The birth of panic.

 

This splendidly unusual vehicle was created for the BBC series ‘Panic Mechanics’ in which teams of two built their own unusual vehicles and raced them, the winner got to keep their creation, the looser had to watch their hard work going into the crusher!

Dazey (as in Dazed and confused) was used for the 'Panic Drive' where the teams competed for special tuning parts to give their machines an advantage (such as a turbo for a Reliant Robin!). The Panic Drive tested the inter team communications as they had to drive Dazey round a tight course with obstacles generally scattered all around. One driver got a fairly normal driving position but the other one got to face the wrong way and could even be inverted, should the director feel fit to request it! It was also the directors decision as to which driver got the brakes and which one got the accelerator!

As one competitor put it " i was turned 90 degrees and was facing out the side of the car, then he asks me to turn left! which way is that? ".
The vehicle was made at JE from two front halves of range rovers supplied by Dakar cars, as were the body mouldings. After giving an outline spec to Bickers Action, they made a rather splendid roll cage and painted most of the vehicle black.

The lead engineer was Pat Woodward with the able assistance of Pip who between them provided much entertainment whilst designing and fabricating all the major and minor parts, and Pat can explain why the brake pedal ended up with six toes…. They remain both heroes of the art of creative engineering.

As well as managing the project and overall design, Ralph also assisted with fabrication, built the engine and created the electrical system.
The team was augmented by by other chaps who helped as required after they had finished a full day working on there own projects including Roy (engine set up), Dave (range rover fettling) and Gary (dash panel and getting the chips in).

The dash featured a Stack integrated display and data logging gubbins, and the switches out of Ralph's race car. The steering wheel is quick release. All the lights are from Hella as was the bonnet mounted air horns. Kenlowe provided the fans.

The bumpers are designed to pop out if the vehicle hits an obstacle in order to make it look more spectacular on camera.

Because the vehicle was to be used by un-trained members of the public, a number of safety mechanisms were put in including power limiting, speed limiting and remote controlled secondary brake system and engine cut off. Full on set support was provided to keep the vehicle in top condition, operate remotes, set the vehicle up for different drivers and implement late changes requested by the director.

Various stages of fettling, the brief was to make something ‘industrial and menacing’, then they went and called it Dazey!

It has two drivers and can be set up with either having the accelerator and/or brakes, both ends steer.
The director wanted the second driver position to be fully rotating, the mechanism is made out of Ralph's old engine stand.
Early experiments showed that Pat could only drive in the fully inverted position for just under a minuet before vomiting, thus the concept was revised in light of this data because it was felt that it would not make ‘good television’, we remain unconvinced

Some amusing tales and recollections.

Gimbals and the gimbal man.

The first idea from the BBC was to have one driver (end B) in a completely free rotating gimbal. In order to asses this, a gentleman was called in who possessed a fair ground style piece of equipment that had a seat fitted into such a gimbal arrangement. Various members of the team were duly strapped in and rotated in three dimensions. Not only did this totally disorientate them but produced nausea quite quickly, their ability to control a vehicle in such conditions was limited.

Additionally, I noted that the gimbal arrangement was about ten foot high. If i was to design such a mechanism into the car the roll cage would have to be even higher and wider. Center of gravity on corners would be a bit of an 'issue'.

The thing that actually convinced the producer not to go for such a remarkable idea finally, was not the technical arguments but the fact that the remote control steering system would cost four times the total vehicle budget!

EFi or carbs?

My specialty is fuel injection systems. I stated that EFi would allow us to limit power very easily with a simple micro controller and allow a number of other features to be fitted easily.

The man from the Beeb, however, liked carbs! Carbs are simple he said. He liked simple.

So a brace of SU carbs were duly fitted.

When the vehicle was delivered on set, imagine my surprise when the set was indoors, and not the outdoors course we had designed for. So, enclosed space and carbs, no catalyst. Lots of fumes and carbon monoxide.

The cameraman in the roof had to wear a respirator!

A scraping noise is heard.

One of the amusing aspects of the project was the hap hazard way parts would be delivered from various sources, on one occasion a brand new luxury car arrives, the boot scraping the ground. A gentleman from Aunty Beeb had the car as a press demonstrator and so used it to ferry parts including the complete consignment of battery's for all the competitors cars, about half a ton of them!