Jet Racer

This week’s challenge is one of the most dangerous Scrapheap has ever seen. Our teams have to build two jet-powered dragsters to race on a section of the Santa Pod raceway. They each have three runs of the course and the quickest run will determine the winner.

Destroyers

James Ellis captains this Royal Navy team, with Adrian Eason-Bassett and Jason ‘JJ’ Swift standing firmly by his side. This three-man crew will ship out of HMS Sultan, Gosport and set sail to our sea of scrap. With their military precision, these navy boys will easily navigate their way through the competition.

The Destroyers’ technical consultant for this challenge is Bruce Simpson, a New Zealander who has flown over especially to take part in this challenge. Bruce is probably the most qualified person in the world to build a pulsejet from scratch (which is lucky, because that’s what he’s going to do – Ed).

Bruce is currently researching pulsejets for clients in the aerospace and defence industries with the aim of producing a new generation of low-cost, high-speed pulsejet-powered UAVs (unmanned air vehicles).

Ging Gang Goolies

Be prepared, this team of Essex Scout leaders come with all sorts of skills and they have the badges to prove it. Bob Murphy, Brian Abbott and Tony Boughen enjoy activities in the great outdoors. Regularly hiking, orienteering and climbing, these boys certainly have the edge. So tighten your woggles and salute the Ging Gang Goolies as they are sure to travel great distances.

The Ging Gang Goolies’ technical consultant is Nick ‘the safe’ Haddock this time around. He is a locksmith by trade and has been opening and repairing safes for the past five years. Although jet engines like the ones in this challenge aren’t built commercially, many are constructed by ‘garage enthusiasts’ like Nick. He is ideally placed to send the Goolies soaring into pole position.

The expert

This week’s expert is record-breaker Richard Noble, who flew his Thrust II jet low over the Black Rock desert in 1983, setting a new land-speed record of 653mph. This record stood unchallenged for 13 years until October of 1997 when, in a record attempt masterminded by Richard, RAF fighter pilot Andy Green drove the Thrust SSC (Super Sonic Class) and did the unthinkable by breaking the sound barrier at Mach 1.002.