Channel 4 - Scrapheap Challenge: The Scrappy Races - Series 1 (2004)

This manic four-part series takes five top Scrapheap teams and gives them five weeks to build five freakish, monster, mutant motors at home. These basic rigs are then taken on a fantastic, hairy race across England, Scotland and Wales. Four teams of brilliant bodgers have L1,500 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.

Part 1: Agility
The teams engage in a five-week endeavour to build their basic rigs. These machines need to be adaptable, rugged and most of all, roadworthy.
Each team's machine will need to pass a Single Vehicle Approval (SVA) test. This is no ordinary MOT - the guidelines alone make up a 200-page document - and if the teams don't pass they won't be road legal and will be out of the competition.
But it's not just about building and testing this week. There's a taster of what the machines can do in a timed agility test run.

Part 2: Speed Test
Handbrakes off and pedals to the metal. Our five bonkers Scrappy Racers are flying down the M4 motorway to glorious south Wales.
Destination: Pendine Sands. The long trip down is going to be a test of endurance for the ingenious competitors. Can their robust contraptions manage the miles? If they make it, the 'flat as a snooker table' Sands await. They have seen many land speed tests in the past (including the famous Bluebird). Each team get eight hours in a local scrapyard to torch, cut, weld, bash and bolt their road runners into racers.

Part 3: Off-Roading
The teams have to travel 300 miles from south Wales to Tong in Yorkshire. Here, they will face one of the toughest off-road driving courses in the country, complete with steep rubble climbs, sump-smashing ruts and engine-drenching pools.
Pace, toughness and grip are the order of the day. Can the robust racers chew up the muddy trail and conquer the clay? Eight hours at a scrapyard and a sack full of tools should help. The fastest team on race day wins this challenge.

Part 4: Water Race
The intrepid teams of metal-mangling road runners have made it to the end of the series. After building their Scrapheap monsters and driving them more than a thousand miles across this green and pleasant land, the five favourite funsters arrive in bonny Scotland for a watery challenge.
Here at Loch Lomond, they have just eight hours to convert their road-going revellers into seaworthy speedboats ready for a 200-metre dash on the waves. Is this the most bonkers race of all? Of course - it's the final of Scrappy Races!