Scrapheap Challenge

To kick start the new series we set a high octane challenge to break one of our own records. Back in series 6, a team of car engineers called the Catalysts set a top speed of 72mph in our Grand Prix Challenge. We be asked our teams to beat that, in our very own Scrapspeed record attempt.

This week's mechanical migraine promises to be a scrapheap classic. Our team's have to throw a 100kg object as far as they can without the use of compressed gas or gunpowder.

For this weeks challenge our teams had to build 'Superbikes', high speed motorbikes, capable of racing each other in three races round the twisty Scrapheap circuit. To add a twist to the challenge, we decided to forbid them from using any original motorcycle parts that might have been on the heap.

It's a decorator's dream this week as we asked our teams to build mobile painting machines that could decorate a house from a distance. Our teams had to paint the Scrapheap chalet, six metres high by seven metres wide. Accuracy is paramount, as they'd be penalised for any paint that strays over windows or do

This week's bodging bonanza is a real Scrapheap treat. Our teams must build super-swift vehicles capable of racing over our very own desert dunes.

This week we challenged our teams to build wave pounding power boats capable of racing around our scrapheap lake. Sounds easy, but here in Scrapheap Challenge we have had a truly appalling record when it comes to water-born races.

This challenge was inspired by the incredible high speed rocket sleds used by the US Air Force to test aircraft and spacecraft at supersonic speeds without taking to the air. We told our teams they had to build superfast trains - but - they weren't allowed to send drive to the wheels.

We challenged our teams to build fire engines in just 10 hrs. They'd have to complete a tight course in the fastest possible time, extinguishing two burning mock jet engines.

Our first team of semi finalists are The Dark Riders, a bunch of grease monkeys from Black pool, who love nothing better than burning up and down the seaside strip. Their fellow semi finalists are fish fanatics from Dorset, who build and design sea like environments, for all manner of fishy friends - it's the Aquarium Crew.

For this semi-final an urn, a cannon barrel and a ship's wheel are lying at the bottom of a 20 feet deep mini ocean. They range from 15 to 45 KGs in weight and are very different and awkward shapes. The teams are challenged to retrieve these three items and bring them back to dry land in the shortest possible time.

For the final we challenged our teams to build aircraft tow tugs in just 10 hrs. They'd have to complete a 200m straight-line course pulling a 747 jumbo jet that weighed in at 155 tons.

It's the grand final so both our teams are fighting to lift the rings of steel trophy and a place in the scrapheap history books. They'll have to construct amphibious vehicles and engines are banned. So both teams are going to have to rely solely on muscle power to drive themselves on land and water.

In our very first episode, we asked 2 teams to build hovercraft. The results were pitiful at best. Only one team made it round, but had to be pushed the whole way. To celebrate our tenth birthday, we decided to re-create that inaugural challenge - But this time round, our teams will had to cross land and water, whilst carrying all three team members.

Once again Scrapheap has opened its rusty garage doors and thrown down the oily gauntlet to the great bodging British public. Sixteen teams of backyard bodgers from around the UK had the chance to battle it out for the chance to take on Scrapheap Allstars.

We challenged teams from around the country to adapt everyday objects from around the house to create pieces of magnificent motorised furniture.

We look back at ten years of Scrapheap Challenge.