Ok, after watching tonight's episode, I've offically become an extreme Junkyard wars junkie. The concept of it is soooo cool!!

Anyway, I just thought of an interesting idea: Almost all of the ideas presented have been about mobile machines, why not put a skew on the show and focus an episode on physical structures, like dams, skyscrapers, and bridges. Basically the focus could be more about support and bracing rather then engines. For the skyscrapers, each team would have to construct a building at least 10-20' tall which could support the most weight possible using only materials from the junkyard and didn't exceed a certain weight limit. The challege would be to see who's structure breaks first, a kind of "the last piece of straw which broke the camel's back" type of competition. More and more weight can be added until one of the team's structure's shatters and breaks. Could do the same with a bridge but place an additional restriction on it such that a heavy vechical would have to be able to drive across. Maybe use the truck as the weight to test the bridges. Like that Calvin and Hobbes cartoon...

Both these competitions would really test the welding and design abilities of the teams cuz' a bad weld could make the entire structure fail pretty quickly.

Just my 2 cents, Ben Schleimer

-- Ben Schleimer (bensch@uclink4.berkeley.edu), February 20, 2001

Answers

i like the idea of strenght and durability. it would be a way to test the teams skill and knowlege of gusets and braceing (forgive my spelling) and welcome to the junk yard (THE TEST TANK BABIES) oakdale calif.

-- casey (finishrad@aol.com), February 21, 2001.