Todd Helms and Bryan Chambers once worked for Steve Saleen in the Detroit area. When Saleen, Inc. began to crumble a couple of years ago, the two left to start their own shop in nearby Troy, MI. Their company, Alternative Automotive Technologies LLC, promotes itself as a full service company from design, engineering, prototype and production of automotive vehicles to aftermarket performance products or full restorations.

Photo: Discovery Channel

You might correctly expect that to be a reasonably common message among shops in the Detroit area. So it was when the producers of Discovery Channel’s Ultimate Car Build-Off wanted to include some Detroit area contestants, there was no shortage of competition. Eventually the list was cut back to four candidates and Alternative made the final cut.

They were required to participate in three builds. Two they can talk about, but the third one remains secret. One project involved connecting two front halves of a Ford Taurus and getting a functional car out of it. Another involved a conventional vehicle and a couple of tons of tank treads, which you can see in the video below.

At the moment, Alternative is in the running for the national finals and the $100,000 prize that is at stake. It has been a long haul for the group who have gone through three forty-hour ‘reality TV’ sessions with microphones strapped on and cameras in their faces throughout.

“There was a lot of bleeping,” Chambers told The Detroit News recently. “You really had to keep moving and thinking on the fly to get it all done.”

In a few weeks, the final results will be known, but before then you can catch up on the action, which also includes Hovercraft, submarines, spy cars and the tank tread truck. The episode guide is here.