| 23 & 24 April |
Two teams, each with a girl, modify these otherwise boring commuter cars for drag racing. One team opts for nitrous, and the other for an aftermarket turbo. The driver of the turbo car is the 2004 fastest female drag racing champion. They paint her car pink. One car blows up. Who knew that Neons could do all this?
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| 30 April & 01 May |
Different strategies throughout: one very experienced team swaps in a big VR6 motor from another VW while a less experienced team bolts on a supercharger. Lots of tension between the teams, and lots of trash talking. Everyone has an opinion on the other team’s build.
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| 07 & 08 May |
The old guys versus the young guns: the younger team makes a hot-looking modern car, while the older guys concentrate on engine and driveline for the drag race. But the old guys have lots of problems getting their car started and when the young guys swagger over to help, a fight breaks out.
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| 14 & 15 May |
Two young teams, all crazy about horsepower, and arguably with some dodgy ideas about what looks good on a car. Lots of fun fur in the interiors. But the biggest issue is that these guys are pretty inexperienced in the garage: they know everything when they’re on their internet forums, but can they actually use the big tools we give them? Lots of mayhem.
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| 21 & 22 May |
If you were walking down the street and saw the lowrider guys, with their tattoos and piercings, walking towards you, you’d probably cross the street. But they’re big softies, and they are incredibly passionate about their chosen cars and their hydraulic hopping systems. These boys are old school. With Buffalo’s Rollerz Only, the most prestigious lowrider club, going against Toronto’s True Playaz, lots is at stake. Great welding and chassis reinforcement, 700lbs of batteries in each car, and one team hacks the roof off!
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| 28 & 29 May |
It’s about “laying frame.” How close can you get the truck to the ground? Air suspensions allow these teams to drop the truck to the ground and also to make it dance when they’re “hitting the switches.” Two teams of experienced mini-truck enthusiasts, including a very competent girl, have three days to make dancing show trucks. One team completely encloses the bed and builds a trick stereo and air installation in its place. The other team is all about the hot bodywork and paint. Wild trucks. Wild personalities behind them.
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| 04 & 05 June |
Rally racing is about going through the gravel or snow-covered roads of the woods at top speed; an all-wheel-drive Subaru Turbo is the car to do it in. Two teams of rally lunatics, including a girl on each team, have three days to build their rally dream cars. Lots of improvements in power and safety are on tap, and some cracks emerge between the team members. The rally at the end is a nail-biter.
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| 11 & 12 June |
Think you can drive up a 45-degree slope covered with rocks? These guys can. And they take bone-stock Jeep YJs and make them capable of it. Furthermore, it becomes evident that Jeep guys never leave another person in the field. But if you’re with the team and can’t carry your weight, watch out! Some of these guys are very demanding of their teammates, and tempers get high. On the final rock crawl, finesse is everything, but that doesn’t stop one of the Jeeps rolling off the side of the hill!
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| 18 & 19 June |
When this car was first released in North America it was a fairly boring faux-sports car. But with the invention of a new sport – drifting, or the art of sliding a car sideways with smoking tires in a points-based competition – this Nissan has become the focal point of the drifting culture. And two teams of obsessed drifters take different strategies: for one it’s all about power, with a turbo engine swap, and for the other it’s all about suspension and driver skill. When they get to the track, the smoke from the rear tires is still burning in the teams’ eyes as they find out which strategy wins.
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| 25 & 26 June |
They’ve been hot-rodded ever since they were invented. They’re an icon. And we got two good originals and turned them over to a bunch of maniacs to hack apart! One team goes with a California beach cruiser with a radical flame paint job and a clean look. The other team chops the top and makes a 50’s-style cruiser, but with a full race motor. Beetles are great drag cars, and these radical cars look pretty amazing at the drag strip. Who wins? It depends on which team can make their big personalities work together…
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| 02 & 03 July |
Classic muscle cars, classic guys on the team. We found two straight originals and turned them over: one team goes with a modern “dub” look with a clean paint scheme and big, big wheels, and the other team goes with a more traditional look but focuses on big engine mods for power. And at the end, these cars drag race fast. There are a few eccentric guys on the build, and this creates lots of dramatic tension on the teams. Big muscle cars, big muscle talk.
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| 09 & 10 July |
One of the most innovative cars ever, with a tiny engine that, if you know what you’re doing, can be made to outperform a big American V8. Two teams of very experienced rotary engine specialists are let loose on two clean original cars. The results, for all-out track racing, are spectacular. And who on these teams is the real deal, and who are the pretenders? It all becomes evident during the build, and then the results are plain to see on the track. Only the lap times count.
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