[ News
| Homes
| Life
| Entertainment
| History
| Science
| Community
| Shop ]
| Sport
| Culture
| Cars
| Money
| Broadband
| Learning
| Health
| Dating
| Games ]
[ Text Only: Homepage ]
[ Graphical: Channel4 Homepage ]
[ Graphical page ] [ Home | Challenges | About Scrapheap | Forum | Links ] [ Credits | Apply for Scrapheap 2005 ]
[ The challenge and teams | Result | Hogs' diary | Knights' diary | Science | Related links ]
The challenge
Each team had to select a car from the heap, make it driveable and build a floating craft to carry it. The car had to be driven from the beach on to the landing craft and the craft propelled through the water, using power from the car engine. The craft had to manoeuvre in the water to retrieve a team member from an island, return to the beach and unload the car, which had to be driven back up the beach to the finish line.
The design
Our design was simple, consisting of a large steel pontoon fitted with paddles driven from a roller upon which the car's driving wheels rested. The pontoon was also fitted with a removable rudder, which could be connected at either end, and a pair of ramps to make loading the car from the beach easier.
We picked a VW Beetle on the grounds that it is light and I have some knowledge of air-cooled VWs.
Build day
Frog and Roo quickly retrieved a Beetle from the heap, closely followed by the steel pontoon. While the team expert Bill Rutland set about patching the holes in the pontoon, Frog and Roo went in search of material for rollers and paddles and I sorted out a few problems with the Beetle and got it running.
The majority of the build was simply grinding and welding. Once we had established the Beetle's centre of gravity and decided where it should sit on the pontoon, there was no complexity to the construction.
Roo's welding could be relied upon to give us a leak-free pontoon, we had confidence in the reliability of our Beetle and the simplicity of the whole machine meant speed was our only concern.
The Hairy Hogs built a raft supported on oil drums. They had picked a small 4x4 Suzuki, disconnected the rear propshaft and arranged a propeller and shaft to be coupled to the car's gearbox for propulsion.
Once we knew the Hogs had a propeller, we were resigned to the fact they would be faster in the water. Our only hope of winning would be our advantage in easy loading together with any durability problems the Hogs' design might have.
Test day
On Friday morning, we arrived at the test site to find a large lake with a number of islands. Our creations were placed on the beach to allow us to make final adjustments. We took the time to add lifting cables to our loading ramps so we could raise the ramps and provide clearance for plenty of rudder movement.
We also converted our Beetle to a cabriolet. This took about five minutes with a nine-inch grinder. We tidied up the edges with duct tape and the result was neater than many conversions I have seen on the roads.
The Hogs, meanwhile, spent some of their time practising their loading technique, which (crucially) they got down to a fine art.
A shore thing
The test course was laid out with both cars at a start line about 50 yards up the beach. Between the start line and the water's edge was a 'minefield'. This was marked out with cones, which we had to negotiate our way around or risk a time penalty.
Once at the shore, we would have to load our cars on to our rafts, which were already in the water (which was a relief as our steel pontoon weighed about a ton). We would then have to sail a marked-out course to the island where our experts were stranded.
We would then rescue them, sail back to the beach, unload the cars from the rafts and drive them back around the minefield to the start line.
We brought our Beetle to the start line, moved it to within goading distance of the Hairy Hogs and after a few minutes of squirting water at one another with improvised water pistols, we were off.
Setting the pace
Our Beetle accelerated well off the start line with Frog at the wheel, Roo riding shotgun and me languishing in the general area where the back seat should have been. We needed to reverse on to our raft and a deftly executed handbrake turn brought us nicely into position.
We soon had our Beetle on the raft, strapped down and the paddles turning. Unfortunately, the angle of our bit of beach caused the end of the raft to drag on the bottom and it took some rocking to get us into clear water. By this time, the Hogs were loaded up and on the move, making good progress with their propeller drive.
Our progress in the water was painfully slow and we could only watch as the Hogs charged the length of the course, picked up their expert and headed back.
In the interests of comedy, we had fitted our second rudder mount with a tube for a parasol. Upon arrival at the island, Roo lifted the rudder from one end, I lifted the parasol from the other end and we ran along opposite sides of the raft to replace them, thereby reversing the whole.
We continued to make slow progress back toward the beach. The Hogs were well ahead and already unloading their car when we were halfway back.
Comic relief
As we finally arrived at the beach, the Hairy Hogs crossed the line to finish. We continued, determined to complete our task. As we arrived at the beach, Frog drove the Beetle off the raft with enough enthusiasm to propel the raft back out into the water. Bill and I were still on the raft.
I leapt off the end of the raft and waded ashore. Once ashore, I looked round to see Bill and the raft drifting gracefully off into the lake. After a moment's pause, Roo and Frog took a paddle each, dived into the water and went to the rescue. With the whole team back on shore, we bundled into our Beetle and dashed back up the beach to meet the Hairy Hogs at the finish line.
I speak for the whole team when I say that while we were disappointed at not making it through to the final we were happy we had done all we could to make an entertaining show. The experience will not be forgotten.
I can recommend a visit to Scrapheap to anyone who took apart their alarm clock, train set or bicycle before they were 10 and hasn't stopped since.
Pete Twissell