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Private Notes
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 bu
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 cu
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 splitti
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
The challenge
In this week's chilling challenge, the teams have to build an omni-directional machine that will act as a pinball in our polar arena. By notching up points for precision prangs on our high scoring targets, the team that scores the most wins!
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.
Their team expert is a development engineer and former motorbike racer from Staines. Do-it-all Duncan Hyde is also an enthusiastic member of the Hovercraft Club of Great Britain. Over the last 10 years he has made no less than five hovercrafts, which his son has raced nationally and internationally.
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!
The Powerlifters' team expert is Colin Spooner, a design engineer from Norfolk who spent many years working for Lotus as design director. He now runs his own company, developing innovations in automotive design and engineering.
The judge
Graham Drury is the man that single-handedly invented and developed the adrenaline sport of ice speedway. He's spent years doing weird things on ice, including racing bobsleighs and wowing the crowds with spectacul
The challenge
A bravehearted bunch of rollercoaster engineers, The Big Dippers, take on the furiously fast Skids in a Scrapheap-style Highland fling. The challenge: to construct a monster-sized mobile machine capable of tossing a massive 300-pound caber.
The Skids
The Skids are our southeast speedsters – a racing driver and his pit crew, ready for anything. This happy, chirpy and energetic team of captain Tony (a reincarnation of Dudley Moore, and Frank Zappa’s biggest fan), Dave and Simon mock, banter and jest so much through the day that it’s a wonder they manage to get anything built! Confident there hasn’t been a challenge so far they couldn’t have tackled, these boys are relishing the chance to get away from precision engineering and use their imaginations.
Team expert and bodger extraordinaire Tinker, aka John Naylor, has a background in mediaeval re-enactment. He runs his own company, called Time Tarts, providing historical props and costumes for film and TV. John is known as ‘Tinker’ for his ability at just that, tinkering.
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!
Team expert Roger Balls is a quiet, considered man from Bedford. A specialist in prototype agricultural engineering, Roger has a habit of over-engineering things and as a result gets called 'Roger-neering' by friends and colleagues. He has designed and built many novel pieces of farm machinery, including a 'mangle' for squeezing
The challenge
The challenge this week is to build souped-up drag boats capable of a truly rapid ride along our aquatic drag strip. The winning team will complete the 300-metre, straight-line course in the quickest time. A firm foot on the throttle and a sure hand on the rudder will be essential.
The Skids
The Skids are our southeast speedsters – a racing driver and his pit crew, ready for anything. This happy, chirpy and energetic team of captain Tony (a reincarnation of Dudley Moore, and Frank Zappa’s biggest fan), Dave and Simon mock, banter and jest so much through the day that it’s a wonder they manage to get anything built! Confident there hasn’t been a challenge so far they couldn’t have tackled, these boys are relishing the chance to get away from precision engineering and use their imaginations.
Team expert Simon Woodpower is an ex-professional off-shore powerboat racer who builds many of his own boats. He has several marine businesses, including a Poole-based engineering company called Oval 316. Simon worked on the Virgin Atlantic Challenger boat that beat the previous Atlantic crossing record (held since 1952) by more than two hours.
The Rally Renegades
The Rally Renegades are motorsports freaks from the North. Captain Kate was 2002 British Ladies Rally Champion and Jason and Gawaine, demon drivers in their own right, now service and repair Kate's car and support her in races and championships. All three know their way around the inside of a bonnet and see their team strength as a quick thinking ability to fix a mechanical problem using whatever is lying around them. Jason is the ‘big’ character of the team, Gawaine is his cynical sidekick and Kate is the organiser that cajoles them into action. They are a team with the drive to win!
Team expert Ted Walsh is a powerboat eccentric. He started his affair with all things mechanical at the age of 16, when he rebuilt his first Land Rover. Ted built and raced countless off-
The challenge
Tractor fanatics the Nuzzling Badgers take on British Airways pilots the Flying Scotsmen in a fraught fishing contest. The teams compete to make machines that will retrieve three Minis floating on a lake. From dry land, the team members must pick up each car by the roof, without hooks or grabs.
Nuzzling Badgers
Country loving, tractor tinkering engineers from Devon, the Nuzzling Badgers (named after their similarities to the furry forager) are Steve Hill, Steve Johnson and captain Gary. These guys are passionate about tractors and have restored large and small, old and new, rusty and rustier tractors of all shapes and sizes, including vintage models right through to the large, shiny beasts that roam today's farmlands. They're jovial, straight-talking, capable and here to make an impression!
Team expert Nick Bunch is an experienced marine salvage engineer. He's been a Scrapheap expert before and has worked at Seastructures Ltd on coastal and river defences. Nick enjoys trekking and mountain climbing.
Flying Scotsmen
Sky sailing, softly spoken Scotsmen on a mission, these British Airways pilots from Edinburgh can hardly contain their enthusiasm for the heap! Gentlemanly and polite, Andrew, Andrew and Paul have great team identity, team trust and a strong working ethos. Their skills come mainly from their mutual interest in building kit cars, buggies and trikes, but there is also boating and agricultural knowledge within the team. With the wife of each being called Heather, this is a strongly bonded team that could be set to soar!
Team expert Andrew Downes has been involved in the design, manufacture and installation of vacuum lifting and handling equipment for the last 27 years. He has owned his own business for the last 10 years and his company, Turbo Vacuumentation, has made lifting mechanisms for various high profile and prestigious projects.
The judge
Bristol man Bob McGrain has more than 30 years' experience in the fie
The challenge
In this semi final, those thrill seekers from Blackpool, The Big Dippers, meet Essex forklift fixers and fabricating fanatics, The Powerlifters, for one of the biggest builds in Scrapheap history. The challenge: to construct a super fast monster machine at least 5 metres long and weighing at least 5.5 tonnes.
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!
Team expert Steve Matthews returns to Scrapheap Challenge after providing expertise for Off Road Rescue in the last series. His team's machine famously broke in half, so we’ve invited him back for another try! Steve’s been building commercial recovery vehicles for the last 20 years – mostly out of scrap. He is a bus and heavy plant expert, but can turn his hand to anything.
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!
Team expert Andy Brookes owns his own haulage company and does all the servicing himself, so he knows every nut and bolt on a truck. He has just finished doing up a Ford Escort Mexico Mark I.
The challenge
This week it's a challenge to see who can build a steeplechaser with horsepower in the Scrapheap semi final: Steeplechase. They must build a vehicle capable of carrying the entire team over six 1.3-metre-high hurdles, without knocking them over.
Nuzzling Badgers
Country loving, tractor tinkering engineers from Devon, the Nuzzling Badgers (named after their similarities to the furry forager) are Steve Hill, Steve Johnson and captain Gary. These guys are passionate about tractors and have restored large and small, old and new, rusty and rustier tractors of all shapes and sizes, including vintage models right through to the large, shiny beasts that roam today's farmlands. They're jovial, straight-talking, capable and here to make an impression!
Team expert George Wheeler from Bedfordshire is a chartered engineer and a fully qualified automotive mechanical engineer. He’s been working at Nissan for the last seven years, primarily in engine testing but also in engine design and project management. He once featured in Motor Caravan Monthly fitting a turbo to a motorhome.
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!
Team expert Steve ‘Dewy’ Dewison from Essex is an automotive engineer and southern centre chairman for the Society of Automotive Engineers. He’s been designing in the business for 35 years. Steve builds his own racing sidecars and won three British Masters Sidecar Championships back-to-back (in 1987, 1988 and 1989).
The judge
Th
The challenge
In the showdown of this series, classic car nuts, the Beasts of Bodmin, take on Essex forklift trio, The Powerlifters. Both teams have shown their mettle in the run up to the final, but how will they cope with one of the hardest challenges to date? In a quest for Scrapheap glory, our finalists will be making cars that can clamber over boulders – Rock Crawlers!
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!
The Beasts made it to the final by first proving their worth as milkmen in AC/DC Dairy Dash with a 4x4 electric car conversion that saw off a challenge from The 7s. They went on to dismiss the Nuzzling Badgers in Steeplechase, hurdling to victory, again, in a converted 4x4.
The Beasts of Bodmin's expert is engine aficionado John Carroll. As the editor of Land Rover World and 4x4 Magazine, John has an encyclopaedic knowledge of all things off-road. He is the author of over 20 books, including The World's Greatest Tractors and The Complete British Motorcycle. When he's not writing, John can be found maintaining and running his own fleet of classic vehicles, which includes Jeeps, Land Rovers and Harley-Davidsons!
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 out
The challenge
This week it's the build to end all builds. Returning champs from last year, The Anoraks, take on the new wearers of the Scrapheap crown, The Powerlifters. The teams have but 20 hours to build what da Vinci himself couldn’t master – human-powered flight.
The Anoraks
Off-roading enthusiasts from Surrey, The Anoraks, Geoff, Lyndon and Marc, were the champions of series seven in 2004 and are back to defend their title. Geoff and Lyndon work in the technology industry and Marc is a 4x4 mechanic. They spend their spare time in Marc’s garage, building and restoring Land Rovers and other 4x4s. Lyndon claims he has broken, crashed and sunk more Land Rovers than he has had hot dinners; Geoff claims to be very good at hitting things with a hammer; and Marc likes to think he is the stabilising influence of the team.
Team expert Billy Brooks is chief designer and director at Pegasus Aviation, as well as a pure genius and Scrapheap legend! Billy has previously been beaten by his rival expert Darren on Scrapheap Challenge and is very much looking forward to battling it out with him for a second time.
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!
Team expert is British Airways captain Darren Arkwright. He met his rival expert Billy in Scrapheap’s first venture skywards, a challenge called Gliders. Darren beat Billy on that occasion and knows that Billy is very much up for revenge!
The judge
Hong Kong-born Freddie To studied architecture in London at the Architectural Association school of Ar
In 1986 a group of men in the US were arguing over who could throw an anvil the furthest. Hearing that some students were throwing pumpkins to raise funds for their school, the men's anvils became pumpkins and punkin chunkin was born.
That year only three teams competed and a mere handful of onlookers watched. Bill Thompson and Trey Melson won with a throw of 128 feet, 2 inches using a machine made with garage door springs.
Since then the competition has grown massively and thousands of people turn up to watch nearly 100 teams compete to throw pumpkins (or punkins as they're known locally) as far as they can.
After 20 years, it's time for Scrapheap to take part - but under Scrapheap-style rules. So that meant just a couple of days' construction time on the heap in the UK before shipment of the machine by sea to the US, where there would be a few days' tinkering time.
One heck of a challenge, given that the locals have a whole year to create their machines. But who could rise to it? Only one team came to mind ¿ The Scrapheap All-Stars of course!
The first-ever Scrapheap Challenge Roadshow in which 20 teams are challenged to build tomato-flinging machines in their garages.
Featuring all the highs and lows and trips and tumbles, this special episode shows just what the teams faced, as well as their many crazy contraptions.
