brackets further in or out as required. Trial and

error would ultimately decide exactly where

they went, but having the inside edges of the

skis at about shoulder width seemed a good

place to start.

Flat means less drag, more speed.

Speed skiers, who go straight

downhill, use the tuck position

all the time.

Normally, skis are attached to the skier, using

bindings that clip on to and grip the flanges at

the front and back of the boot. The bindings

are also spring-loaded and can fly open if the

skier falls. That way the skis detach and are

not digging in to the snow, twisting joints

and breaking bones as the unlucky skier goes

tumbling down the mountain. I didn’t need

anything like that, so we were able to fabricate

simple steel brackets that we could screw on to

the skis and bolt on to the chassis.

Once we had all of our components planned

and prepared, we measured the steel, cut the

lengths and I was able to do a bit of welding

to create the chassis. On top of the chassis, all

we needed was a simple wooden board, a bit

of spongy foam to create a cushion and some

vinyl cloth to cover it all up and stop the foam

soaking up too much water from melted

snow. I thought that was it, job done, but

the Sheffield lads has another idea that they

wanted to try out.

Left: Examining one of the kilns where the carbon fibre
components are cured – a big enough oven to take
anyone’s Christmas turkey!

They showed me how we could create a brake

by mounting two lever handles at the front of

the sled which, when I pulled back on them,

would turn an axle running across the sled

below the seat. Attached to the axle would be

a series of ten steel fingers with cog-like teeth

cut into the ends. The teeth would dig into the

snow, and the harder I pulled, the harder they

would dig in. My sled was to have built-in rakes,

so I wouldn’t have to wear anything like the

Rosa Klebb boots that I had to use on the Cresta

Run. The rake-brake was such a simple design

that, once we had cut the teeth into the end of

one steel finger, we could use it as a template

and the whole thing was ready to be fitted in

no time.

I have to say that, apart from the skis, which

were proper racing jobs and were beautifully

finished, my racing sled didn’t look very pretty.

I didn’t mind that at all. I was after speed – this

wasn’t a beauty competition. Meanwhile John

Hart had other concerns. What we had built

was certain to go downhill quite fast, but it was

far from being aerodynamic. The way things

were, I would be lying face down on the sled

but my upper body, the front of the seat and

the flat sections of the chassis as well as the ski

brackets would be acting a bit like the screen

we built on to the back of Dave Jenkins’s racing

truck. Remember this?

building a record breaker    233