - working with him.

" I created this sculpture together with my father, with additional help from my engineer brother and fellow Transformers enthusiast, Pritum Patel, " he said.

Here they are in the garage:

The work is now on display in a French art gallery until December.

WATCH: An amazing timelapse video of the sculpture's creation:

You can find out more about Hetain Patel's work via his website, or you can watch his recent TED Talk 'Be Like Water' below - a fun and intriguing performance which plays with ideas of identity, language, accent and Kung Fu (go on, it's nine minutes well spent).

*He didn’t really hang on to his first one. He got a new one of the exact same year and spec. But poetic licence.

(All images: Hetain Patel via Facebook)