The Hairy Hogs take on the Anoraks. Their challenge
for the Scrapheap Final is to build a chariot. But not any chariot, oh
no. It's to be a Roman-esque construction, it won't be powered by horses,
but motors. All four must be on the chariot, and all steering from the
back, not the front.
The Hogs have Andy "Scooby" Armstrong to help.
They're going for the back end of a motorcycle, coupled to some sort of
chariot built from a platform on a car axle. They'll stand up to balance
the single front wheel, as balance will be the obvious problem.
The Anoraks have Nick "Rhino" Boyland. They're
going for a shortened automatic car chassis, attached to a trailer. Their
obvious difficulty is getting the power into the system.
First blood to the Anoraks. Well, maybe not, they've
managed to unearth - a trabbie! The Trabant was *the* car in East Germany,
but had a very small engine indeed. The Hogs find their motorbike buried
under a mound of steel, and have also found a tractor pivot someone left
lying around just outside their build area.
The Anoraks look again at their Trabbie. It's got
a whole two cylinders of power. For now, it'll do. And it turns out to
de a Dutch DAF, not a German Trabbie. But it's the only automatic car with
an engine on the heap, so it'll have to do.
The Hogs' pivot weighs a ton - literally - and
it's making an already unstable combination even worse. The Anoraks are
planning on steering by rope, just for added authenticity. They've also
got a Variomatic gearbox, which they've never
come across before. Complex as it looks, the combination
of cones and elastic bands is actually a theoretically grand idea; it just
had more things to go wrong than your regular automatic.
The Hogs' chariot should, hopefully, keep their
contraption stable - they've extended their axle, so all four team-members
can stand abreast and lean around the corners. The Anoraks decide to use
welded-together steering columns rather than ropes for their steering,
which is probably a wise move. They've also found their trailer - an old
caravan chassis - and have gone for a small and light car.
There's trouble in camp Hog, as the heavy pivot
has buckled the light motorbike beneath, and buckled the wheel. They'll
steer by bicycle handlebars working on a steering frame. Lisa points out
that there's a lot of weight pushing down on one single wheel.
The Anoraks have a fairly late decision - they
need to change their limited velocity steering joints - which can turn
within a given angle - for constant velocity joints. These new ones can
turn in any direction. In the final hour, both teams fire their engines
at each other. They have nothing better to do...
Which brings us to raceday. Round one is a figure
of eight, testing cornering and speed. The Hogs go first, and it's a struggle
to get it round the corners. They do have it on the straights, though.
The time: 1 minute 42. The Anoraks
almost lose it on one of the corners, but make
their way carefully through the chicane, and do good work on the straights.
The final time: 1 minute 34.
Round two has the teams trying to destroy a number
of targets on the circuit. The Hogs race on through a flat rear tyre. They
secure an adjusted time of 1:27, missing one target. The Anoraks start
sluggishly, but don't look like they'll miss anything, and they're polished
their steering through the chicane. Their final score is 1:07, for the
series victory.
The Anoraks will therefore take on the Catalysts
in the Ultra Final.