Scrapheap Challenge

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T.C.

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I just discovered the TV show Scrapheap Challenge, also known as Junkyard Wars. I've binged-watched about half the episodes. For those who haven't discovered it yet, Scrapheap Challenge was a British show that ran from 1998-2009. The premise was that a different competition was presented every week, then two 4-person teams were let loose in a junkyard and given 10 hours to make a vehicle or device that could beat the other team in the competition. Some of the competitions involved siege engines, firefighting boats, gliders, monster trucks, cranes, remote control torpedoes, gatling guns, amphibious motorcycles, etc.

I would love to participate in something like that. If the show were still running, I would create a team and apply to compete. But since the show is no longer running, I've come to the engineering community for ideas.

First, does anyone know of any current opportunity to do a similar scrapheap challenge? I'm not talking about a TV show or even a competition -- I want to know if there is any junkyard out there which has made a business of inviting tinkerers to come and create ridiculous things for fun.

And if not, what is the prospect of improvising a scrapheap-challenge type event? Is it possible to find a junkyard with sufficient raw materials, reasonable prices, lax customer liability rules, nearby space to set up a temporary workshop, and a nearby arena for some type of competition?

I live in an urban part of Southern California, and I don't think there's a suitable junkyard anywhere around here. I drove by the two junkyards in my town, and they both looked far too efficient for scavenging. Neither junkyard had any cars (I think all cars go to special facilities now), and both junkyards were light on metal (I think all easily stripped metal gets recycled quickly now). Is it like that everywhere in the United States? What about other countries?

Before anyone says anything about it, I will mention that the TV show Scrapheap Challenge was certainly staged to some degree. The show's junkyard was stocked with a surprising number of working vehicles, and when some rare part was critical to a design, that part always seemed to be on hand. I'm not so naive to think that a real-life scrapheap challenge would be anything like the show. Nevertheless, I think it would be a lot of fun, and I'd like to do it if I can.

What do you guys think?

 
Where did you find this show? I use to love this show and have been looking at Netflix hoping they added it, but had no luck finding it anywhere.

 
I've been watching it on YouTube. Somebody posted many of the episodes there. I just watched one where the challenge was to build a machine that could hurl Minis accurately on an ice rink -- Car Curling, they called it.

 
Not sure about "Scrapheap Challenge" but I thought "Junkyard Wars", while entertaining to watch, was busted as fake.  They were in made up junkyards seeded with useful 'stuff'.

 
Yes, as I mentioned in my first post, I just assumed that the scrapyard was seeded with useful stuff. I recently found a blog post by one of the contestants -- He said the producers consult with the experts before the show and get a list of critical parts; then they make sure those parts all exist somewhere in the yard. However, I don't regard that as an invalidation of the show. To me, the concept isn't "Look at what we can build with stuff found legitimately found in a scrapheap"; the concept that appeals to me is "Let's make a crazy machine with limited time and materials, then put it to the test".

But enough about the TV show. I didn't post to praise Scrapheap Challenge; I posted to find out if there's any way to get a similar experience in real life. Is there an enterprising junkyard owner out there who will take $500 a head to let people build ridiculous things out of scrap, then wreck it again? My investigations have left me discouraged. The junkyards here would never suit the purpose -- they are far too sanitized, picked clean of everything recyclable. What are the junkyards like in your neck of the woods?

 
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