Greetings fellow list members;
The Learning Channel here in the USA has just picked up an old series from the UK called "Junkyard
Wars". This show is really a blast! The episode last night was filmed at Bovington on the amphibious
vehicle test range and involved a competition between a team of Royal Navy fleet officers (5 in all) and a team made up of 5 bikers (the over the hill variety). The challenge was to scrounge the scrapyard and construct a working anphibian that would carry all five team members down the bank, into a lake 3 meters deep, and up the opposite bank. The bikers found an old Land Rover that was missing most of the body and added oil drums welded end to end and attached on both sides. The rear drive shaft was removed and a propeller from a junked out cabin cruiser married to the shaft. This thing looked funny as hell but worked great. The navy approached the problem from the opposite end. They fabricated a hull and added an airboat propulsion system (after they found a cortina engine and gear box on the second try). Where they fell short was not doing enough on the wheeled part of the problem. Anyway, to make a longwinded tale shorter, the Landy worked like a champ. They even had to go rescue the navy who had cracked their hull on entering the water and were bailing furiously in the middle of the lake. It was lots of fun.
They also showed some vintage footage of DUKW's in action at Normandy on D-day. There was some footage of a current MOD tracked anphib tank retriever going through the test range. I'll bet Richard and Nige know what this vehicle is and have probably seen this series for years. You fellows have a great time at Beltring and raise a pint for all of us who couldn't make it. We'll be thinking of you.
Cheers,
Jim
Jim Winne MVPA #17216
1967 M-715 Kaiser Jeep Cargo Truck
1983 M-101A1 USMC cargo trailer
My amateur radio callsign KB4IVH
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