Speed with Guy Martin

Speed junkie, motorcycle racer and lorry mechanic Guy Martin takes on a series of three adrenaline-fuelled challenges in this brand new series. To do this, Guy must harness cutting-edge science, learn new skills and call on the support of some of the unsung heroes of British industry, using the best of our design and engineering talent. In this first episode, Guy heads to the USA to enter the fastest road race on the planet; the Nevada Open Road Challenge. Each year, Highway 318 is closed for one day in May for a time trial which sees an array of race spec supercars driving flat out for 90 miles through the desert. Rather than compete in a supercar or purpose built racing machine, Guy wants to enter in his much loved three-year-old Ford Transit van. The only problem is, having been involved in a road crash, his van is currently a write-off.

Guy Martin sets out to become the first person to cross the English Channel in a human-powered airship. Working closely with French aeronautical engineer StÚphane Rousson, Guy plans to sit on a 'flying bicycle' suspended beneath a helium-filled balloon the size of a bus, with every pedal stroke spinning two propellers. Guy learns to fly indoors, at the historic Cardington Hangars in Bedfordshire, the former factory where some of the world's biggest flying machines were created. He also takes a fast jet pilot course with the British military elite so that he knows what to do if he has to crash land. Taking off from Kent, Guy has to cover 24 miles over the busiest shipping lane in the world to reach the French coast: a journey that might take eight hours if the wind is blowing in the wrong direction.

Guy Martin wants to beat the 25-year-old speed record for a human-powered boat. It means pedalling a specially-built boat along a 100-metre course at an average speed of 21mph: a speed normally reserved for expensive speedboats or racing yachts. It's Guy's most physically and technically challenging record attempt yet, so he employs the services of two Olympic legends: Sir Chris Hoy trains Guy like an Olympic cyclist, and Sir Ben Ainslie hands over the helm of one of his multi-million-pound America's Cup yachts to demonstrate the cutting-edge technology of hydrofoils: underwater wings that help a boat fly across water. Guy then builds two different machines that use hydrofoils: a carbon-fibre catamaran made with help from the University of Lincoln, and a canoe fitted with a giant aeroplane propeller, assembled in his own back garden.

The inside story of Guy Martin's fastest and most dangerous speed challenge to date: his recent attempt to become the fastest man on two wheels and break the motorcycle land speed record. The existing record is 376mph; to beat it Guy has to master a special one-off machine. The 1000-horsepower Triumph Rocket Streamliner, likened to a fighter jet without wings, uses two engines, has parachutes for brakes and is steered in a lying down position with two joysticks. The programme follows Guy through every step of the project, from his job interview in Portland, Oregon, to the 'fastest place on Earth': the iconic Bonneville Salt Flats in Nevada, where this daredevil has to learn how to ride all over again, using training wheel stabilisers.