A London taxi converted to look like a bumble bee taking part in an insect-inspired festival on London’s South Bank.

Raising awareness of the collapse of bee colonies around the world, one of London’s iconic black cabs has been transformed into a bumblebee in full flight, complete with a working beehive in the front seat. Keep a look out for this spectacular sight, which will be travelling around London.

Backward Cabbie
[H]arpreet Devi, 30, a cab driver in Punjab, India, was forced to drive his car in reverse for months because of a faulty gear box. The cabbie became so skilled at whizzing around in reverse he decided to modify his motor to drive backwards permanently.

Harpreet’s reversing skills have become so famous in his homeland, he has even been issued with a special government licence to drive in reverse anywhere in the state, located in the county’s north.

His Fiat Padmini, has painted ‘Back Gear Champian’ on the side, and the gear box is reconfigured to have four gears in reverse and one forward. Watch the video.

He can now reach speeds of up to 50 mph while driving backwards.

Mr Devi is a regular sight and sound around the area’s dusty streets, as he uses an ambulance siren to warn unsuspecting drivers, and pedestrians, to avoid him.

“After five years of practice I have perfected the art of reverse driving,” he said, adding that he took “all the care I can to protect other drivers on the road”. I always wanted to do something different, something unique. In simpler terms I reversed the complete gear mechanism of the car so that I get maximum speeds while driving backwards.”

But his somewhat bizarre practice has had one side effect – he has now begun suffering severe neck and back problems.

“I do have pains in the neck – frequent pains in the neck – and I have had severe vomiting in past, I have got a severe backbone problem from driving so fast in reverse, because my whole body gets contorted.”

But he insisted it was worthwhile.

“Achieving something special is never easy, it’s not giving that counts,” he added.

He has even tried to break the Guinness Book of Records for driving in reverse, after searching on the internet and finding a UK resident, John Smith, had achieved such a feat.

“Unfortunately I couldn’t break the world record because the Guinness Book authorities demanded non-stop video footage of my whole reverse driving and I was unable to produce that,” he said.

He was also thwarted a few years ago attempting to drive in reverse from Rajasthan, in the country’s north-west, to Lahore in Pakistan in a bid to promote peace.

He failed because he didn’t have permission to cross the border.