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Junkyard Wars: The Next Generation
A reader writes: "The makers of Junkyard Wars are starting up a new series called Ultimate Machine Combat. 30 teams and 30 days each to build "ultimate fighting vehicle" to battle in a "secret arena". This is attracting gear heads of all genres, including my local Jeep Club."
The EMP assemblies I've seen take up a lot of space for relatively poor performace -- the entire cargo area of a minibus in exchange for making some monitors flicker. I'm sure this could be miniturized, but I think you'd need something pretty serious to cook a car's electronics.
If the arena's fairly small, you could use a couple of tanks of halon to give anyone using a gasoline engine a nasty shock -- suffocate the engine. Otherwise, I've seen a device in testing by the police that fires a contact under the chassis of a fleeing vehicle to make contact, hitting 'em with a jolt of juice. Car taser.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
That address and deadline is for Junkyard Wars (which has been running on both sides of the pond for years). The new program, Ultimate Machine Combat, has a Fed 15 application deadline and is a brand new show.
For better or for worse, this doesn't sound like a battlebots-style "destroy the competition" demolition derby. Rather, it's a massive obstacle course (details to be disclosed), although the vehicle is supposed to be able to survive small collisions. The idea is not to build a massively destructive machine, but rather one that is as versatile as possible with respect to handling terrain, towing things, etc...
These people at http://www.srl.org/ have
been building massive destructive machines
since 1978, staging large outdoor events
generally involving shows akin to "let's shake them in a jar, and see if they'll fight".
Flames, jet engines, crushers, all the things this new program would want.
Ahmet Zappa is an acquired taste, to be sure, but he has toned down since last season. We grew to love the antics after a while. (One particular, ah, 'manuever' of his became a family meme: saying 'Robotica-style' and making convoluted hand motions.) He's the son of Frank Zappa, by the way, which might explain a bit ;-) and brother to Moon Unit and Dweezil.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
Dude (dudette), the definition of "working" is really relative. I've spent plenty of time in junkyards in my youth, and I can tell you that many of the vehicles that go there aren't completely shot at all. In fact, many cars (that weren't stripped down for parts) that ended up there "worked" as well as any of the vehicles they find on JYW. They just have irrepairable body/frame damage (no worry when you're building a street sweeper but big problems for highway safety), expensive-to-fix mechanical problems (bodging up a transmission is easy if you don't need it to run more than 20 miles, and one of my co-workers got rid of his old car (perfectly workable) because of a big hole in the gas tank that cost too much to fix) or other problems (flood damage or major rust). So, in answer to your question, the last time I found a "complete working car" (by the standards of JYW) was the last time I was in a junkyard.
Virg