In the first of the new series, Scrapheap takes to the dusty dunes of a Guildford sand quarry as a team of hot-blooded Lancashire fire fighters take on some nerdy off-road enthusiasts in a battle to build sand-racers that can climb precipitous inclines and dig their way out of the deepest dusty trench.

A brave-hearted bunch of Scottish boffins take on a rabble of right-on rickshaw riders in an epic Scrapheap battle. Following in the footsteps of Barnes Wallis, their mission, should they choose to accept it, is to manufacture machines that can pitch bouncing bombs across water to breach the Scrapheap dams.

This week, Geneva-based expats the Up 'n Atoms face up to the REME Rebels, an all-girl team of army-tank tinkerers in one of Scrapheap's most bizarre challenges to date. Our teams have just 10 hours to build a motorised bowling ball capable of toppling ten-foot skittles on a giant bowling alley.

The Challenge This week's challenge is to build off-road rescue machines capable of lifting a hampered hatchback from a water hazard before carrying it cross-country to the safety of stable ground. With steep slopes to get up and down, sticky bogs to get stuck in and soft, slippery sand to sink into, our teams will operating at the limit of their bodging capabilities. Rough Riders Ozzie Senior, Barry Eastaugh (Bazza) and Jason Lord are three Yorkshiremen who spend half of their lives 20 miles off the coast of Hull on a gas storage platform in the North Sea. Between them, they oversee and run the safety, maintenance and mechanical upkeep of the platform. They have a wealth of mechanical engineering experience ranging from heavy plant machinery to bike and car engines. Barry is a 'guru' of a welder and there's not a lot these boys have not had a go at. The Riders have big characters and enthusiasm to match. Ozzie is a karaoke king and has won many an Elvis impersonator competition (and he is also likely to burst into a song at any given moment). Barry is known for his year-round tan and Lycra shorts. The Rough Riders are guaranteed to rise to any challenge – and they'll probably do it singing! The Rough Riders' expert is Tim Dray. He started out as an agricultural engineer and soon fell in love with off-roading. He has built many an off-road vehicle and has spent a lot of time organising the Camel trophy. Since this period, he has been a consultant to Land Rover, building and designing their 4x4 courses. Bakewell Puddings Nick Marriott, Mark Elliott (Smell) and his nephew Andrew Charlesworth (Charlie) are from the Derbyshire town of Bakewell. All are into bikes and racing (Motor Cross and Enduro). Mark and Nick have been friends for 20 years and have been in the same Motor Cross team as well as in a punk band together. Mark started to teach Charlie to ride at the age of nine, so it's fair to say bikes are this team's thing. Mark Ellio

The Challenge This week's challenge is to build jet-powered speed boats that are both agile and fast. The teams will be competing in a two-part Grand Prix – on jet boats! The race will start with a full-throttle dash up and down the lake and will be followed by the twists and turns of an off-shore obstacle course. Hairy Hogs Conn Kelly, Darrell Hanna and Alastair Nethercott are the Hairy Hogs from Northern Ireland. All members of the Provincewide Harley Owners Group, they are big blokes with bigger laughs who love their Harleys and spend much of their year touring around Europe on them. The Hogs are seriously hands-on and have had experience of most possible mechanical projects. They are rough 'n ready, rugby-playing, Guinness-loving men who are up for the challenge and in search of a 'good craic'. These guys are quietly confident they can't be beaten and should give even the most solid of Scrapheap teams a run for their money! Apparently, they're up for most things apart from a water challenge (ha!). Alan Pickard is the Hairy Hogs' expert as well as being one of the foremost jetskiers in the UK. He runs Jet Shed, the leading specialist workshop in this field in the UK. Previously seen on White Water Rider (series 4), he is a hands-on bodger and technician and previously held the speed record on a jetski – he is currently ranked number three in the UK. Team Ragbo Glynn Myers, Nick Mellor and Colin Bates all work at Smart Recycling, Glynn's plastics waste-recycling firm in Lancashire. Between them, they have worked on everything from factory equipment and heavy plant machinery to cars and bikes. This team are heavily into their bikes and two years ago Nick sold his house so he could buy a Triumph bike – he now lives in a caravan! There is a wide breadth of experience and knowledge in this team and the guys are confident they can deal with anything we throw at them! Glynn and Colin are larger than life in every respect, with 'Hippy

The Challenge This week our teams will have to earn their Scrapheap wings! Norfolk bikers, The Thirsty Knights, and Honda head honchos, The Fireblades, won't actually be leaving terra firma but they will be challenged to build cars that are powered and steered by a propeller! The Fireblades Steve Martindale (Smarty), Chris Barfe (Barfy) and George Wise (Big George) have known and drunk with each other for 10-15 years and work in different divisions at Honda UK. They have a broad span of interests ranging from motorcycle racing, classic cars and Raleigh Choppers to singing rock 'n' roll, Chelsea FC and running marathons! They are confident that between them there is not an engine around that they haven't worked on. These boys like power and speed and as long as it's fast, they don't care what they build! The Fireblades' expert is John Gifford, a Scrapheap veteran who appeared in series 5's Hovercraft. He is one of the UK's foremost hovercraft designers. He built his first hovercraft at the age of 16 and recently appeared in a Bond film as a hovercraft stunt driver. His firm, Griffon Hovercraft, builds vessels for coastguards and the military. The Thirsty Knights Frog Twissell, (yes, that's his real name) Pete Twissell and Carl Verlander (Roo) combine to bring you The Thirsty Knights. Frog is a paragliding Buddhist vegan who likes to play with fire, Pete is a pagan who says he has an empathy with machinery and is to nuts, cogs and engines what Dr Dolittle is to animals and Roo is a welder extraordinaire who claims he can tap dance whilst playing the flute! This team are quirky, alternative and very intelligent. Yet another team who love their bikes, they have owned, built, raced and maintained many over the years. Used to thinking laterally around a problem, they love designing the weird-and-wonderful. Their machine will be a creation in every sense of the word! Billy Brooks is The Thirsty Knights' expert and he's a mad inventor and micro

The Challenge Power Rowers Scrapheap goes back to the water for the latest challenge as The Anoraks take on Maximus. In honour of our Olympic oarsmen and women, the two teams have to assemble a mechanised galley with at least four oars to scull their way around our tricky aquatic course. The Anoraks The Anoraks In this year's first episode, The Anoraks poured cold water on The Hoselliers, a team of fire fighters from Blackburn, as they raced out of our sheer sand trap in Surrey. Deprived of their captain Geoff Turtell for their second challenge, The Anoraks are now led by Marc Draper. Lyndon Camidge joins him again along with Andy Cross an old school friend of Lyndon's who comes in as a substitute. Andy is a plant fitter and HGV mechanics expert. Named after their club of the same name, these three enthusiasts from Surrey can't get enough of off-roading. The lads spend their spare time in Marc's garage, building and restoring Land Rovers and other 4x4 vehicles. Lyndon claims he has broken, crashed and sunk more Land Rovers than he's had hot dinners and Marc likes to think he is the stabilising influence of the team. Lots of experience, slightly batty and a bit posh, these boys are determined to go all the way! Rob Austin is The Anoraks' expert this week. He's an engineer and teacher from Oxford who organises the Formula Schools engineering challenge. Rob worked as a professional fabricator and engineer in various fields before going into education and creating a successful engineering course for schools. He now runs Formula Schools, a scheme to get youngsters interested in automotive and maritime engineering. From his well-equipped workshop in Oxfordshire, he builds and fabricates pretty much anything and is currently rebuilding a classic Bugatti racing car. Top Maximus Maximus Our second set of challengers are the rickshaw-riding charioteers Maximus, who bowled over Irn Cru in the fourth challenge of series seven with their b

The Challenge Spy Cars The last quarter-final mission, should our challengers choose to accept it, is to build a stealthy 'spy car' for use on a secretive information-gathering exercise. Their reconnaissance vehicle will have to carry the entire team both under and over obstacles which are just two feet from the floor, turn on a sixpence and then back out of trouble. They must avoid detection whilst infiltrating a sinister-looking base protected by guard posts, razor wire, security cameras, alarms and laser beams. Once inside, they must limbo, hurdle, twist and turn their way into (and out of) danger in order to steal a top-secret briefcase before making good their escape. Bakewell Puddings The last time we saw the Bakewell Puddings, they were pitting their wits against Rough Riders, three North Sea gas engineers from Hull, in Off Road Rescue. Nick Marriott, Mark Elliott (Smell) and his nephew Andrew Charlesworth (Charlie) are from Bakewell in Derbyshire. All are into bikes and racing (Motor Cross and Enduro). Mark and Nick have been friends for 20 years and have been in the same Motor Cross team as well as in a punk band together. Mark started to teach Charlie to ride at the age of nine, so it's fair to say bikes are this team's thing. Mark is an engineer, Nick is an architect and Andrew is a Rolls Royce engine inspector. These guys are also outdoorsy, sporty, rugby-loving, mountain-climbing kind of people who participate in the annual Bakewell raft race and the odd cross-town wheelbarrow race. They thrive on a challenge and have plenty of ingenuity and humour to keep us all entertained! John Ricketts (also known as Johnny Nitro) is a drag racer of the classical style à la American Graffiti. He owns, maintains and races his 8-litre 1965 Chevy and has been known to fit a nitrous oxide system to a Ford Anglia. When he's not being a petrolhead, John can be found catching tubes (that's surfing to you and me) off the Cornish coast. Up 'n

The Challenge The Thirsty Knights of Norfolk and the Belfast boys Hairy Hogs go head to head as two teams of bikers battle it out in a race across a lake in their scrappy craft. They must rescue their stranded expert before returning safely to dry land and, hopefully, a place in the final. Hairy Hogs The Hairy Hogs sailed into the semi-finals by scoring a victory over the tree-hugging recyclers The Hogs are three fun-loving bikers from Belfast. Captain Conn Kelly, Darrell Hanna and Alastair Nethercott combine the talents of an electrician, mechanic and a plumber and are all members of the same Harley Owners Group. Big men, with personalities and hearty laughs to match, they are up for most things – except water-based challenges. So having come through the Jet Boats challenge, they'll be hoping for terra firma this time. Ha! Helping them is Simeon Oakley, a freelance designer/fabricator who has built a wide range of marine vessels, from boats to hovercrafts. Born in Woomera, Australia, on a rocket range in the desert, Sim grew up in Saudi Arabia on an RAF base and went to school in North Wales. He has worked for a circus, designs and builds interactive exhibitions for science museums and lives on a restored Thames barge. He's a great engineer, he's a very cool customer and he's quietly confident. The Thirsty Knights The last time we saw The Thirsty Knights, they were gliding past Honda head-honchos The Fireblades in their flying car. Captain Pete Twissell, a design engineer, his brother Frog (yes, that's his real name) Twissell, who is a Buddhist and a vegan, and welder Carl (Roo) Verlander are The Thirsty Knights. This team is quirky, alternative and very intelligent. Yet another team who love their bikes, they have owned, built, raced and maintained many over the years. Used to thinking laterally to get around a problem – they love designing the weird and wonderful. What they produce will be a creation in every sense. Joinin

The Challenge This week's challenge is to build motorised flame flingers capable of hurling burning projectiles at our shooting gallery of combustible targets. The projectiles are packed with solid rocket fuel burning at 1,000 degrees centigrade, so it's not just the targets that are at risk; the machines are too! The Anoraks A stroke of genius saw off-road enthusiasts The Anoraks race past the bicycle-building Team Maximus in Power Rowers. With their team captain Geoff Turtell back in harness, Surrey lads Marc Draper and Lyndon Camidge must fancy their chances. Named after their club of the same name, these three can't get enough of off-roading. The lads spend their spare time in Marc's garage, building and restoring Land Rovers and other 4x4 vehicles. Lyndon claims he has broken, crashed and sunk more Land Rovers than he's had hot dinners. Marc likes to think he is the stabilising influence of the team. Lots of experience, slightly batty and a bit posh, these boys are determined to go all the way! The Anorak's expert is Paul Denney. He's an old hand at Scrapheap having appeared on the Egg Shooter (series four) and Giant Darts (series six) episodes. He's an expert in medieval artillery and also an automotive engineer. Up 'n Atoms The last time we encountered the expat scientists from Switzerland, they were stealthily stealing past the bike-mad Bakewell Puddings in their spy car. Ali Day, David McFarlane and Jimmy Ridewood are expats living the life of Riley in Geneva. They work at CERN (Europe's largest centre for nuclear research) and explain their work as Star Trek-type stuff, experimenting with smashing particles together to see what happens. They're science boffins but not in the slightest bit geeky. They enjoy playing on the slopes of Switzerland, rugby, British sports cars and a good pint or 14. They have a background in off-shore work and have nuclear power station training – so there is an extremely solid engineering

The Challenge This week, a challenge fit for Circus Maximus in ancient Rome: chariot racing … with iron horses! With the whole team standing on a chariot, somehow they'll have to control a runaway engine around a twisting race track. Should they survive round one, they'll race again in a gladiatorial dash to smash and bash their way to victory in the Scrapheap Challenge 2004 series final. The Anoraks The Anoraks shot the Up 'n Atoms down in flames with their Flame Flinger in the second of our semi finals. With their expectant team captain Geoff Turtell waiting for his wife to go into labour, Surrey lads Marc Draper and Lyndon Camidge won't want to hang around. Named after their club, these three can't get enough of off-roading. The lads spend their spare time in Marc's garage, building and restoring Land Rovers and other 4x4 vehicles. Lyndon claims he has broken, crashed and sunk more Land Rovers than he's had hot dinners. Marc likes to think he is the stabilising influence of the team. Lots of experience, slightly batty and a bit posh, these boys are determined to go all the way. Joining The Anoraks is Nick 'Rhino' Boyland who runs Rhino Trikes, one of the UK's foremost kit and trike manufacturers. He has been hammering out trikes for 13 years. Before that, he was a mechanic and car salesman in Germany. He also worked as a civilian contractor in a REME engineers' workshop. He has plenty of skills and experience and he looks a bit like a young Meatloaf. So will his creation go like a bat out of hell? Hairy Hogs In our first semi final, the Hairy Hogs were the victors in the battle of the bikers as they beached The Thirsty Knights with their landing craft. The Hogs are three fun-loving bikers from Belfast. Captain Conn Kelly, Darrell Hanna and Alastair Nethercott combine the talents of an electrician, mechanic and a plumber and are all members of the same Harley Owners Group. Big men, with personalities and hearty laughs to ma

The votes have been counted in the viewers' poll of the favourite fastest moments in the history of the show. Will the dragsters, jet vehicles or Grand Prix cars be number one?

The Anoraks take on the Catalysts, battling to win the 'Weld Cup' of British Bodging by building a colossus for the highway: a weight-pulling, petrol-guzzling, giant Juggernaut.

The Challenge After winning a thrilling final, The Anoraks get their chance to take on the mighty Cat-alysts in this Grand final build. They get 20 hours' build time to construct massive machines capable of hauling tons of timber. In this weighty duel, the Grand final winners will be the ones who pull the most logs. The Anoraks With their captain Geoff Turtell absent on paternity leave, Marc Draper takes the armband and is helped by Lyndon Camidge along with Andy Cross, an old school friend of Lyndon's who comes in as a substitute. Andy is a plant fitter and HGV mechanics expert. All four-wheel-drive fanatics, they've had an amazing run of success in this year's series. Beating a team of firemen in their opening Sand Racers challenge, they went on ton win the Power Rowers and Flame Flingers challenges to reach the final. There, they took on the Hairy Hogs and won in Chariots to reach the Grand final. Helping them to try and go all the way is Mark Haile. A lorry engineer by trade, he repairs, maintains and builds them from scratch. What he doesn't know about trucks isn't worth knowing. Cat-alysts Captain Garry Preece, Shane Brading and Tim Wright make up the now legendary Cat-alysts. Jaguar engineers by trade, they are THE team to beat. They have never lost a challenge in the history of Scrapheap. Winning their first final three years ago, they went on to take their first Grand final success with a remote-controlled car. Wiping out the Barley Pickers with a Car Flinger the following year, they capped it all by winning last year's Grand Prix at Rockingham. Helping them to try to extend their extraordinary run is Richard Vincent, a true West Country character and all-round mechanical genius. He builds tractors, steam engines and dragsters in his workshop in deepest, darkest Somerset. The judge Casting his experienced eye over this heavyweight duel is Neal Davis, the chairman of the British Power Pulling association and a long-t

It's the top ten mechanical monsters, as chosen by fans of the show. Will the number one be Car Crushers, Power Pullers or the Car Flinger episode?