Browse all episodes of Scrapheap Challenge

The teams must build Hovercraft's in the Pilot of the now successful show.

Hovercraft

In this episode the two teams must make a machine capable of flight.

Flying Machines

In this episode the teams must make buggies that are capable of going off road.

Off Road Buggies

In the first episode of the first series the two teams must make siege engines.

Siege Engines

In this episode the two teams must make machines capable of moving heavy weights.

Power Pullers

This week the two teams must make diving rings from the scrap.

Sub-Aqua

In this episode the two teams must make powers boats from the scrap.

Powerboats

In this episode the teams must build rockets from the scrap to see who's can go the highest.

Final: Rockets

In this episode the two teams must create fully functional cannons

Cannons

Robert Llewellyn and co-presenter Cathy Rogers unveil a doubly hard challenge - build a car that thinks it's a boat!

Amphibious Vehicles

The teams are asked to build a yacht, but not one for the high seas - a land yacht capable of carrying the entire team. The winners will sail through to the semi-finals.

Land Yachts

The first of the Scrapheap Challenge semi-finals, where two teams are challenged to build a vehicle to travel as far as possible on only a cup of petrol.

Mileage Marathon

The challenge is to build a salvage machine capable of raising a Mini from the bottom of a murky lake and park it safely in a car park.

Marine Salvage

The teams are challenged to make a walking machine: the winning contraption must carry the whole team and a heavy safe across a haphazard obstacle course.

Final: Walking Machines

The teams each have to build a machine capable of demolishing a set of industrial outbuildings at an old power station in Norwich. Sadly, no explosives are allowed, but they manage all the same. The Beach Boys, a group of twentysomething surfers, decide on a straightforward, human-powered battering ram, and do something no other team has ever managed — they finish building before time is up. The Chaos Crew keeps the Junkyard Wars tradition alive, with a great, big, nasty-looking machine. They build a big hydraulic claw that can rip down walls.

Demolition

Teams must build a nonpiloted flying vehicle that can accurately drop paint bombs on a target on the ground. Both teams need to go with radio-controlled vehicles, but that's where the similarities end. Three Revs a Minute are three trainee ministers (Get it? Revs?) who decide to build a working model airplane. Their opponents, The Mothers of Invention, go for a big blimp made of Mylar. The challenge begins at 3 a.m., since both teams want to avoid any wind.

Aerial Bomber

In this challenge, The N.E.R.D.S. (New England Rubbish Deconstruction Society) — the first American team to compete in the show — take on The Dipsticks, three undersea-oil-drilling platform engineers. The task of the day turns out to be a minisubmarine, which can pull two scuba-clad divers around an underwater obstacle course. The Dipsticks create an elaborate vehicle to ride in. The N.E.R.D.S. stick to their KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) philosophy and build a James-Bond-style diver tow, a submersible engine and a propeller, which pulls the divers behind it.

Underwater Chariot

The Techno-Teachers go up against The Manic Mechanics to see who can harness the forces of Mother Nature and build a windmill to power a machine crucial to life as we know it — a coffee grinder! One team constructs a conventional fan-bladed windmill, while their opponents go for a vertical-axis Savonious rotor. Quick on-screen sketches reveal which is best for which wind conditions. But a half-hour before the competition, the weather services release a gale warning, forcing one team to clip the blades off their windmill for fear of having them ripped off. But at competition time, the wind doesn't get over 2 miles per hour.

Windmill

This time, a team called Filth goes up against the winner of Demolition (Chaos Crew or Beach Boys) to design and build a machine that can throw a rugby football as far as possible using only their own muscle power, so no motors allowed. They have to create something that can store muscle power gradually, then release it in a controlled burst. Filth decides to ignore their expert and creates a huge cross-bow-type machine. The other team decides to pump up an air cannon to shoot the ball. And while the winner can't be revealed, one team captain manages to throw his rugby ball farther than his machine could.

Missile Launcher

Brothers in Arms go up against the winner of Bomber (3 Revs a Minute or Mothers of Invention) in a challenge to build a vehicle that can carry all four members across a 30-foot ravine. The vehicle must also be capable of both deploying a bridge and retrieving it once the team is across. The Brothers go for a van-based bridger, while their opponents use bikes.

Bridging Machines

There's an acre of wheat to cut and collect. This semifinal Junkyard challenge sends the competitors down to the farm to see who can build the best mower. One team turns a taxicab into a take-no-prisoners lawnmower, while their opponents turn a pickup truck into a harvester. Amid lots of smoke and chugging, both teams' machines "buy the farm." The winning machine is an impromptu scythe made out of a foot of metal.

Giant Mower

In the second semifinal match, the challenge is to make a vehicle that drives on steam power. One team finds a weird little three-wheeled car and adds a steam engine, their opponents decide to build a dragster. But don't think that these machines will be on the roads anytime soon. A broken drive shaft on one car has to be welded back together mid-race, while the other car has no brakes, and must be thrown into reverse to make it up hills.

Steam-Powered Car

In the championship match, the two surviving teams see who can build a boat that will go across a lake and put out a fire in a burning building. One team builds a Land-Rover-based fireboat with an amazing pump, but their boat is less maneuverable than they'd like. The other team's pump is not as strong, and their boat keeps taking on water.

Final: Fireboat

Drag racing. Nothing gets a Junkyard Warrior's blood stirring like sheer speed. In this special match-up, the Season 3 champs go up against last year's winner to see who can go as fast as possible while staying on the ground. The champs go for a classic dragster car, but when their gearbox blows up, they have to flip the back axle upside down, making reverse gear push the car forward. Last year's winners go for a trike, which increases the possible speed, but takes much more precision to build.

Grand Final: Dragster

Christmas Special: Car Crusher

The new series kicks off with our barmiest challenge yet: to build a machine that will fire an ostrich egg as far as possible and bring it back to earth in one piece. The machines must be mobile so that - if the eggs survive intact - they can be wheeled to the landing spot for another attempt. Each team is given three eggs and the winner is whoever has travelled the furthest after three shots.

Egg Shooter

The challenge for the second heat is to build a 'monster truck' and drive it around an 'S'-shaped course in a dirt oval. The trucks will have to climb dirt hillocks and crush a line of cars before accelerating home. Each team is allowed three runs: the winner is the one that sets the fastest time.

Monster Truck

This week's challenge is to torpedo the opposition. Each team must build re-usable torpedoes that run just under the surface of the water, like the torpedoes used to attack boats (rather than those used to attack another submarine). The teams then have to try and hit wooden 'battleships' in front of each other's launch platforms, taking it in turn to fire. The platforms are 150 feet apart, and there's a rock in the middle which they have to steer their torpedoes around. They will have to hit each other's battleship three times. In the event of both teams being on target with their first two shots, the third and final shot will be a simultaneous shoot-out.

Torpedos

The teams have to build a four-man machine to clean up litter. Different kinds of rubbish (such as old cans, plastic bottles, newspapers, cardboard, old clothes and bin liners) will be spread over an area 50x50m and the teams will have half an hour to pick up as much as they can. When time is called, the winning team will be the one with the heaviest load of litter.

Street Cleaner

The challenge is to build a powered craft to negotiate a stretch of white-water river. The craft must be powerful enough to get up the rapids but also have enough manoeuvrability to avoid treacherous rocks and to make a U-turn at the top of the course. Whoever sets the fastest single time in the course of three heats is the winner.

White Water Rider

The challenge is to build a one-man snowmobile. The test course, in the Mammoth Mountains, northern California, is circular with a 300-metre diameter. Each team has 10 minutes; the winner is the team whose snowmobile covers the most ground. In the event of breakdown, they'll be allowed to do repairs and restart twice.

Snowmobile

This challenge is to build mobile cranes to lift and carry scrap down a course to a drop-off point. Each piece of scrap is allocated a points value relating to its weight or awkwardness. The team that accumulates the most points over two 15-minute rounds is the winner.

Mobile Crane

This week's challenge is to build minesweepers.The test is over two rounds. In round one, each team is given 10 minutes to destroy as many paint-bomb mines as possible in a minefield containing 20 randomly buried mines. The team that destroys the most mines in this round will be given a head-start in the next, with each mine in the winning margin worth five seconds. In round two, each minefield contains just one gigantic mine. Whoever finds the big mine first is the winner.

Minesweeper

The challenge this week is to build a one-man hill climber. The teams will have three attempts to scale a 360ft slope with a 1:2 gradient. The team that makes it to the top the most times wins. If both teams reach the summit only once, car-rallying rules will apply and the first successful attempt - that is, the successful attempt in the earliest of the three rounds - will be the one that counts.

Hill Climber

At vast expense, this week we have constructed our very own Wormwood Scraps Prison. The challenge facing the teams is to build tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) to break out and into the Scrapheap final.There are two walls, the second tougher than the first. The teams have to drill right through both, making holes large enough for every member of the team to fit through. The winner is the first team to make it through both tunnels.

Tunneller

The ultimate challenge in this series is to build a hydrofoil ­ a boat with wing-like structures underneath its hull to lift the hull out of the water at speed. The team with the fastest single time out of three heats over an eighth of a mile takes the trophy.

Final: Hydrofoil

The champions' challenge is to take an ordinary car and convert it into a radio-controlled fighting machine. In the contest, points are scored for hitting targets on the opposing machine: 10 for a sideswipe, 20 for a rear-ender and 30 for hammering the roof. If a machine strays outside the ring, it gives away 50 points to the other side. The team with the highest total score after three rounds wins.

Grand Final: Car Jousting

The mega challenge is to build a hybrid machine to face a two-day triathlon. Stage one is flat out on the salt-flats. Stage two is in a canyon littered with giant boulders. And stage three is on a lake: yes, we're talking amphibious vehicles. The winner of each stage collects three points, the runner-up two and the third-placed team one. The team with the most points at the end of the third stage will be the mega champions.

Christmas Special: Scrapheap Mega Challenge: All-Terrain Marathon

The first test of the new series was a closely fought three-round contest. The Barleys won the first round convincingly, but the Munch Bunch stormed to a surprising victory in the second.

With everything to play for in the final round, the Barleys were lucky to make it to the finish line: a treacherous mud-hole nearly sank them. The Munch Bunch then had not only to complete the section but to improve on the time set by the Barleys. But it was not to be. Their machine became firmly embedded in the same mud-hole that nearly bagged the Barleys, and they were unable to complete the round.

The victorious Barleys will be back in a few weeks.

Mud Monsters

This week saw a remarkable comeback by the Martial Mechanics, proving once again that nothing is certain on Scrapheap. The Krazy Karters were quicker over both land and water in the first two rounds although they were certainly helped by the Martial Mechanics' 30-second penalty for crashing.

Round three looked like a formality, but then disaster struck the Karters: their craft was caught in a strong crosswind and lost air pressure, making it considerably slower over the rest of the course. Seizing his chance and holding on to both his nerve and his craft, the Mechanics' Jason snatched victory.

This week sees two new teams battling to become the fastest golf-ball guns on the scrapheap.

The day started badly for the Clean Sweeps. They discovered that their ball-feeding mechanism was jamming and were forced into a last-minute rethink. Unfortunately this turned out to be just the first of their problems. Round one was a test of speed and accuracy, and the Sweeps struggled on both fronts: their aim was wayward and motor problems reduced their rate of fire.

The Boat Buoys on the other hand looked the genuine article, delivering a string of balls into the moving target and shooting themselves into the lead in the process.

Round two was designed to test the machines' sheer power: the object was to smash a wall of bathroom tiles. The Sweeps were forced to abandon their erratic motor for a cordless drill and, although they made an impact, they were no match for the blazing firepower of the Boat Buoys.

Rapid Fire

Academics get stuck in a maze This week the teams have been asked to map uncharted territory. The Hammerlocks, a team of wrestlers from Coventry, and the Academics Anonymous, a team from Kingston University, have to navigate their way around a 'hostile environment' in a vehicle with the windows blacked out.

The Academics seemed to start well but they had a major problem: they couldn't tell when all four wheels of their bus were off the ground or when the bus was level, and this cost them valuable time. They failed to negotiate the first turn in the 'maze', lost their bearings and crashed into the side or the course.

Tension was high as the Hammerlocks took their turn in the 'maze'. They also had problems: their navigational devices weren't reliable. However, they were able to crawl their way around the course using a giant mechanical 'feeler' and eventually made it to within a stone's throw of their target - and into the next round!

Blind Navigation

Railroad Racer

Clockwork Cars

Smooth Rider

Monowheel

Tugs of War

The Coventry wrestlers and the Hammerlocks have to dig deep - the challenge is to build a machine that can dig up as much sand as possible in a given time.

Digger

Final: Destroyer

Grand Final: Car Flinger

A chance to see some of the funniest, most ridiculous and memorable moments of Scrapheap Challenge.

Best of Scrapheap Challenge Series 5

Christmas Special: Scrapheap Mega Challenge: Aeroplanes

Wheelie Cars

Bomb Disposal Vehicles

Backpack Cars

Amphibious Motorbikes

Ice Racers

Giant Dart Throwers

Jet Powered Cars

Super Slick Speedboats

Fire Engines

Car Curling

Final: Tanks

Grand Final: Grand Prix Racers

Robert Llewellyn and Lisa Rogers present the Golden Sprocket awards - the glitziest occasion in the scrap-metal calendar.

Best of Scrapheap Challenge Series 6

Christmas Special: The Cold War

In the first of the new series, Scrapheap takes to the dusty dunes of a Guildford sand quarry as a team of hot-blooded Lancashire fire fighters take on some nerdy off-road enthusiasts in a battle to build sand-racers that can climb precipitous inclines and dig their way out of the deepest dusty trench.

Sand-Racers

A brave-hearted bunch of Scottish boffins take on a rabble of right-on rickshaw riders in an epic Scrapheap battle. Following in the footsteps of Barnes Wallis, their mission, should they choose to accept it, is to manufacture machines that can pitch bouncing bombs across water to breach the Scrapheap dams.

Dam Buster

This week, Geneva-based expats the Up 'n Atoms face up to the REME Rebels, an all-girl team of army-tank tinkerers in one of Scrapheap's most bizarre challenges to date. Our teams have just 10 hours to build a motorised bowling ball capable of toppling ten-foot skittles on a giant bowling alley.

Bowling Bangers

The Challenge

This week's challenge is to build off-road rescue machines capable of lifting a hampered hatchback from a water hazard before carrying it cross-country to the safety of stable ground. With steep slopes to get up and down, sticky bogs to get stuck in and soft, slippery sand to sink into, our teams will operating at the limit of their bodging capabilities. 	

		Rough Riders

Ozzie Senior, Barry Eastaugh (Bazza) and Jason Lord are three Yorkshiremen who spend half of their lives 20 miles off the coast of Hull on a gas storage platform in the North Sea. Between them, they oversee and run the safety, maintenance and mechanical upkeep of the platform.

They have a wealth of mechanical engineering experience ranging from heavy plant machinery to bike and car engines. Barry is a 'guru' of a welder and there's not a lot these boys have not had a go at. The Riders have big characters and enthusiasm to match. Ozzie is a karaoke king and has won many an Elvis impersonator competition (and he is also likely to burst into a song at any given moment). Barry is known for his year-round tan and Lycra shorts. The Rough Riders are guaranteed to rise to any challenge – and they'll probably do it singing!

The Rough Riders' expert is Tim Dray. He started out as an agricultural engineer and soon fell in love with off-roading. He has built many an off-road vehicle and has spent a lot of time organising the Camel trophy. Since this period, he has been a consultant to Land Rover, building and designing their 4x4 courses.

		Bakewell Puddings

Nick Marriott, Mark Elliott (Smell) and his nephew Andrew Charlesworth (Charlie) are from the Derbyshire town of Bakewell. All are into bikes and racing (Motor Cross and Enduro). Mark and Nick have been friends for 20 years and have been in the same Motor Cross team as well as in a punk band together. Mark started to teach Charlie to ride at the age of nine, so it's fair to say bikes are this team's thing.

Mark Elliott is an engineer, Nick Marriott is an architect and Andrew Charlesworth is a Rolls Royce engine inspector. These guys are also outdoorsy, sporty, rugby-loving, mountain-climbing kind of people who participate in the annual Bakewell raft race and the odd cross-town wheelbarrow race. They thrive on a challenge with plenty of ingenuity and humour to keep us all entertained!

The Bakewell Puddings' expert is Steve Matthews and he's been building commercial recovery vehicles for the past 20 years – mostly out of scrap! In the past, he's also renovated tanks. He doesn't like beer, so what does he do to relax? Well, he likes nothing better than a cup of tea and ... building more cars!

		The judge

This week's judge is Simon Buck, the only British winner of the most hardcore of all 4x4 events – the Malaysian Rainforest Challenge.

His motto is 'it's better to be a spectacular failure than a dismal success.' He's a gung-ho guy – enough to drive at 70mph through the Malaysian rainforest ... in the monsoon season ... at night. As you can imagine he spends a lot of time getting vehicles out of a tight spot!

Off Road Rescue

The Challenge

This week's challenge is to build jet-powered speed boats that are both agile and fast. The teams will be competing in a two-part Grand Prix – on jet boats! The race will start with a full-throttle dash up and down the lake and will be followed by the twists and turns of an off-shore obstacle course. 	

		Hairy Hogs

Conn Kelly, Darrell Hanna and Alastair Nethercott are the Hairy Hogs from Northern Ireland. All members of the Provincewide Harley Owners Group, they are big blokes with bigger laughs who love their Harleys and spend much of their year touring around Europe on them.

The Hogs are seriously hands-on and have had experience of most possible mechanical projects. They are rough 'n ready, rugby-playing, Guinness-loving men who are up for the challenge and in search of a 'good craic'. These guys are quietly confident they can't be beaten and should give even the most solid of Scrapheap teams a run for their money! Apparently, they're up for most things apart from a water challenge (ha!).

Alan Pickard is the Hairy Hogs' expert as well as being one of the foremost jetskiers in the UK. He runs Jet Shed, the leading specialist workshop in this field in the UK. Previously seen on White Water Rider (series 4), he is a hands-on bodger and technician and previously held the speed record on a jetski – he is currently ranked number three in the UK.

		Team Ragbo

Glynn Myers, Nick Mellor and Colin Bates all work at Smart Recycling, Glynn's plastics waste-recycling firm in Lancashire. Between them, they have worked on everything from factory equipment and heavy plant machinery to cars and bikes. This team are heavily into their bikes and two years ago Nick sold his house so he could buy a Triumph bike – he now lives in a caravan!

There is a wide breadth of experience and knowledge in this team and the guys are confident they can deal with anything we throw at them! Glynn and Colin are larger than life in every respect, with 'Hippy Nicky' being slightly quieter – but he sees himself as their 'secret backbone'. Lots of northern humour, loads of energy and bags of banter – you won't be able to get a word in edgeways!

Alex Wallis is Chief Engineer at Pursuit Dynamics and will be Team Ragbo's expert this week. His company specialises in pumps, fluid management and innovative marine propulsion systems using steam power. Alex is a mechanical engineer with a practical background, particularly in the bodging of various automotive matters and he's even built his own sail plane.

		The judge

Michael McDowell works for Polaris UK as their technical man, on hand to answer any mechanical problems in the Polaris Jetski dealership chain. He also trains all sales outlets on the mechanical running and maintenance of Polaris Jetskis. He has been working for eight years in the field of maritime power units, impellers and jetskis. He also has an engineering background in motor mechanics, quad bikes, outboards and even pumps. When it comes to summarising what makes a good jetski, Michael can talk at length about all the key ingredients with consummate ease.

Jet Boat

The Challenge

This week our teams will have to earn their Scrapheap wings! Norfolk bikers, The Thirsty Knights, and Honda head honchos, The Fireblades, won't actually be leaving terra firma but they will be challenged to build cars that are powered and steered by a propeller! 	

		The Fireblades

Steve Martindale (Smarty), Chris Barfe (Barfy) and George Wise (Big George) have known and drunk with each other for 10-15 years and work in different divisions at Honda UK. They have a broad span of interests ranging from motorcycle racing, classic cars and Raleigh Choppers to singing rock 'n' roll, Chelsea FC and running marathons! They are confident that between them there is not an engine around that they haven't worked on. These boys like power and speed and as long as it's fast, they don't care what they build!

The Fireblades' expert is John Gifford, a Scrapheap veteran who appeared in series 5's Hovercraft. He is one of the UK's foremost hovercraft designers. He built his first hovercraft at the age of 16 and recently appeared in a Bond film as a hovercraft stunt driver. His firm, Griffon Hovercraft, builds vessels for coastguards and the military.

		The Thirsty Knights

Frog Twissell, (yes, that's his real name) Pete Twissell and Carl Verlander (Roo) combine to bring you The Thirsty Knights. Frog is a paragliding Buddhist vegan who likes to play with fire, Pete is a pagan who says he has an empathy with machinery and is to nuts, cogs and engines what Dr Dolittle is to animals and Roo is a welder extraordinaire who claims he can tap dance whilst playing the flute!

This team are quirky, alternative and very intelligent. Yet another team who love their bikes, they have owned, built, raced and maintained many over the years. Used to thinking laterally around a problem, they love designing the weird-and-wonderful. Their machine will be a creation in every sense of the word!

Billy Brooks is The Thirsty Knights' expert and he's a mad inventor and microlight-flying maniac. Billy is also a Scrapheap veteran, appearing in series 2's Flying Machines as well as Scrapheap's US equivalent Junkyard Wars. His day job is as a microlight designer but by night he can be found living on his barge.

		The judge

Judge Brendan O'Brien holds the world record for holding the most world records in aviation. His day job is a stunt flyer – you don't need a hobby with that on your CV. One of Brendan's future projects includes crossing Greenland on a propeller-powered microlight sled. As you do …

Propeller Car

The Challenge

Power Rowers

Scrapheap goes back to the water for the latest challenge as The Anoraks take on Maximus. In honour of our Olympic oarsmen and women, the two teams have to assemble a mechanised galley with at least four oars to scull their way around our tricky aquatic course. 	

		The Anoraks

The Anoraks

In this year's first episode, The Anoraks poured cold water on The Hoselliers, a team of fire fighters from Blackburn, as they raced out of our sheer sand trap in Surrey.

Deprived of their captain Geoff Turtell for their second challenge, The Anoraks are now led by Marc Draper. Lyndon Camidge joins him again along with Andy Cross an old school friend of Lyndon's who comes in as a substitute. Andy is a plant fitter and HGV mechanics expert.

Named after their club of the same name, these three enthusiasts from Surrey can't get enough of off-roading. The lads spend their spare time in Marc's garage, building and restoring Land Rovers and other 4x4 vehicles. Lyndon claims he has broken, crashed and sunk more Land Rovers than he's had hot dinners and Marc likes to think he is the stabilising influence of the team.

Lots of experience, slightly batty and a bit posh, these boys are determined to go all the way!

Rob Austin is The Anoraks' expert this week. He's an engineer and teacher from Oxford who organises the Formula Schools engineering challenge.

Rob worked as a professional fabricator and engineer in various fields before going into education and creating a successful engineering course for schools. He now runs Formula Schools, a scheme to get youngsters interested in automotive and maritime engineering. From his well-equipped workshop in Oxfordshire, he builds and fabricates pretty much anything and is currently rebuilding a classic Bugatti racing car.

Top

		Maximus

Maximus

Our second set of challengers are the rickshaw-riding charioteers Maximus, who bowled over Irn Cru in the fourth challenge of series seven with their barmy bouncing bomb.

Cycles and big barges float these Bath-based boys' boats. William Trickett, Paul McGarry and Dennis Mapp work at Cycles Maximus, which makes and supplies rickshaws. William, or Trickett as he likes to be known, is also a boat engineer and has a company which makes luxury Dutch barges. They are into all kinds of cycled contraptions from rickshaws and chariots to trikes and motorbikes. They also share an interest in canal boats – so are used to building things out of the ordinary.

They are quirky, alternative, great fun and are phased by very little. Trickett is completely mad, Paul lives on a canal boat and is also a circus performer and Dennis is a Motor Cross rider who, in his own words, will have a go at anything! A great team.

Maximus' expert Jim Bond is not an engineer but an expert fabricator and metal-work sculptor. His speciality is mechanised sculptures. He has worked on TV series like The Secret Life of Machines and can easily grasp the concepts behind automating a human movement mechanically. Cool and calm, Jim is used to getting kids motivated about engineering projects but confesses he is a bit laid-back.

		The judge

The judge

Richard Carless is a keen rower and has lived and worked on the water all his life. He owns a marine safety business for the film industry and recently worked on the BBC's Building the Impossible: Submarine episode. He is a Guinness Book of Records holder for several rowing endurance and distance records. He recently smashed the long-distance rowing record from the origin of the Thames to the Thames estuary. He knows what it takes to make a good rowing stroke and being a boatman all his life can tie this into both engineering and hull design.

Power Rower

The Challenge

Spy Cars

The last quarter-final mission, should our challengers choose to accept it, is to build a stealthy 'spy car' for use on a secretive information-gathering exercise. Their reconnaissance vehicle will have to carry the entire team both under and over obstacles which are just two feet from the floor, turn on a sixpence and then back out of trouble. They must avoid detection whilst infiltrating a sinister-looking base protected by guard posts, razor wire, security cameras, alarms and laser beams. Once inside, they must limbo, hurdle, twist and turn their way into (and out of) danger in order to steal a top-secret briefcase before making good their escape. 	

		Bakewell Puddings

The last time we saw the Bakewell Puddings, they were pitting their wits against Rough Riders, three North Sea gas engineers from Hull, in Off Road Rescue.

Nick Marriott, Mark Elliott (Smell) and his nephew Andrew Charlesworth (Charlie) are from Bakewell in Derbyshire. All are into bikes and racing (Motor Cross and Enduro). Mark and Nick have been friends for 20 years and have been in the same Motor Cross team as well as in a punk band together. Mark started to teach Charlie to ride at the age of nine, so it's fair to say bikes are this team's thing.

Mark is an engineer, Nick is an architect and Andrew is a Rolls Royce engine inspector. These guys are also outdoorsy, sporty, rugby-loving, mountain-climbing kind of people who participate in the annual Bakewell raft race and the odd cross-town wheelbarrow race. They thrive on a challenge and have plenty of ingenuity and humour to keep us all entertained!

John Ricketts (also known as Johnny Nitro) is a drag racer of the classical style à la American Graffiti. He owns, maintains and races his 8-litre 1965 Chevy and has been known to fit a nitrous oxide system to a Ford Anglia. When he's not being a petrolhead, John can be found catching tubes (that's surfing to you and me) off the Cornish coast.

		Up 'n Atoms

Up 'n Atoms reached the quarter finals by bowling over the REME Rebels, three female soldiers from the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, in Bowling Bangers.

Ali Day, David McFarlane and Jimmy Ridewood are expats living the life of Riley in Geneva. They work at CERN (Europe's largest centre for nuclear research) and explain their work as Star Trek-type stuff, experimenting with smashing particles together to see what happens.

They're science boffins but not in the slightest bit geeky. They enjoy playing on the slopes of Switzerland, rugby, British sports cars and a good pint or 14. They have a background in off-shore work and have nuclear power station training – so there is an extremely solid engineering skills base here. They claim that James is the 'looks' of the team, Ali is the 'brawn' and David is the 'brains'.

Up 'n Atoms' expert is Jim Chalmers, a creator of whacky vehicles. By day he runs a large workshop outside London but he's happiest when he's inventing – most recently he patented what could be the world's smallest commercial hovercraft. He's recently got in trouble with the police for strapping a jet engine to the top of an Escort. Future projects include building a McLaren F1 – for the road!

		The judge

John Hetherington is a veteran of Scrapheap after judging the Minesweeper challenge back in series 4. John is a professor of engineering design at Cranfield University and head of the Engineering Systems Department at the Royal Military College of Science – he's the man who teaches potential Qs!

Spy Cars

The Challenge

The Thirsty Knights of Norfolk and the Belfast boys Hairy Hogs go head to head as two teams of bikers battle it out in a race across a lake in their scrappy craft. They must rescue their stranded expert before returning safely to dry land and, hopefully, a place in the final. 	

		Hairy Hogs

The Hairy Hogs sailed into the semi-finals by scoring a victory over the tree-hugging recyclers 

The Hogs are three fun-loving bikers from Belfast. Captain Conn Kelly, Darrell Hanna and Alastair Nethercott combine the talents of an electrician, mechanic and a plumber and are all members of the same Harley Owners Group. Big men, with personalities and hearty laughs to match, they are up for most things – except water-based challenges. So having come through the Jet Boats challenge, they'll be hoping for terra firma this time. Ha!

Helping them is Simeon Oakley, a freelance designer/fabricator who has built a wide range of marine vessels, from boats to hovercrafts. Born in Woomera, Australia, on a rocket range in the desert, Sim grew up in Saudi Arabia on an RAF base and went to school in North Wales. He has worked for a circus, designs and builds interactive exhibitions for science museums and lives on a restored Thames barge. He's a great engineer, he's a very cool customer and he's quietly confident.

		The Thirsty Knights

The last time we saw The Thirsty Knights, they were gliding past Honda head-honchos The Fireblades in their flying car.

Captain Pete Twissell, a design engineer, his brother Frog (yes, that's his real name) Twissell, who is a Buddhist and a vegan, and welder Carl (Roo) Verlander are The Thirsty Knights. This team is quirky, alternative and very intelligent.

Yet another team who love their bikes, they have owned, built, raced and maintained many over the years. Used to thinking laterally to get around a problem – they love designing the weird and wonderful. What they produce will be a creation in every sense.

Joining them for this boating battle is Bill Rutland, an East-End boat-builder and engineer who has spent all his life working and living on the docks around Tilbury. Bill's firm, SEMEC Engineering Ltd, undertakes a variety of jobs from maintaining boats and barges to engineering specialist pumps for Thames Water. Bill is even building his boat from scratch as a hobby. So far, the 48-tonne craft has taken three years. His practical skills, engineering nous and years of expertise make him an ideal expert.

		The judge

This week's judge is Commander Steve Farrington who has spent a lifetime in the Royal Navy as a marine engineer and is an expert in amphibious ships and landing craft. Currently with the Royal College of Defence Studies, he has been posted to many ships, including the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes, the assault ships HMS Intrepid and HMS Fearless. With that experience, he is the perfect person to preside over this challenge.

Landing Craft

Flaming Flingers

Final: Roman Motor-Chariot

Grand Final: Juggernauts

A look back at the series' best bits of bodging, as Robert Llewellyn and Lisa Rogers present 'The Rusties': Scrapheap Challenge's very own awards

Best of Scrapheap Challenge Series 7

Top Ten Machines

Favourite Fast Moments

Special edition of the engineering challenge, celebrating the 200th anniversary of Richard Trevithick's invention of the steam locomotive. Three teams have 20 hours and the materials they manage to scavenge from the scrapheap to build steam, diesel and electric-powered versions capable of pulling a 20-tonne passenger carriage, before putting their creations to the test in a face-off between the golden age of rail travel and its modern-day equivalent.

Christmas Special: Locomotives

The challenge

In this first episode of the new series, Scrapheap is off to marvellous Margate where a team of forklifting fixers take on a crew of army helicopter heroes in a battle to build underwater cars that can rip up the ocean bed. 	

		Apache Warriors

Ring-a-ding-ding-ding! The army boys Tom, Tobe and Oggs have landed and come oozing with charm, charisma and precision in a way only our top ranking military can. The banter is littered with innuendo; theirs is a cross between the school changing room and a Carry On film. Helicopter pilots by day, these boys are all guns blazing for a Scrapheap showdown!

Chess-playing Guy Seymour helps them out, bringing skills in off-road machines and underwater vehicles to the heap. Brought up on a boatyard in Australia, Guy studied submersible vehicle design at university and is currently a mechanical and business systems engineer for Subeo, a UK-based manufacturer of submersible vehicles. Subeo are hoping to launch a small affordable submersible vehicle onto the market soon. Before coming to England, Guy was an army reservist for seven years, where he was involved with the maintenance of their 4x4 vehicles.

		The Powerlifters

Neil, Mark and Dave are true Scrapheap! These boys love their drag racing and hot rodding and are all forklift maintenance engineers in Essex. Bald, tattooed and pierced, Neil and Dave provide the main double act but gentle giant Mark doesn’t seem to mind playing the fall guy to the duo. Energetic and with a range of outside interests, The Powerlifters are hardworking, straight talking, great fun, and claim to be able to take on anything Scrapheap can throw at them!

Expert Matt Cook started his career as an apprentice at Land Rover and stayed with the company for seven years as a design engineer in the new vehicle development division. Matt has raced 4x4s since he was 17 and has even won the most extreme off-road event in the world – the Malaysian Rainforest Challenge with his business partner Simon Buck in 2002. Together they run the legendary Devon 4x4 near Tiverton where they prepare and modify extreme off-road machines and fabricate custom parts for the sport. Despite this busy life, Matt is also a qualified potter!

		The judge

Stephanie Merry is a respected tactician, navigator and helmswoman, with a successful track record in offshore racing at national and international level. Commercially endorsed yachtmaster and ocean yachtmaster, Stephanie has won countless race titles and challenge cups. She is the owner and skipper of Rollerskate, a 4-tonne race yacht which she sailed to victory in various challenges between 1992 and 1998. Stephanie is a previous judge of Scrapheap Challenge, lending her expertise in the mini-sub challenge, back in series three.

Underwater Cars

The challenge

This week's Scrapheap Challenge is a test to see who can become a champion martial mechanic by building a kung fu car. The teams will have to construct a moveable car complete with a karate-chopping device. It's gotta be tough as it'll have to axe its way through six concrete slabs, half a metre of ice and finally a huge hunk of wood. 	

		Lumbering Jacks

Tree-cuttin' captain Baden and his fellow fellers Andrew and David are a top Scrapheap team. They ‘say it how it is’, love their agricultural machinery and are keen off-roaders. A jolly team with a good rapport, a sense of humour and a great attitude. With the motto 'If it’s been built before, it can be built again', this team have the potential to go far. Our forest-loving, axe-wielding men of South Wales are here to cut their opponents down to size.

Robyn Rushforth is the Lumbering Jacks' expert. As an MOD-trained engineer with 16 years spent in the demolition industry, he certainly has the know-how to smash stuff up. He’s also a versatile bodger and enjoys banging together anything from rally cars to underwater ROVs.

		The Haggis Bashers

Watersporting enthusiasts from Fife, these boys dive, water-ski and fish in their spare time. The team come from a largely agricultural background and bring a range of skills: Andrew has been in mechanics for 20 years and specialises in heavy farm machinery, Johnny knows his jet engines and Raymond is a woodwork and metalwork expert. Three different characters but all with that famous Scottish dryness, these bonny boys are guaranteed to give us more than a Highland fling!

The Haggis Bashers' expert is Essex boy Richard Keall. A car mechanic turned plant fitter, he currently works for one of the country's biggest demolition companies, keeping the machines in tip-top condition.

		The judge

When it comes to demolition, this week’s judge, David Clarke, has seen it all … well, almost! After 25 years working in demolition, he is currently president of the National Federation of Demolition Contractors.

Kung Fu Cars

The challenge

This week’s Scrapheap Challenge is a test to see who can build the most extreme rapid-fire arrow launcher. The teams will have to build a projectile launcher that can automatically load itself, as well as quickly firing arrows far and accurately. 	

		Stage Crew

The boys from behind the scenes! Our Bristolian bodgers Pup, Denzel and Jet are responsible for contraptions used in shows such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Mary Poppins and Miss Saigon. Passionate, animated and enthusiastic is the only way to describe them. Captain Pup’s eyes light up when he talks engineering and he is supported by the bearded Denzel with his hearty laugh and Jet, so-called because of his love for jet engines. This team is used to the pressure of having to perform and with their ‘The show must go on’ attitude, is unlikely to disappoint.

The Stage Crew’s expert is a friend of the show, Tod Todeschini. Tod began life as a kitchen product designer but he soon got bored. He is now a medieval weaponry expert and maker of special effects for stage and television. This is his third outing to Scrapheap Challenge and having previously tackled Giant Darts and Rapid Fire, this week's test should be a cinch!

		The Big Dippers

The Big Dippers are Lancashire lads responsible for the maintenance of Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Dodgey (he loves car boot sales and ferreting in skips – should be at home on the heap then!), Steve and Brian (nicknamed Two-ey as he only has two front teeth) have been friends for years and have a wealth of experience. Dodgey comes from a family of mechanics, Steve is the electrics supervisor at the Pleasure Beach and Brian claims to be able to weld underwater. So as well as providing a constant level of cheeky banter, these guys are here for more than the ride!

In The Big Dippers’ corner is expert armourer John Nixon. John spent 10 years learning his trade as an armourer with REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers), before splitting his time between armoury and mechanics. Nowadays, he is most likely to be found on a film set making guns for epics such as Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan. Let’s see if he will save the day for The Big Dippers!

		The judge

Our judge this week is another Scrapheap veteran, Steve Ralphs. Grand Master of the Traditional Bowyers Guild, Steve began crafting traditional bows and arrows 25 years ago. He now spends most of his time instructing Hollywood actors in the art of archery (this is the man that taught Legolas how to draw a bow). When he’s not doing that he plays guitar in a band called Phabulous Fondue!

Sharp Shooters

The challenge

Cornish, classic Jag lovers the Beasts of Bodmin take on The 7s, a team of easy-going Essex bikers. In an electrifying off-road contest, they race to construct battery-powered milk floats capable of conquering tough terrain to safely deliver a dozen crates of milk. 	

		Beasts of Bodmin

Mysterious and graceful, stealthy yet fast, well, these Beasts of Bodmin may not quite be. However, the classics lovers spend more than their fair share of time with that feline of the vehicle world – the Jaguar. Enthusiasts and restorers of classic Jags and motorbikes, captain Brian and his partners-in-crime Steve and Spencer enjoy nothing more than a spin across Bodmin Moor. Tons of experience and a steely determination to hunt down and tear apart their opposition, the Beasts could be ones to watch out for!

Their expert is electric vehicle enthusiast Paul Compton. A self-taught electronics engineer who honed his mechanical skills building kit cars, Paul became interested in electric vehicles about 10 years ago. Since then he has raced across America in an electric Porsche 914 and built several EVs himself, including his current VW Scirocco conversion. He recently became deputy chairman of the Battery Vehicle Society and when he’s not busy with all that, he enjoys riding classic motorcycles across the country.

		The 7s

Slick (Mick), Axel (Steve) and captain Bob make up The 7s. They are so-called because of their affiliation with a biking club in Southend of the same name. They are a bunch of leather-clad, beardy bikers from Essex. Into their Harleys and classic cars, these guys love their speed and have also built a sizeable trike, complete with 6-litre car engine, that can reach speeds of 180mph. Essex through and through, charismatic, here for a laugh and they don’t care what we ask them to build!

The 7s' expert is Scrapheap veteran Nick Bell, who previously lent his expertise on Backpack Cars and Locomotives. Nick is a freelance designer of recreational transport vehicles. He’s worked on everything from monorail systems to pier trams and was recently responsible for the electric floats at the opening ceremony of the 2004 Athens Olympics.

		The judge

This week’s judge is electric vehicle guru Robert Fowler. Robert has always been interested in alternative vehicles. Previously vice president of an American hovercraft company, in 1990 he turned his attention to greener modes of transport and founded the electric vehicle company, AVT. From his workshop in Somerset, he now converts all manner of conventional cars into cleaner running, quieter sounding EVs. Oh, and he’s recently invented a new lawnmower that will be available next year – you heard it here first!

AC/DC Dairy Dash

Drag Boats

Car Fishing

Polar Pinball

Caber Tossers

Steeplechase

Monster Drag Racing

Final: Rock Crawler

Grand Final: Flying Machines

Best of Scrapheap Challenge Series 8

Christmas Special: Scrapheap Mega Challenge: Warships

Scrapheap Challenge Roadshow 1: Tomato Toss

Punkin' Chunk

The Vikings, a team of Dark Ages battle re-enactment enthusiasts from Salisbury, face off against the Beach Bums, a team of surfers from Torquay, to construct a machine which can hurl a human-sized mannequin into a disused quarry.

Human Cannonballs

The Engineering Eggheads, a team of mechanical engineering students from University College London, compete with the Diggers, a team of heavy plant engineers from Hull, to build 5m-long "monster" trikes, that can race head-to-head over a slalom course, carrying all four team members.

Monster Trikes

Scrapheap Challenge is an engineering game show produced by RDF Media and broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. In the show, teams of contestants had 10 hours in which to build a working machine that could do a specific task, using materials available in a scrapheap. The format was exported to the United States, where it was known as Junkyard Wars. The US show was also produced by RDF Media, and was originally shown on The Learning Channel. Repeats have aired on another Discovery network, the Science Channel.

All Episodes of Scrapheap Challenge

Season 1

Hovercraft

Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 4/12/1998

Off Road Buggies

Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 10/11/1998

Siege Engines

Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 9/13/1998

Power Pullers

Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 9/20/1998

Sub-Aqua

Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 9/27/1998

Powerboats

Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/4/1998

Final: Rockets

Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 10/18/1998