This tiny Ford Escort is made from gold, silver and diamonds

We'd say £78,000 is a lot of money to pay for a Ford Escort, let alone one that’s 1/25th the size of the real deal. Yet that’s exactly how much cash one man from Essex spent building this - a massively detailed miniature Mk2 Escort made mostly from exotic metals.

Jeweller Russell Lord took around 1,300 hours to complete the model, which is based on a works rally Escort driven by Ari Vatanen in the late Seventies. The body is made from silver, and the brakes, spoiler, bonnet hinges and grille are all gold.

The headlights are diamonds, the brake lights rubies and the indicators sapphires. The windows are real glass, which Russell obtained by smashing vases until he found pieces with the right curve, and the moving gear lever is made from platinum and encrusted with yet more diamonds. Materials alone came to £78,000 - or one Mercedes-AMG C63 S.

The model is being put up for auction next week. Proceeds from the sale will be split between a number of children’s charities. How much would you be willing to pay for it?