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Man's love for the automobile has been widely documented. We’ve heard all the psychosexual innuendo about red Ferrari’s and seen many a ‘Stop Police!’ video end in tears. But personally, and for many others like myself, nothing can top the thrill of seeing a very, very large vehicle crushing another, smaller vehicle.
This is the joy of the Monster truck. As kids we couldn’t get enough of the gizmos from Thunderbirds, with their exploding, tanked up Tonka trucks, but here, throbbing and thundering away, are the real things, pumped up, absolutely ridiculous, ultimately excessive, but real!
These things have wheels up to 66" high, 43" wide and can jump distances of 115’ long, with heights up to 25’. They burn 2.5 gallons of methanol every 250’ run, with horsepower between 1,500 to 2,000 they can go to speeds in excess of 100 m.p.h. They are called by their owners names such as GraveDigger and Awesome Kong.
As such, Monster Trucks are very accurately monikered. Like many of their counterparts, Monster Trucks are mutated: they began with a humble, everyday existence, and via a series of alterations they evolved into the towering bemouths we see today. And like the genesis of certain semi-namesakes, the first step of creation just fell into place.
A certain Bob Chandler was the man who struck the spark of life. Living in St. Louis, USA, by trade a construction contractor, Bob owned a Ford F250 4x4, but, being in the Midwest an’ all, he just couldn’t get the parts to service his beloved beast. A tenacious man, he had an answer, and promptly started his own 4x4 service company. It was here that Bob had his brilliant idea. The tyres on a 4x4 were already pretty big, but why weren’t they bigger? He swapped the original tyres for the flotation variety, which were originally devised for earth moving equipment. Thus the first creation arose, and Bob named it Bigfoot.
Bigfoot made his first appearance in the public arena in ‘79 at a Denver car show. The kids went wild, and have been to this very day. Bob now owns 16 machines, having made a tasty deal with Ford, and displays these fine vehicles at many international rallies.
But what about that other factor so important in the Monster trucks appeal? The part where a few sad cars are wheeled on stage only to get pulverised under the tread of mightier machines. It seems the point of origin is in dispute. Bob appeared to be our man once again, filming an orgy of destruction in a St. Louis cornfield way back in’81. However, the man who revealed this spectacle to an unsuspecting audience was Mr. Jeff Dane, who, even further back in ’80, at Great Lakes Dragway - Union Grove, destroyed cars with the sublime King Kong. Whoever’s responsible, we owe a lot of happy memories.
The art of car crushing is in decline, with actual truck racing on the assent. However, were ever the tread of a Monster truck has fallen, you’ll be sure to see a furrow of carnage in its wake.
Monster trucks fly the flag for everything noisy, overwhelming and just plain stoopid. But in times of such shrinkage, economy and sensibleness, Monster trucks provide a welcome gasp of gasoline-ridden air.
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