Typhoon (Series 3)

Not to be confused with the various machines from Team Typhoon.

Typhoon
Participation Information
UK Series	3 (withdrew)
Team Information
Team	Team Natural Disaster
Team Members	Dave Jones Francis Smith
Associated Robots	Ceros (Francis Smith)
Robot Statistics
Weight	82.2kg
Weapons	Lifting Pipes
Statistics correct as of its most recent show/competition appearance, or if not applicable, qualification attempt.

"Typhoon has been an "on-going" project throughout the last three years. It has been taking up my valuable time and effort, and caused a decaying car to be evicted into the cold harsh winter outside, in order for the build to continue."

— Dave Jones

Typhoon was a competitor robot which was planned to compete in Series 3 of Robot Wars. It successfully qualified for that series, but withdrew before it could fight, and later failed to qualify for Series 4.

Design

Typhoon was a four-wheel driven box-shaped robot with a pair of powerful lifting forks shaped like exhaust pipes, powered by a 36V actuator. Its design gave it a passing resemblance to US Robot Wars and BattleBots competitor Vlad the Impaler, although without the latter's top-mounted self-righting ram. The robot was painted painted black, red, yellow and black-and-white checkers, with its name and an image of a typhoon spout on its top panel.

The Team

Typhoon was built by Team Natural Disaster in 1999. The build project was led by Francis Smith, who would later compete on Robot Wars with Ceros in Series 7. The other lead member of the team was Dave Jones, who became the owner and team captain of Typhoon after its attempted Series 3 entry, while Francis Smith left the team to build Tiny.

"This is Typhoon, the first ever robot I had the chance to build. Typhoon is now run by Dave Jones, but up until 2000 I was a major part of the team and helped to get it to this stage."

— Francis Smith on being part of the team

Qualification

Team Natural Disaster originally intended to enter Series 1, but Typhoon was not finished until the Series 3 auditions.

"It was started with series one I mind, but by the time anyone picked up a saw it was series three that was the aim, and not only did it get built in time, but it passed the audition too!"

— Dave Jones on Typhoon's construction and entry into Robot Wars

After passing the weigh-in and technical checks - at which point its weight at the time was confirmed to be 82.2kg - Typhoon completed the 'driving test' without its body shell, surprising the Panic Attack team with its manoeuvrability upon being instructed to spin on the spot. Shortly after, Team Natural Disasters received confirmation that Typhoon had passed its audition, securing its place in the main competition. However, Typhoon's speed controller caught fire three days before filming was due to start, forcing the robot to withdraw from Series 3.

Team Natural Disaster subsequently attempted to qualify for Series 4. However, Typhoon's speed controller malfunctioned again during its qualifiers, resulting in it failing to qualify for that series. It is currently unknown which robot (or robots) Typhoon fought against in its qualifiers.

"Reliability of the speed controller was again the downfall, and thus caused our defeat in the auditions. Mind you, in one of the fights we managed to get so well tangled up with another robot it took five men to separate the two with crowbars!"

— Dave Jones on Typhoon's performance at the Series 4 qualifiers

Typhoon, and Dave Jones, did not enter any future series, although they continued to fight at live events.

"Series five is being ignored due to principles I have. To be honest the TV show has lost all its appeal for me, and Typhoon is going to be completed and strengthened purely for live events, where the constrictions are far less suffocating."

— Dave Jones on retiring from Robot Wars

Series Record

Series	Typhoon Series Record
The First Wars	Did not enter
The Second Wars	Did not enter
The Third Wars	Withdrew
The Fourth Wars	Failed to qualify
The Fifth Wars	Did not enter
The Sixth Wars	Did not enter
The Seventh Wars	Did not enter
Series 8	Did not enter
Series 9	Did not enter
Series 10	Did not enter

NOTE: Team member Francis Smith also attempted to qualify for Series 4 with Tiny, and later entered Series 7 with Ceros.

Outside Robot Wars

Typhoon without its shell at Wilson School Fete 1999

Typhoon was first tested at the Wilson School Fete 1999 event, where it drove around an enclosed outdoor arena.

Flowerbot at Techno Games

Team Natural Disaster also entered Techno Games with Dave Jones' swimming robot named Flowerbot.

"Well, the technical consultant for Techno Games 2000 came to my school at the time to ask if we could help. He asked us if we could build a swimming robot in 3 days, but not to take it too seriously (let’s face it, Team ND winning something could cause a major disaster as the shock spread throughout the land). So how do we build a swimming robot that cannot use any boat parts? Well, you take three flowerpots, add two twelve volt batteries, a bundle of R/C gear pinched off Typhoon, and two Ford sierra windscreen wiper motors, then combine with Foamex and go on national television to await humiliation."

— Dave Jones on entering Techno Games

Trivia

• Typhoon was sponsored by Lionhead Studios, the makers of the video game Black & White.

External Links

• Typhoon website
• Typhoon on the Ceros website