Scrapheap Challenge: The Scrappy Races (Game Show, English)
Status: Ended
Premiered: 2004-02-01
Ended: 2006-02-19
Network: Channel 4
Country: GB
Runtime: 60 minutes
Four teams of brilliant bodgers have £1,500 and six weeks to build the ultimate scrappy racer. They must be able to adapt their homemade banger to face any obstacle or challenge they may encounter and it has to be tough enough to survive a gruelling 1,000-mile journey across Britain. They can spend the money on anything they want to build their base vehicles but the end result must be wild and wacky. It also must be able to drive on the open road. This means it must pass the mother of all MOTs, the SVA (Single Vehicle Approval) test. All home-built vehicles must pass this test to prove they are safe for the road. Only once they pass the SVA test can the teams take part in the first challenge – a race round a vehicle-proving track. Once the racers are street legal, and if they survive the proving ground, they will head out on the road to face four more of the most hair-raising challenges that man and Nature has to offer. Before each challenge, they have eight hours at a real roadside scrapyard to modify their vehicle for the task. If they can't finish the machine in the allotted time, they can't take part in the race. For each event, there are four points for the winners, three for the second-placed runner-up and so on. At the end of the championship, the points will be totted up and the team with the highest score will be declared the winners. There is one caveat: they must cross the finish line of the last test or else they are out of the competition, no matter how many points they have.