Full Metal Challenge

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Full Metal Challenge was a television series made by RDF Media for Channel 4 in the UK and the Learning Channel in the USA. Hosted by Cathy Rogers, the show was very similar to Rogers' last show, Junkyard Wars. It was filmed in the United Kingdom with a budget of approx £6.5 million on location at the disused Richborough Power Station just outside Ramsgate in Kent.

There are initially 27 teams from around the world in the Challenge. Each team consists of 3 people. The teams were all given 1 month and $1000 USD (exchanged to their country's respective currency) to build a car. Their car had to be loud, noisy, big, and if possible, destructive -- qualities relished by the show's co-host, Henry Rollins.

The vehicles competed in a series of events, with each episode showing the competition between 3 vehicles. After the events, the teams each received points based on their performance. After all the events were complete, the team with the lowest score had to watch their car blow up. However, it is likely the car was merely dismantled, and the film edited to give the viewer the belief the car was destroyed. The car was typically driven into a large steel cylinder, at which point an unseen explosive explodes, and the car is consumed in a cloud of smoke, which clears to reveal the vehicle is gone. Since the explosion seen would not be sufficient to destroy the vehicles built, and there is never any shrapnel seen, it is obvious the car were not actually blown up. In fact, in the finale, all the cars were shown in a huge pile at the awards ceremony, proving that the cars had not really been destroyed.

The two winning teams faced off in a sumo wrestling match. The sumo-ring was re-sized for their cars, and was littered with things such as water puddles, nails, sandtraps, and generally anything to hinder or disable their vehicle. As with sumo wrestling, the objective is to push the opponent out of the ring. The winner of 3 moves on.

The overall winning team was "Aquaholics" from the UK.