Yup, amazing that when boats need to be built there happens to be propelors and water jet impellors lurking on the dump.
Love it tho, last weeks skittles machines were hilarious.
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Unless your comments are TIC, in which case I could look very silly for pointing this out but....
It's a bit like WWF, it's all a setup!
Certain items are hidden in and around that will be needed or could be used, then the rest is simply scrap!
For example, the hovercraft exercise that I remember well. Somewhere there had to be two two stroke engines and a couple of decent fans for these guys to use.......
A colleague of mine, a highly esteemed mechanical engineer was approached to be one of their experts. I don't think she followed the invitation through though.
H
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its one of my all time favourite shows
they surely must have extra time the following morning to do more on the "machines"
they were gutted when the tractor broke 2nite !
it wasnt their work but the tractor itself.
1st class show, im loving it !
best one for me was when they had to catapult a car using old contraptions! the one with massive "telegraph" poles
geddit "telegraph", as in where HJ has his column ?
no, lol, never mind ;-)
and it broke in an almighty crash, fandaby dosey !
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Oh yes, that was the tractor boys who built a trebuchet, - proper job!
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Quite a while ago (must have been about two years) I was actually approached as an 'expert' to go on this show. It was for the one where the teams had to make a machine that moved along a course, but without wheels (i.e. could use tracks, 'legs' etc.).
They 'phoned me up and I showed some interest. Another guy from the production company then spoke to me and discussed, in some detail, all kinds of possible solutions to the problem. It is obviously the case that the end product is designed well in advance and all of the parts are sourced to specification. I was invited to view a filming session at Stoney Cove in Leicestershire, where they had a challenge involving pulling a Mini out of the lake.
Anyway, I didn't hear anthing more for a couple of weeks and then they 'phoned me at about 4pm one day and wanted me down in London at about 8am the next morning for further discussions and a 'screen test'. I wasn't too impressed by this short notice, had other work booked, so had to decline.
I was involved with a TV series on 'innovation' (screened about this time last year) - it was OK, but I really did learn that these types of programme are first and foremost about entertainment - the 'educate and inform' aspect is well down the agenda.
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Amazing how it\'s always much better than the US version too - must be Lisa Rogers - somehow, the grubbier she looks, the sexier she is.
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"Amazing how it's always much better than the US version too"
Not the American episode when they built aircraft;
and the British effort was the one which really flew, so it could not have been entirely rigged. Then there were the cannon!
I fear I have a diametrically opposing view!
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The path the experts will take is so obviously rigged - you never get two experts who want to build it the same way. As soon as last night's programme started, I said "we're going to see a winch approach and an hydraulic approach".
I didn't think they ever disguised the fact that the scrapyard has been seeded with some items appropriate to the challenge - indeed, Lisa has mentioned it a few times.
Fair play to them though, the teams are obviously for real and they put some solid effort into the builds. Top entertainment, and it makes some of my constructions look insignificant!
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The difference between the UK and US versions is entertaining in itself - in the US they might have to build a dragster capable of carrying the entire team along the quarter mile or a bulldozer that can flatten a building in less than five minutes, whereas the UK bunch get to make a large bow and arrow or slide a Mini down an ice rink..
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IIRC, she's in the yank version too - on Discovery anyhow
--
Lee
MINI adventure in progress
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I preferred the previous presenter to her. Cathy Rogers.
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Only spoilt by the inane commentary!
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According to imdb.com, Lisa is 5'1", and has just turned 33 which almost matches her bra size of 34D.
It doesn't mention whether she is related to Cathy, which is why I looked (honest!).
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It doesn't mention whether she is related to Cathy, which is why I looked (honest!).
I went off to look up the same thing!
I found that Robert has a pretty neat web site
www.llew.co.uk/
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I don't know if it says on the website still but it used to say that it was a real scrapyard run by the man in the white coat but they 'seed' it with useful bits and made subtle pointers to teams as where to find useful stuff if they were struggling. The time taken during the bits where they talk to the teams isn't taken out of there given time and they have an hours lunch break to keep the HSE man happy.
I can't remember a team that hasn't finished a build but I'm sure they'd give the team extra tinkering time on the second day.
I remember one of the US series where they did exactly the same challenges as the UK one, which was interesting. The yanks answer to an engine was always the biggest V8 they could find, even if they needed to build a light vehicle.
My favourite moment was in the spin off Wacky Racers when the Tractor Boys broke the govenor on the giant tractor they built. Proper Job!
As to Cathy vs. Lisa. I tend to prefer Cathy but didn't like the heavy black eyeshadow she started using. I think Cathy is one of the directors of the production company which does Scrapheap and related programs.
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They admit that sometimes they purposely hide items they will need, such as the one where they had to build, and fire a rocket as high as they could, and then release an egg by parachute (IIRC) and try not to break it. In this episode, they hid rocket fuel pellets (was a while back)
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