Carbide spins its way to become Robot Wars champion

The competition was fiercer with harder, faster and stronger robots than ever before entering the arena. Carbide was an unstoppable force throughout the series which saw 40 teams compete. With the early exit of last year’s champions, Apollo, Carbide was left to face another flipper in the Final, Eruption.

From the Midlands, team Carbide is made up of Dave Moulds (28) who is the Captain, Driver, Builder and Designer, and Sam Smith (34) who is the Weapons Operator Builder and Designer. Dave won the UK robot heavyweight title at the age of 17 and Sam grew up making electric go karts in his shed. Dave and Sam met while competing against each other; they both built the two most destructive robots in recent history, so they decided to collaborate to make something even more deadly. The upgraded, electric-driven Carbide took three months to build at a cost of £5,000 and has a custom-made weapon motor with an 850mm long and 25mm thick blade that spins at 250mph and weighs 25 kilograms.

Carbide was runner-up in series one and feared another defeat at the Final but being the deadliest spinner ever seen in Robot Wars history, they beat Eruption in just under two minutes.

Dave Moulds, Team Captain for Carbide, says: “After the disappointment of getting to the Final last year and losing to Apollo we were very nervous when we found out we would have to fight another flipper in the final. Eruption is a great machine but we are delighted to have come out on top this time around though. Carbide’s performance throughout the series was better than even we expected and we can’t wait to come back in series three to defend our trophy.”

Ahead of Dara presenting the trophy, Angela Scanlon told Carbide’s Dave and Sam: “It just seems to be faultless. It was wonderful watching your relentless robot.”

The thrilling final saw the six finalists Aftershock, Eruption, Ironside 3, Concussion, Carbide and wildcard Apollo compete in two group battles, each with three robots in, determining one loser from each fight who were then eliminated. The four surviving robots then faced-off in the head-to-heads, competing in a series of one-on-one fights in order to score enough points to make it into the Grand Final.

Series three of Robot Wars will start later this year on BBC Two.

LP