Jay: René it is a pleasure to speak with you. How did you become involved with MegaWars?

René: I guess they found my homepage or my friends Hans Rosloots one and he may have forwarded RDF to me - I don't know - however I was getting an email with a short description of what kind of show (building an amphibious vehicle from scrap) they are going to plan and added a lot of questions of what I would think they should take care of in such case. So I just replied with some ideas and thoughts. However I have never heard of this JYW show before nor did I know how famous it is, because it is not broadcast here in Germany. Anyway, after a couple of mails they asked me if I would like to join the Challenge as the "Amphibious Expert" and because I had already plans to go to the US anyway around the filming date, I agreed.

J: It almost seems like fate wanted you to be the Russian expert! Did they send you any tapes of the show before you came to the US so you could see what you had gotten yourself into?

R: NOOOOOOO! That's a funny story! They just told me an expert only would have to give the team some advice during the building time. So when I arrived in LA one of the good guys in the backstage, Jobim, took me to his apartment to watch two tapes of earlier JYW episodes. Obviously he was a bit afraid I probably would not like it and was really relieved that I did. By that time I was slowly realizing that my job might take a bit more than just giving simple advice.

Oh Jesus, the two days building time was probably the most exhausting job I ever did! Everything looks funny on screen, but be assured, building a complex machine in the California heat under extreme time pressure is 150% hard work.

So at the end I asked Johanna why she did not tell me before? She smiled at me and asked back "Would you have signed up then?" - That really was a good question! Meanwhile I would say yes, but I wasn't sure that night.

J: I know we're all glad you said yes. What did the production team tell you before hand about the build? Did you know that modifications would be allowed between races?

R: Nobody really pointed out that such modifications were allowed, but nobody said it's against the rules either. I simply never thought of necessary modifications during the race. In my opinion a vehicle with attachable floating devices is not truly amphibious. If you check out my homepage you will see what I mean. We were asked to built an Amphibian and that was what we did.

J: You won't get any arguments from me, or many other people. Were there any problems because of the language barrier between yourself and your teammates or the production people?

R: Well, it was a disadvantage that Vlad and Evgueni did talk Russian only. And to be honest I was a bit worried when meeting them the very first time in a bar one late afternoon. But I had to learn, that they were a SUPERTEAM! They were all very skilled and had a engineering mind, so with hands and feet and much of Max translation we had a super understanding within our group. After the first building day I knew I joined the best team of all by far. So I felt this was a much bigger advantage than the problem with the language barrier. Also there was a professional Russian translator. No, after after all, I don't think it was a serious problem.

J: On race day, did you think you a chance of winning after seeing the other teams vehicles?

R: It was pretty clear right from the start, that a home built rushed vehicle can not beat a million times produced and tested 4WD Jeep. But we tried anyway. Yes we hoped for a chance and to our own surprise our vehicle was doing much better than we expected! But of course it did not last to win. The Russians weren't very happy with the design at the very beginning, because they knew that as well. But then we stuck on the spirit of JYW to invent and build something totally new from scrap parts. So at the end everybody was really proud of "Rusalka" bringing up to reality - the race was not of first importance anymore.

J: I'm glad to hear that you and your team got into the spirit of things. Was there any concern on your part about the rock climbing portion of the race? Did you think it might harm your vehicle?

R: The salt lake race was much more dangerous for the machine, because it was at high speed. The rocky section was a very slow course. The boat hull was quite well protected by the roll bars. No, we felt much more worried with the speed race. We had to drive an untested vehicle on a untested ground. No driving experience & no experience with the reliability of the machine. Evgueni did not drive full throttle because we told him not to risk to break something.

J: That's too bad, you probably could have beaten the UK team at the salt flats race. What about the chain-drive? It seems unconventional to use a chain to drive a vehicle other than a motorcycle.

R: It is the easiest way to connect different drive systems. Also it gives you chance to change ratios. Chains as drive train are not bad at all, they just need to be adjusted very carefully. The problem with our chain was caused by a bad master link. It would not have come off with a new chain, and it never did again after Max fixed it. But you know you get no test run nor a second chance. You have to race the vehicle from the first moment on. That was the most frustrating point when the chain broke! We would have made it through the rocks - but had no second chance to prove that!

J: I guess that is the nature of the beast. Having seen the final show, what did you think? Specifically, what do you think about the jokes made at your expense and the expense of the Russians?

R: Well, some are funny, some less. It's a fun show, that's all it is, so don't take it serious! We made jokes ourselves.

J: Your attitude is so refreshing from the usual "win at all costs" mind-set of many people in competitions, junkyard or otherwise. How did you find the build days?

R: Very exhausting, as I told you before. But one thing really worth to mention is, that everybody of the film team was very kind, friendly and helpful. You just mentioned a wish and they were bringing cold drinks, ice, or something to eat or whatever you needed. Hey film team, you were all great!!!! Thank you very much! True, everybody did take care of us pretty much. And the food stuff was first class! Sally, I loved your milk shakes.

J: Mmmm...milkshakes. Oh, sorry. I channeled Homer Simpson for a moment. If you had the opportunity to join the show again as a expert, perhaps in a one day to build setting?

R: Together with the Russian bears team? - Certainly!