Original subtitles

[narrator] On this episode of How Tech Works,

we travel to a historic racetrack in Germany

and meet a blogger who writes about

some of the fastest cars around.

And we take a flight

on this new military plane from Spain.

Sure, it looks like a flying passenger van

but it's made for heavier work.

[upbeat opening music]

Hi there, and welcome to How Tech Works.

I'm Basil Singer

and we've got a bunch of incredible stories

from around the world of tech

this week.

We'll take an exclusive look

at a concept car that is sure to grow on you, literally.

Plus, we'll meet a group of guys taking part

in an extreme soapbox derby

called "The Rickety Downhill Challenge."

But first, we kick off

with a story about a blogger from Yorkshire

who loves fast cars. In fact

he's obsessed with recording the fastest lap times

at the Nurburgring

the famous racetrack in Germany.

His ultimate goal is to beat

his own time. The question is

will he do it?

[futuristic music]

[narrator] Nurburg, Germany. Lots of very fast cars here.

Because drivers come to test themselves

and their wheels

on the dangerous and legendary

Nurburgring.

[Dale] The Nurburgring is a 21 kilometer

long public round

that's also used as a racetrack.

I first came here in 2001

did one lap of the place and decided I needed to perfect it.

And fast-forward ten years and I'm still here.

It really gets under your skin, it's really crazy.

[narrator] Dale Lomas runs bridgetogantry.com.

It's where drivers post lap times.

Bridge to Gantry is how we time a lap on a public day.

We time it from the bridge at the very start of the lap

to the gantry just before the end of the lap.

[narrator] But Dale also reviews cars...

I look at one very specific thing.

I say, how well does this car go from the bridge to the gantry.

[narrator] Today, he's testing something brand new from the UK.

[Dale] This is a Caterham R300 Superlight.

It's called the Superlight because it really is super light

it's less than 500 kilos.

It's got the bare minimum required

to strap a human being into it and put him round the track.

Every single panel is

like, wafer-thin plastic or alloy.

The engine is a two liter Ford four-cylinder

normally you'd see it in a Ford Focus

it'd be making anywhere between 120 - 150 horsepower.

Today the engine's making closer to 200 horsepower.

I love the look of it. I know it looks like it's

come straight out of a 50s time warp.

[narrator] Time to put the Caterham to the test.

And maybe set a new personal best lap time.

It's a short drive to the Nurburgring.

[Dale] Very busy day today. Sundays are always busy.

I think half of the experience is queuing

through the car park

[car engines]

out onto the track.

[narrator] Well, at least one good thing's happening

The Caterham's turning some heads.

[Dale] Public days are called touristenfahrten

and the direct translation of that is tourist driving.

It's about Mom and Dad

taking the family car around the famous Nurburgring

kids in the backseat, noses up against windows

However

the easy accessibility of the most amazing racetrack

in the world means you've also got the car park

half-full of guys with tire pressure gauges

fire-proof suits

taking out their road-legal sports car and

getting the maximum from it.

[narrator] For one lap, the cost is twenty pounds.

[Dale] Use my season ticket, go through.

[narrator] Cost? Eleven hundred pounds!

[Dale] And, we are out.

We're heading towards the bridge

the bridge is the Antoniusbruche

which is the bridge that we start the lap times from.

[car engine] [upbeat music]

So fast traffic moves to the left

slow traffic stays to the right.

The car's accelerating fantastically.

Very short gear ratios.

[upbeat electronic music]

I'll cog it down.

I will overtake this Clio.

[music continues]

We're heading down into the Bogen.

Can't balance the gas through here.

Beautiful.

[narrator] Each turn of the Nurburgring has a name.

[Dale] Through the Hatzenbach complex.

[narrator] Dale knows them all by heart.

He estimates he's been around the Ring

about five thousand times.

Today, he's ruling the Ring...

overtaking everyone.

[Dale] Oh, we're accelerating.

And I do believe we've hit maximum speed.

We're very close to the rev limiter.

There's the rev limiter in top gear.

[car engine] [upbeat electronic music]

Well, there you go, just been overtaken.

[music continues]

The top speed of a CBR1000 is definitely

a little bit higher than this car.

Ho-ho! Beautiful.

[music continues]

Carving through the Sunday traffic.

Through the Foxhole.

Up the inside.

[narrator] No one else is going to overtake Dale today.

His personal best lap time for the 13 mile track

is seven and a half minutes.

Less than eight is considered very good.

[Dale] Ahh!

He's got acceleration like we can only dream of.

[narrator] But remember, speed kills.

[Dale] You can't have a small accident in the Nurburgring.

You can't forget for a second

that anything could happen at any point.

You could come around the corner

and find an accident.

You could come around the corner

and find, as I did one time

a gentleman on a bicycle

with some recycling bottles and he thought he was

on the, uhh, he thought he was on a footpath or something.

Big accident up ahead. I'm going to slow right down.

[upbeat electronic music] [car engine]

Oil spill.

[narrator] The slow-down means Dale is not going to set

any personal records today... so he focuses on fun.

[Dale] Very high-speed corners, just turn the car in.

Really nice feeling in the apex

you can really feel the limits of the tires.

We're a fast-forward car in a slow-motion world.

[music continues]

Oh! Ugh!

Big g-force through the Karussell.

The Caterham performed absolutely excellently

it's so light, it's

incredibly nimble, it's so agile, it just turns

left to right without even thinking about it.

A very technical corner now, the Caterham

really

really enjoys corners like these.

We're just balancing the car, not quite full gas.

Now with full gas!

Past the gantry.

[narrator] The time: eight minutes seven seconds.

[Dale] Not my fastest lap, I'm sure but certainly a lot of fun.

[narrator] He gives the Caterham a rave review...

same as he does the Nurburgring.

If you have even the smallest amount

of petrol in your veins, you really need to do a lap

on the Nurburgring, just to say you've done it.

Now we're going from incredible cars

to awesome airplanes. You see

this new military plane from Spain can transform

from a hospital to a cargo vessel

back to a passenger plane

in less time than it takes to book a flight

Have a look.

[narrator] It may not look like it

but the people on this assembly line

are building massive passenger vans.

These babies boast more than 5,000 horsepower

and travel at 300 miles an hour.

They can fly.

Really fly.

Okay, these are no ordinary passenger vans.

You're looking at the C295 airplane.

And, just like passenger vans

their insides can change.

You can expand cargo space, or shrink it down...

But they're not for running the kids around.

They're for military and humanitarian missions.

[narrator] The C295 is one of the planes they build

at Airbus Military in Seville, Spain.

It's got some pretty cool features

like 360-degree radar

designed to detect airplanes

up to 250 miles away.

And an infrared system that can cut through the dark

to reveal objects at night, not to mention bad weather.

But the most interesting thing

is what can happen in the back.

In its stripped-down version, the C295 is a transport aircraft

that can fly up to 11 hours non-stop

carrying cargo and personnel.

But, in just one hour on the ground

it can transform into a surveillance aircraft

thanks to customized pallets, or modules

that slide on, and off.

For example, this is the maritime patrol set-up.

[narrator] In keeping with the components theme

each C295 starts as a mix of parts

flown in from different areas

of Spain, Chile, Turkey and Indonesia.

The components are then assembled here, in Seville.

There are more than 80 of these planes

flying in ten countries around the world

places like Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo.

There are orders for more.

[man] According to the customer demand

we need to build an aircraft every 11 days.

[narrator] To make sure there's no downtime

each workstation features a computer readout

of status of each plane, and work to be done.

[narrator] They're making sure everything's in its place

and that there's a place for everything

on board this passenger van of the skies.

Coming up, on "How Tech Works"

we'll catch up with the tech wizards at Mercedes Benz.

And see what's in store for the road ahead.

Get ready to roll, into the very near future.

And we'll take part in what can only be described

as an extreme go-kart race.

[futuristic music]

Welcome back to "How Tech Works"

I'm Dr. Basil Singer.

Now when it comes to car design

manufacturers usually have to work within

certain restrictions, like

for instance, what materials do you use?

What mechanical principles can you employ?

And what budget do you have to work with?

Well, just imagine what you could accomplish

if there were no restrictions?

That's the fun challenge facing the design team

at Mercedes Benz in California

limited only by their imaginations.

[futuristic music]

[narrator] This is the Mercedes Biome.

It's light-weight, Eco-friendly and biodegradable.

This technological marvel is the car of the future

if its lead designer has his way.

It's his talent that drives many

of the company's image-defining models.

My name is Hubert Lee, I am 37

and I am the Creative Director of

Mercedes Benz Advanced Design California.

[narrator] Design is usually top secret

but today, we get an exclusive look

at the Mercedes Biome's development.

[Hubert] So I want to take you to the back room

where normally a lot of people don't really get to see.

Oh

can we stop? Yeah. [laughs nervously]

Okay, now you can come in.

[futuristic music]

The Biome

and all of our cars that we work on

they all get put together here.

[narrator] The Biome is a first for Lee's design team.

[Hubert] There were no boundaries

there were no limitations.

We could do whatever we wanted to do.

[narrator] With that kind of creative license

they embrace what might be

technologically possible down the road.

[Hubert] I wanted our designers to not be restricted.

Just go all out, just be crazy

and just come up with a concept we think

could be possible some day.

[narrator] They begin by imagining

the seemingly impossible.

[Hubert] What if the car was grown from nature.

What if the car was part of nature.

And what if the car at the end of its life cycle

would get composted.

[narrator] Then commit to the idea

that in the future, seeds will be coded with car DNA.

[Hubert] Mercedes Benz has the star that is our identity

so we thought having the star as a seed

would be cool.

So the front star would actually morph

and grow into what we call the interior.

The rear star would grow into the exterior.

[narrator] Imagining they control

every aspect of the vehicle

from weight to durability

they move through their usual process.

So this is our designer area.

This is where the initial creative process happens.

[narrator] With one notable exception.

[Hubert] We created the environment first

before we actually designed the car.

When we decided on the story of actually growing the car

we decided that rather than having

a really industrial

factory, that we would go with more of a

a greenhouse type of inspiration

and so very sunlit, very

open, and actually growing

the individual cars underwater.

[narrator] With the world of the vehicle locked

focus returns to shaping its look.

[Hubert] It had to look organic

but aesthetically pleasing

basically beautiful.

So before people even get to know the concept

they are instantly drawn to the car because it's just

beautiful, it's a work of art.

[narrator] Movie software refines these early sketches

by turning them into digital models.

[Hubert] Next step is...

I think we should try to integrate the wheel

to the body a little bit more.

[narrator] Then, the Biome goes 3D.

[Hubert] From the digital data we would mill out

a scale model in clay

where we'll do our surface refinements

and fine-tuning.

And if we need

if we think we need more detail

work on it, this is where it happens.

[narrator] The concept car's interior is just as detailed.

[Hubert] It's got a diamond seating configuration

so the driver

will actually sit

in the center far forward.

The side passengers will sit in the sides

The rear passenger will be sitting in the back

facing rearward.

The power-train

the suspension

the lights

everything will be combined into

these hub motors.

[narrator] When it's all put together

the Biome looks pretty cool

and promises a smooth ride.

[Hubert] I imagine the ride experience

to be very smooth, like flowing through air.

[narrator] But how serious is Mercedes Benz about production?

[Hubert] We didn't actually give

give it a set date or a time.

We just wanted to throw it out there.

Maybe some day this is possible.

[futuristic music]

Earlier in the show we checked out

the incredible road warriors

on the famous Nurburgring in Germany.

And now, as they say

for something completely different.

These road warriors

are just as competitive as their German counterparts.

But, and there's always a but

for these chaps from Yorkshire

the biggest challenge may just be the cars themselves.

[upbeat inspiring music]

[narrator] Over 30 miles per hour.

Two kilometers downhill.

These go-karts

are about to push the limits of gravity power.

At stake

the prestigious Rickety Downhill Challenge Trophy.

If you think this looks dodgy

well, you should check out the carts.

This is the leftovers from my extension at home.

This used to be a bed.

I more or less just, laid down on a bit of ply and

traced around myself.

[narrator] One day before the big race

we're on the ground.

This is the workshop, of Colin Furze.

One of us was bored, thought, you know, wouldn't it be fun

if we all built go-karts and race them.

And uh, and he was right.

It would be fun, so here we go.

Let's see what happens.

[electric screwdriver]

[narrator] Course designer and contender

today, Colin's giving a sneak peek

at the making of his own street racer.

To win the trophy, he's pulling out all the stops.

Well, maybe not all of them.

As far as design and technology is concerned

it's lacking in that.

So the R & D department's

not done, not put a lot of effort into this one.

[upbeat music] [hammer blows]

[narrator] The main components of Colin's machine

are rubbish.

Where you see wood pallets

[upbeat music] [electric screwdriver]

he sees a chassis.

Yes!

[grinding]

[narrator] Where you see a mountain bike

Colin sees pre-built steering.

His rear tires were taken from a kid's bike

one of the neighbors' kids, that is.

He'll get them back one day.

As for brake cable, well, that cost a pound.

The only pound spent.

Grandma's pillow! [laughs]

[narrator] As the finishing touches are added

Colin's getting excited.

Excellent!

This is my interpretation of, uh

of my Downhill Challenger, I suppose.

It's basically got everything I want it to.

It steers, it brakes.

And it looks rubbish.

[narrator] It's perfect for tomorrow's race

but is it a winner?

First time going up against everyone else's carts.

We'll find out if I've built something

that's worth building or if it's just going to be

a pile of wood.

[narrator] On an abandoned stretch of road

at the outskirts of town, race day has arrived.

Colin gets his first look at the competition.

It's basically an old bike

with an extra wheel on the back

because I was told it needed to have three wheels.

[upbeat music]

So I've got a wood-cutting disc on this side

for the go-karts that's made from wood

and I've got a metal-cutting disc on this side

for the ones made of metal.

Today

I think the boys in the garage have been working well and

it should be perfected.

[narrator] As the competitors step up to the starting line

Colin has one last trick up his sleeve.

So we thought, you know, just to spice it up a little bit

we'd add a couple of things in which are

completely non-related to your kart-building.

So at the start of the race you have to

down a can of fizzy drink.

Also at the end of the course we have

a selection of saws and pieces of wood.

So the person that gets there first

will get a thick piece of wood

to cut with a very small saw.

But they don't know it yet.

So when they're helling down the course

they don't know that the faster they go

maybe the worse situation it's gonna be

putting them in.

Three! Two! One! Go!

[upbeat music]

[narrator] And as the first soft drink can drops

it's time to ride.

One by one the racers hit the pavement

but Colin is already struggling.

Finally, he's off too, in last place.

[music continues]

Now gravity, and the cart design take over.

The drinking has spread out the entire field.

As the leaders try desperately to stay in front

the fast carts are making up lost ground.

[music continues]

At the bottom it's Pappy Boy arriving first

with Simo in behind.

And that speck on the horizon, that's Colin!

He's moved into 3rd!

All that's left now

is the sawing.

And today...

Yes!

A bigger saw beats a fast cart, hands down.

And this year's Rickety Cup Downhill Challenge Trophy

goes to

Colin Furze!

[cheering and clapping]

Well, I suppose my idea of the wood sawing

is, kind of what gave it to me, really.

Because I think I got there

just in time to get the right saw and the right bit of wood.

But there we are. It worked a treat.

Just goes to show, eh? The fastest cart don't always win.

[soft uplifting music]

Have you ever heard of the phrase

don't quit your day job?

Well, maybe those lads will find a way

to make a career out of the Rickety Downhill Challenge

but, that's all the time we've got today.

Thanks very much for watching.

Until next time, I'm Basil Singer.

[upbeat futuristic music]