About this season
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 as a completely different TV series. 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.
Episodes (17)
1. Scrap Speed Record
Aired 27 April 2008
To get the series off to a smashing start, the first episode challenges the teams to break one of Scrapheap's longest-standing records. Back in series six, The Catalysts set a top speed of 72mph in the Grand Prix Challenge. Now The Rocketeers, a team of pyrotechnicians from Bath, and The Brum Brums, motor mechanics from Birmingham, are challenged to beat that time, in the scrap speed record attempt. Where better to do it than historic Pendine Sands, the spiritual home of British land speed record attempts? The teams are under expert scrutiny as they attempt to race their way into the 'heap record books - this week's judge is two-time land speed record-holder Richard Noble.
2. Scooter Shooters
Aired 4 May 2008
This week's mechanical migraine promises to be a Scrapheap classic. The teams must build contraptions to throw a 100-kilogramme scooter as far as they can, without the help of compressed gas or gunpowder. The Balloonatics, a trio of hot air balloonists from Liverpool, take on The Aquarium Crew, a team of aquarium constructors from Dorset.
3. Superbikes
Aired 11 May 2008
The teams build high speed motorbikes capable of racing each other head-to-head around the twisty Scrapheap circuit.
4. Decoration Dash
Aired 18 May 2008
It's a decorator's dream as two teams compete to build a mobile painting machine capable of decorating a house from a distance
5. Dune Bashers
Aired 25 May 2008
The teams must build super-swift vehicles capable of racing up and over the Scrapheap's very own desert dunes.
6. Powerboats
Aired 1 June 2008
The teams compete to build wave-pounding power boats capable of skimming across the Scrapheap lake. And it's not as easy as it sounds.
7. Rocket Railway
Aired 8 June 2008
Inspired by the sleds used to test supersonic planes and spacecraft, the teams are challenged to build a superfast railway... but all usual forms of propulsion are banned.
8. Fire Fighters
Aired 15 June 2008
The teams are challenged to build fire engines in just 10 hours. They have to complete a tight course in the fastest possible time, extinguishing two burning mock jet engines.
9. Snow Shifters
Aired 22 June 2008
The teams are challenged to build super snow shifting machines as well as having to race up a ten-degree slope in temperatures of minus four degrees.
10. Savvy Salvaging
Aired 29 June 2008
This challenge tests the teams' underwater ingenuity as they build a salvage machine from a stockpile of scrap in order to retrieve lost treasure from the bottom of a mini ocean.
11. Final: Land Tugs
Aired 6 July 2008
Two teams have reached the final and now they have just ten hours to build a tow tug capable of pulling a 155 ton jumbo jet along.
12. Grand Final: Manphibious Madness
Aired 13 July 2008
It's the grand final of Scrapheap Challenge and the Rusty Regiment go head-to-head with Woof Justice for 2008's Rings of Steel trophy
13. 10th Anniversary Special: Hover Bother
Aired 27 July 2008
A blast from the past, taking inspiration from the very first episode, when two teams were challenged to race makeshift hovercraft around the Scrapheap course.
14. Scrapheap Challenge Roadshow 4: Dragsters
Aired 3 August 2008
Sixteen teams of backyard bodgers from around the UK battle it out for the chance to take on the crème de la crème of the engineering world, the Scrapheap Allstars.
15. Scrapheap Challenge Roadshow 5: Ballistas
Aired 10 August 2008
Teams from around the country have been challenged to build giant mechanical bows capable of launching four-foot arrows, making for an archery tournament of epic proportions.
16. 10 Years on the Heap
Aired 10 August 2008
Robert Llewellyn looks back over the highlights of a decade on the heap with the presenters, experts and contestants who've made the show such a success.
17. Scrapheap Retrospective: Series 10
Aired 10 August 2008