The British (or Commonwealth types, I suppose) take a little national pride in their ‘two guys in a shed’ stereotype of entrepreneurship. We Americans kinda started that ball with our ‘company founded in a garage’ model. Heck, I remember when NASA was just two drunk guys with a case of dynamite. Anyway, there’s a channel on YouTube of some limey who does some fairly adventurous creating. Once in a while he does something that I find rather interesting and , perhaps, useful at a later date. Such as the bunker he built under his yard. A nice project, indeed. Not content to just have a hidden bunker, he has a video about digging secret tunnels to connect the bunker to his house. Gotta say, the guy has his act together for discreetly removing spoils and, honestly, doing a pretty titanic job of digging.
I find this sort of thing highly informative and somewhat inspirational. I mean, if you’re going to have an underground bunker why wouldn’t you have a tunnel network to go with it, right? You know, pull up the rug in the kitchen and -presto- trapdoor to a tunnel network that leads to the bunker, the garage, an emergency exit hidden in some shrubs at the edge of the property line, etc.
Major kudos to the guy for building his own tools to do the job. I wish I was that handy.
Colin Furze is insane, and deserves his own cable channel. And a multi-million dollar budget. And a full trauma medical emergency team on standby, 24/7/365.
Why no one in TVLand has ever figured this out is a mystery for the ages, because this guy would have ratings like Monday Night Football six days a week and twice that on Sunday.
I must countermand the Bloghost’s suggestion.
Don’t go watch this one recent episode.
Go to Furze’s channel, go back to the beginning, and then watch them ALL, back-to-back. Eight years’ worth.
This is a man who made a motor scooter with a flamethrower in the tailpipe.
Who made magnetic shoes to walk upside down.
Who made a pulse-jet powered bicycle.
Who made a mobility scooter that hit 70 MPH.
Who made a TIE fighter.
And a jet-powered land speeder.
And a James Bond car with all the gadgets.
And that’s just the tip of the insanity.
This guy is single-handedly funnier than a barrel factory full of monkeys, crazier than any 50 state legislatures combined, and more creative, with crazy mad genius level of skillz at fabrication than the entire factory staff of General Electric.
If he were in a movie, he’d be the R&D guy running the entire lab for Tony Stark.
(Given enough time and budget, he could make an actual Mark 50 Iron Man suit, and the odds are 50-50 that at some point, he’ll actually try it.)
From his suburban England backyard.
Go kill a few hours in the most insane internet blackhole timesuck you could ever imagine.
This guy makes Steve Irwin look boring.
The wonder is that he hasn’t blown himself up, been burnt to a crisp, set his entire housing tract aflame, or gotten killed in any of 200 ways, and he’s got to have a get-out-of-jail-free card for the local insane asylum. Or a lifetime pass, take your pick.
Go. Watch. It. All.
And realize that compared to this guy, no matter what you’ve done, you’re barely the Diet Coke of insane.
Even if you were eating crack for breakfast, meth for lunch, and LSD for dinner.
http://www.colinfurze.com/
He also has a book out: Colin Furze: This Book Isn’t Safe!
Wow!
I think Aesop pretty much covered it, and ditto Retired cop.
Wow.
Time well spent on that channel.
Thank You for alerting me to this amazing guy.
Yer boy has got some free time on his hands….
Also, don’t they have code enforcement officers in England? Cuz I suspect they’d like to have a chat with him.
I don’t think that “secret” tunnel is all that secret. I’d be willing to bet he got all the permits he needed.
I wonder how secret a tunnel would be when the construction is broadcast on a youtube channel with 11.3 million followers. I suspect his neighbours put up with his shenanigans or he would be shut down in a New York minute.
Wjy would putting it on YouTube prevent it from being a secret? Unless it has his persona data and address stamped on the front of the video, the tunnel could be in Leeds or Wessex or Lnacasterhsire or Sherwood Forest for all we know.
He mentions getting the proper permits in one of his vids. I think he is doing everything completely legal for his jurisdiction. I think the sound concerns are so that he is a good neighbor so that complaints dont upset his income stream.
I really dont think he is doing this for ‘survivalist’ reasons. He is a driven Engineer imo.
He has some great contractors,no way he actually did much of that work. I have done some digging in the past and that amount of work without serious equipment (excavator,loaders,material movement gear) would take weeks for a small crew much less a individual. Not only that but he sure wouldn’t fit any “skinny dress clothes” but would make many gym rats jealous (move 25+ tons of rock by hand and see what you look like)
I lift five tons a day in workout weights and it doesn’t do nearly what youd think it might.
I’m with you on the weigh to buffness ratio, but it would help if we didn’t pound down the odd cheeseburger/tall boy.
“Sixteen tons” wasn’t just a cute lyric in a coal miner’s lament.
that was the basic expectation for…ever, long before you used anything but a pick and shovel.
Furze shows behind-the-scenes vids of most of his projects.
He may occasionally have a helper or two. But until rather lately, he wasn’t successful enough to get anything like a crew together, as such.
He’s just simply got nothing better to do than whatever idea pops into his ADHD mind.
And then he does it.
“The English are a nation of Shopkeepers” is what I think you are referring to . I’ve watched Colin for years now, and he always entertains. He has major sponsorship, so don’t fret, he is well backed financially. Somehow he always comes up with something new and entertaining. I had an English BIL like him once
im long out of the business, but this is not a low cost project. the steel alone is big bucks. I am amazed, they must not use mud pumps in jolly old England. Nobody halls cement in that quantity in a wheel barrow.; a least not in the last 20 years