Whipped sets the stage for TV car carnage

There is no shortage of car carnage videos on the Internet. Now, Speed TV thinks it can translate that to your home with Whipped. Consider it the automotive equivalent of ABC's Wipeout show, where contestants will compete in four automotive-obstacle-course challenges.

The catch? Contestants have to use their own cars.

“People have been very willing to take a chance. They see the glory behind it and the opportunity to get the car of their dreams,” producer Jonathan Arthur said. “On the day we are explaining the first obstacle to them--and they are face to face with a menacing-looking battering ram or a giant metal barrel--they may change their tune a bit.”

Whipped will air in 2012. In each episode, four contestants compete in an automotive obstacle course including various metal contraptions and giant swinging objects that can take off some paint, knock out a window or worse. The final winner will go through one last course, in a race-prepped show car, to see how much will be spent on tricking out the contestant's car. No word yet on whether that includes repairs from the show. We'll assume it does.

So far producers have seen BMWs, high-powered Mercedes-Benzes, Porsches and Mitsubishi Evos, according to Arthur.

“We've already had somebody with a $70,000 Mercedes C63 AMG want to compete,” said Arthur, “somebody who's willing to take it through its paces on our course, willing to get it knocked around--in the name of being the best.”

By Jake Lingeman