Killer Carrot 2

Killer Carrot 2 was a competitor from Series 6-7 and Extreme 2 of Robot Wars. There were two different forms of the robot both featuring carrot themed flipping weapons. One was an invertible box, very similar to Thermidor 2, but without the pincers, and the other was a wedge. The first version had huge staying power where, despite taking large amounts of damage it would still drive, a steel chassis and a 14' bale spike at the rear, but was slow, did not have much pushing power, the lexan aluminium armour was very thin and the wheels were exposed.

The second version also had thin aluminium armour but had a golf caddy motor, a proven rugged drive train and a 10 bar flipper which, with the help of Noel Poncelet who composed a spreadsheet to work out flipper heights, was computer optimised. Killer Carrot 2 went out in the second round of every competition that it competed in. In between Extreme Series 2 and Series 7, it was redesigned to look more like Dantomkia.

The original Killer Carrot was an invertible wedge shaped robot armed with chisel spikes. It was originally intended to be entered in the Third Wars, but it wasn't finished in time. The team tried to qualify for Series 4, and lost a qualifier battle to Eric. It was chosen as a reserve, but unlike V-Max, did not get a chance to compete.

"Sadly because of a lack of time to test anything, it was almost impossible to steer and lost its one and only fight to "Eric" by a judges decision. After the qualifiers we went on holiday to York for a week, and were delighted to find an answer phone message from Mary Jane calling us up as Reserves for 7th and 8th August."

- Team Dangerous Vegetables website

After failing to qualify, this version of Killer Carrot was taken to an event where it fought Mincer, M2's predecessor. Killer Carrot was then modified and then resembled middleweight BattleBots champion T-Minus, but it is unknown if the team attempted to qualify for any series with this robot as its gas canister blew shortly after it was first tested.

The failure of the original Killer Carrot meant the team had to build a new robot. The result was the first version of Killer Carrot 2, which was an invertible wedge shaped robot armed with front spikes. It was built for a Discovery Channel program called Robots Revenge, which showed the construction process, before showing fights filmed at a live event, where it beat Lightning, before losing to Dominator 2.

Due to the damage recieved at the live event, Rob Englebright did not have time to repair the robot for the Series 5 qualifiers, so decided not to enter.

"After the huge rush to get KC2 ready for Wilsons Day, I was too exhausted to get repairs done for Robot wars qualification. I'd been up till about 11 each night, cutting grinding, welding, who knows what the neighbours thought? I'd created a whole pile of extra armour after the Dom2 incident, unfortunately it put us way overweight. The flipper alone weighed in at about 20 kgs. After much "lightning" we were down to just about 100kg, and I thought I'd do a test run. That's when the speed controller went poop! I almost cried. So After a couple of attempts at repair, with the help of many people on the forum, and in real life from Paul Chitty, a local electronics wizard, I realised I was stuffed. I had the choice of running KC2 on an old pair of NCC35's for the qualifiers, with virtually no armour, or of going on holiday as had originally been planned."

- Team Dangerous Vegetables website

For an event called Sussex Robot Rumble in 2002 after Robot's Revenge, this version of Killer Carrot 2 gained a rear flipper. The flipper was retained on Killer Carrot 2 when it was modified for Series 6. When it was modified for Series 6, the front with a spike became the steep wedged rear of the robot and the flipper end was made the front. This version was dubbed KC2 evo.

After two possible qualifiers which KC2 ended up not fighting in, Killer Carrot was put up against Derek and Night Raider to qualify for Series 6. Derek won the battle, but Killer Carrot 2 received a discretionary place to qualify. After Series 6 and Extreme Series 2, KC2 competed in some events but was retired and replaced by the version that appeared in Series 7 because of the damage caused by Disc-O-Inferno and Mr. Psycho.

Series 6
"Can see in the dark, but could it get rooted to the spot here?"

- Jonathan Pearce

Killer Carrot 2's first appearance in Robot Wars saw it face the 2nd seeds Bigger Brother, the series 5 runner-up, along with Riptilion and Major Tom. It lifted Major Tom repeatedly, but could not flip it over, and was flipped by Bigger Brother. Bigger Brother flipped Killer Carrot right side up, but Major Tom and Riptilion were already eliminated, and so Killer Carrot 2 faced Disc-O-Inferno in Round Two.

Killer Carrot had a front panel ripped off right at the start of this fight, but tried to lift its opponent. It then had a side piece of armour damaged and its left wheel started wobbling. Disc-O-Inferno caught fire, but Killer Carrot was too heavily damaged, and lost on points.

Extreme 2
Killer Carrot 2 took part in the Minor Meltdown of Extreme Series 2, with Adam Englebright taking over the controls. "Basically, battle plan is, zip around all over the place, try and crash into everything, flip everything up with our flipper, and try not to fall into the pit when that opens!"

- Adam Englebright on his tactics

In the first round it was up against Rick and Tetanus 2. Rick and Killer Carrot collided, but neither's flipper got beneath the other. Meanwhile, Tetanus 2 moved ponderously towards both robots, and pushed Killer Carrot 2 into the CPZ. However, Rick caught Tetanus 2 and pushed it back, flipping it onto its back. Tetanus 2 used its large scoop to self-right, and pushed Killer Carrot 2 onto Rick's wedge, who flipped it up but not over. Tetanus 2 and Killer Carrot 2 then fought as Rick activated the pit release. Flipping Tetanus 2 over, Rick pushed it into Killer Carrot, who reversed it into the pit.

In the second round, it faced Lambsy. Killer Carrot 2 flipped over Lambsy, dislodging the sheep again. Lambsy avoided Killer Carrot 2's flipper, and clamped on to Killer Carrrot 2, pushing it into the CPZ, where Mr. Psycho smashed it with its hammer. Both fled the CPZ, and clashed by the flame pit, where Killer Carrot 2's wheel became dislodged. Killer Carrot 2 then attacked Mr Psycho, who had picked up its wheel, but to no avail; its flipper was nowhere near strong enough. With only one wheel mobile, Killer Carrot was counted out by Refbot who Killer Carrot also tried to flip over. Dead Metal sliced into the rear of Killer Carrot and put it on the Floor Flipper, but it drove off at the last minute. It was finally pitted by Dead Metal.

Series 7
"Turned into carrot soup in The Sixth Wars!"

- Jonathan Pearce reviews Killer Carrot's last appearance

Killer Carrot 2 was in a first round melee with Fluffy, Constrictor and Scarey-Go-Round. Killer Carrot was almost lifted several times by Constrictor. After one of Fluffy's motors burnt out, both it and Scary-Go-Round were left driving around in circles. Killer Carrot and Constrictor clashed again, Killer Carrot able to lift its opponent. The two robots fought near the now activated Pit of Oblivion with a suddenly rejuvenated Fluffy. All four machines survived for a judges' decision but Fluffy and Scarey-Go-Round were eliminated.

In round two, it faced the 11th seeds X-Terminator. The robots engaged and X-Terminator pushed Killer Carrot 2 across the arena, but it escaped. Then Killer Carrot 2 came in on the attack, but the spinning disc of X-Terminator turned it over upside-down and it was unable to self-right. Another attack from X-Terminator turned it back onto its wheels, but it was soon flipped over again by the force of X-Terminator's flywheel. X-Terminator continued to attack and caused damage to the armour of Killer Carrot 2, before eventually turning it onto its wheels again. Killer Carrot 2 scampered away and activated the pit release button, but to no avail as X-Terminator caught up with it and sent it flying over the arena wall with its spinning disc.

Results

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Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 3
 * Losses: 3

Series Record

 * Series 1-3: Did not enter
 * Series 4: Failed to qualify
 * Series 5: Did not enter
 * Series 6: Heat, Round 2
 * Series 7: Heat, Round 2

Outside Robot Wars
Like many Robot Wars competitors, the Killer Carrot team entered Techno Games 2001 in the swimming competition with Keeler Carrot, named after the keel of a boat, but lost its heat.

After Robot Wars finished, Killer Carrot 2 was scrapped and rebuilt as K3, which was part of Team DMac until it was recently sold to Team Dragon.

Rob Englebright also built an antweight called Diced Carrot that competed in the Antweight World Series 3, losing all four of its battles. This was followed by Diced Carrot 2 and Diced Carrot 3. The team also competed on the featherweight circuit outside of Robot Wars with Dark Carrot.

Trivia

 * Both of Killer Carrot's main series appearances were in the same Heat as Major Tom.
 * The Killer Carrot team were good friends with the Hassocks Hog team, another group of Roboteers from West Sussex. Noel Poncelot of the Hassocks Hog designed a spreadsheet to calculate flipper heights for them whilst they team were building the new Killer Carrot machine for the Seventh Wars, whilst the Dangerous Vegetable team painted them a team logo in exchange for some spare parts.
 * Rob Englebright designed the last three House Robots to be made, Mr. Psycho, Growler, and Cassius Chrome.