Crazy Coupe 88

Crazy Coupe 88
Participation Information
UK Series	8
Team Information
Team	Team Crazy 88
Team Members	Tyrone Ellis Finn Ellis Dan Stiff Emma Hall
From	Barnsley
Other Entries	Hodaf The Bad (Series 7)
Robot Statistics
Weight	101kg
Top Speed	8mph
Power	8x lithium polymer batteries
Drive	2x 800w scooter motors
Weapons	Horizontal bar spinner & rear vertical disc
Statistics correct as of its most recent show/competition appearance, or if not applicable, qualification attempt.

"The robot name came from two of the team’s biggest passions, the cartoon series Wacky Races, and director Quentin Tarantino. Creepy Coupe is a car from Wacky Races, whilst Crazy 88 are a gang from Tarantino film Kill Bill."

— The Robot Wars website

Crazy Coupe 88 was a heavyweight robot which competed in Series 8 of Robot Wars, built by a Barnsley-based team. It lost its Group Battle after being flipped by Beast and immobilised by Dead Metal.

Design

"A two wheeled robot with twin rotating weapons – including a 17 inch horizontal spinner which rotates at 2450rpm and a rear vertical spinner which can also act as a lifter. The robot is fully invertible and so can work upside down. The team think having a weapon at both end of the robot will give it an advantage in fights."

— The official Robot Wars website

Front view of Crazy Coupe 88

Crazy Coupe 88 was an invertible robot, and was constructed from 3mm aluminium checker plate, over Kevlar/Carbon-Fibre under-armour. It featured a different spinning weapon at each end. At the front of the robot is a 17-inch horizontal bar spinner, which rotates at 2450rpm. The back end of the robot was covered by a vertical spinning disc, which was tipped with elongated blades, in order to try and use the disc as a lifter. It was driven by two scooter motors, but its wheels were highly exposed, and Crazy Coupe 88 became immobile under little pressure in battle.

Crazy Coupe 88 in the pits

Dara Ó Briain: "Some of these robots look so polished... beautifully machined, and then you find one that looks like it really was built in somebody's shed. Was this built in a shed?"

Tyrone Ellis: "Definitely built in a shed!"

— Dara Ó Briain on the robot's design

Etymology

The robot's name is based on the Wacky Races cartoon, and the Kill Bill film series - 'Coupe' comes from the Creepy Coupe car in Wacky Races, while the Crazy 88 gang in Kill Bill determined the remainder of the name.

The Team

"Captain, Tyrone, has been fighting robots at amateur events for 15 years, and sees it as a good way to get some quality father/son time with son Finn and stepson Dan."

— The Robot Wars website

Crazy Coupe 88 with its team

Team Crazy 88 (nowadays Wardog Robotics) are a South Yorkshire-based team with years of roboteering experience, having previously competed in Series 7 with Hodaf the Bad, with Crazy Coupe 88 being the fifth robot that the team had built to enter Robot Wars.

The team is captained by Tyrone Ellis, aged 47 at the time of Series 8, and an electrical engineer by trade. Tyrone Ellis was the builder of Crazy Coupe 88, and son Finn Ellis drove the robot in battle. The team also featured Tyrone's partner at the time of the series, Emma Hall, and her son Dan Stiff, the latter of whom operated the weapons of Crazy Coupe 88.

Robot History

Series 8

Crazy Coupe 88 appeared in Heat E of Series 8, where it faced Beast, newcomer Gabriel and Infernal Contraption in its Group Battle. However, it entered at an immediate disadvantage, as its 200amp gearbox had been erroneously rated at 50amps when it entered the arena.

Crazy Coupe 88 is thrown by Beast

Crazy Coupe 88 is immobilised by a ram from Dead Metal

Dead Metal cuts into a defeated Crazy Coupe 88

It managed to attack the HDPE wheels of Gabriel on its first attack, but after being unable to catch its opponents, Crazy Coupe 88 was thrown over by Beast. After this, Crazy Coupe 88 drove straight into the clutches of Dead Metal, which slammed it into the arena wall and cut in with its saw. Crazy Coupe 88 was instantly immobilised by this House Robot attack, and was eliminated from the competition, suffering an extra attack from Dead Metal while being counted out.

Results

Wins/Losses

• Wins: 0
• Losses: 1

Series Record

Series	Crazy Coupe 88 Series Record
The First Wars	Did not enter
The Second Wars	Did not enter
The Third Wars	Did not enter
The Fourth Wars	Failed to qualify with ISM
The Fifth Wars	Failed to qualify with X box
The Sixth Wars	Failed to qualify with Bigfish
The Seventh Wars	Entered with Hodaf The Bad
Series 8	Heat, Round 1
Series 9	Not selected with Iron Heart 88
Series 10	Did not enter

Gallery

Crazy Coupe 88 during construction

Official photo of Crazy Coupe 88

Team Crazy 88 enter the arena

Crazy Coupe 88 in the arena

Outside Robot Wars

Crazy Coupe 88 was retired immediately after its appearance on Robot Wars, and was directly replaced by Iron Heart 88.

After building Iron Heart 88, Tyrone Ellis also built Wardog, an invertible robot which weighed 99kg, and its spinning bar could reach top speeds of 190mph. However, the continued ban on spinning weapons at live events meant that Tyrone Ellis could not use the robot until he had already decided to sell the robot to Team ULL, who rebranded the robot as Dead Bod. Tyrone Ellis also built another pneumatic flipper named Frankenstein, using a thinner flipping arm, which competed at Extreme Robots events in September 2018. Tyrone Ellis also stated plans to build a flipper named Rusty Old Spoon.

Wardog

Dead Bod, after Wardog was sold and renamed

Frankenstein

In 2018, Tyrone Ellis competed on the Chinese TV show Clash Bots, on a fictitiously villainous team alongside John Findlay, Peter Redmond, and their Chinese captain, where he was the driver of Smasher.

Mongrel, a vertical spinner assembled by Tyrone Ellis from parts of former Team Roaming Robots heavyweights

Towards the end of the 2023 live event season, a new vertical spinner was assembled by Tyrone Ellis for a competitive debut at Extreme Robots Cheltenham (11-12 November). Named Mongrel, the heavyweight design incorporates a chassis originally created for the proposed BattleBots 2020 incarnation of Ripper, along with a 'spare' bar spinner from the now-retired Galactus. Mongrel itself took part in three spinner-only melees throughout the course of the weekend, but lost each of these to Zadkiel, Donald Thump and Monsoon respectively after being directly immobilised by its victorious opponents.

Mongrel returned for the first leg of the 2024 Extreme Robots tour at Doncaster, taking place on 20-21 April. Participating exclusively in head-to-head 'Spinner Battles', it twice lost to Zadkiel by knockout on the 20th, but claimed its first victory over the newly-rebuilt St-Ripper - also converted from a 2020 Ripper chassis - on the 21st.

Trivia

• According to the Robot Wars website, builder Tyrone Ellis has worked on robots while wearing a Star Wars Stormtrooper outfit.
• Of the three robots to appear on the show that came from South Yorkshire, Crazy Coupe 88 was the third of the three from Barnsley, and the third to lose its only battle.

External Links

• Crazy Coupe 88 on the Robot Wars website
• Team Crazy 88 Facebook Page