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[ The challenge and teams | Result | Anoraks' diary | Hoselliers' diary | Science | Related links ]
A load of old scrap
Things started quite normally on the first day. I got up, had coffee, thought 'what shall I do today' – then I remembered we were doing Scrapheap and the panic started.
What if we were told to build wind-powered coffee grinders, model aircrafts or worse, global thermo-nuclear devices? What if our expert turned out to be a fool? What if we didn't finish?
With some trepidation, I set off for the hotel where I met Marc and Lyndon (well, I say the hotel, I mean the hotel bar). We had made several rules about Scrapheap, no tank tracks, no electronics, no chains and no hydraulics, it was a bit late to suggest no beer, though I later wished I had.
After a few drinks to steady our nerves we were collected by the lovely Naomi to take us to the heap to do our first bit of filming, get fitted for overalls and those natty hard hats. The heap is all very surreal. When you see it on TV, you think it's all a load of junk – and it's exactly that! The other thing you recognise are all the old cars and boats you've seen in the background for years. When you see them in context, they are very real!
All is revealed
We met the other team, The Hoselliers, in the bar, along with the two experts and the judge. We all got on like the proverbial house on fire and, along with half the film crew, took over most of the bar. I have no idea what time we went to bed or even how much we drank but I knew my bar bill was going to get me in trouble at home!
With bloodshot eyes, we stood in front of the podium while Lisa and Robert told us what we were going to build:
'Teams, I want you to build a sand racer.'
'Fantastic,' we thought, 'a nice 4x4, big engine. Easy. We can do that with our eyes closed.'
'The big rule is NO FOUR-WHEEL DRIVE.'
Ahhh.
Four wheels bad, six wheels good
Taking this in our stride, we came up with some solutions. At first, we thought of a beach buggy, a hover craft or a schlesser buggy. Then our expert Paul came up with the answer. A six-wheel-drive buggy.
Nice idea ... one hell of a lot of work but a nice idea. Then we thought of a way to make a very difficult build even more challenging – we decided not to have a steering wheel.
Paul converts 4x4s into 6x6s for a living. I think this was the main reason he suggested the plan. Fortunately for us, Paul really knew what he was doing so we put all our faith in his basic design. The design changed a lot over the course of the build and it became a real team effort but without Paul's knowledge and seriously hard work, I very much doubt we would have got it finished.
Whatever happened to the plan of a nice simple easy build?
What's in an axle?
Marc and Lyndon set off into the heap to find a vehicle while Paul and I tried to make a rough plan for what we were going to make. We needed to start with a 4x4 and add an axle to it. Sounds easy if you say it fast enough.
The vehicle we ended up with was an old Nissan Patrol. One of our first rules was to get the engine started, there was no way we could do that as the engine was sitting at a nasty angle due to the accident damage the Patrol had suffered. Why was it in the yard in the first place? The other more serious problem was both axles on the Patrol were shot. We had an engine, gearbox and chassis and that was it.
Soon after, we found the rear axle of a Land Rover, quickly followed buy a home-made trailer with yet another Land Rover axle. Paul and I set about making a bogey for the rear four-wheel drive. We basically bolted the two outputs of the Patrol's transfer case to the diffs on the Land Rover axles.
All we needed now was the third axle. Marc and Lyndon had been gone for some time but there was a problem – there was not another Land Rover axle on the heap. The only alternative was a Suzuki front axle and I knew from my history with Suzukis that it would take the torque of the bigger engine but the diff ratios would be all out. The front wheels would probably turn a lot faster then the rear!
We decided not to worry about diff ratios. We still had to find more transfer cases and make up the props for the drive line. If we did get as far as worrying about the ratios, all we needed to do was make bigger or smaller wheels on the Suzuki axle.
Stormy weather
We had three transfer cases; the original Patrol one driving the rear four wheels; one from some farming machine of some sort to drive the Patrol transfer box. This would also spur into the third transfer box, which looked like it came from a food processor. This would provide the forward drive for the front axle.
This was very complicated and had several hundred possible points of failure – not what we had originally planned! A long hard day's work but we were there, the 'Six on Wheels' was nearly a runner. The engine ran on four cylinders, the only problem was it had six.
The worst thing about the build was not the stop-start of the filming, even the enormity of our build, it was the weather. The day started nicely, then it rained, the sun came out, it rained again, it rained harder, it rained softer, it drizzled, it hailed, it really hailed golf balls hammering out of the sky. At one stage, we had nearly an inch of ice on the work bench! It didn't stop. Marc and Lyndon were getting very dejected, cold and wet on the heap and it was difficult to keep spirits up.
I have no idea what time we made it back to the hotel. All of us were totally exhausted. The Hoselliers, being a forward-thinking bunch, had stashed a case of beer, so we all sat in the empty hotel reception enjoying a well-deserved drink.
The next day we rested – and boy did we need it. This was to give the safety people time to check our vehicles and fit roll cages, harnesses and racing-fuel tanks (we were not allowed to).
Test day
Test day, another silly early start in TV land. The test was to be held in a sand quarry in darkest Surrey. Marc and Lyndon worked on the engine while I started decorating with some green paint. The engine problem turned out to be that the spark-plug leads were in the wrong order. The firing order was correct but the rotor arm was going anti-clockwise and we thought it should be clockwise. Marc and Lyndon had sussed it just as Duncan the expert from The Hoselliers suggested that must be the problem – no doubt Duncan will take the credit!
The first test was a hill climb. We thought this would be easy for us as we had six-wheel drive. We also thought it would be more difficult for The Hoselliers as they only had two-wheel drive. Sadly, this was not to be the case.
The hill was not too steep so The Hoselliers made it look easy. Marc, who drew the short straw and was our driver, made a good start but ground to a halt after 10 metres. I don't think there was anyone there who didn't think that it was broken and our hearts sank as we walked down the hill to the stricken vehicle.
Good news! It was not broken, it was crossed out on its axles as we had skid steer and we didn't have any suspension. With no suspension, it was easy for one wheel to be up in the air on one side and another wheel to be in the air on the other. As the diffs put the power down to the wheel of least resistance, they were spinning uselessly in the air.
The need for speed
The second test was the speed event and we had no chance. The drive line would break and our steering system was more suited to straight lines rather then high-speed corners.
We took most of the air out of the tyres, to give us some rudimentary suspension and Marc was told to go for bust – and he did! The Hoselliers did the test in 48 seconds (my unofficial timing) Marc surprised us all by taking off like a bat out of hell and put in a stunning performance. The whole cast and crew clapped – it was a stunning drive but not quite fast enough to beat The Hoselliers.
Taking the prize
The third test was a killer. It was the longest and most demanding, with tight bends, soft sand, jumps, big drops and an optional steep climb at the end to make up some time.
The Hoselliers went first, with Sifter at the wheel. He was sitting on the start line when we noticed the front wheels were slightly pointing in different directions. This proved to be a problem at the first corner, a right-hand hairpin, and he failed to get around it. In fact, he drove off the course and had to reverse back on. He got as far as the jumps, hit the first one at speed and stopped. The marshals freed him (he incurred a 30-second penalty) and he got to the second yump and with no momentum beached himself. Again, he had to be rescued (with another 30-second penalty). He finished the course at quite a reduced speed, when he got nearer we saw why, one of the castings on the front suspension had collapsed so he only had one wheel steering.
The Anoraks were in with a chance. We had got back the minute's penalty we incurred on the hill climb so were only a few seconds behind. Marc looked like he was nervous, in fact, I think it's safe to say he was bricking it!
He took of at quite a speed as we were now much more confident that the drive line was strong enough and even if it did break now it didn't matter. We held our breath when he got to the jumps, he hit them with exactly the right speed and made it over all three without too much difficulty. The left-hand hairpin was nearly his undoing – he came within an inch of dropping off the side but he made it and kept up his speed and finished the test without too much difficulty.
The officials then had to get their calculators out. This was quite a nervous time for us as, though we had done well, we had quite a lot of time in penalties to make up. In the end we won by 45 seconds!
The prize? More sleepless nights and stupidly early starts!
Geoff Turtell