Hooniverse Truck Thursday: Monster Truck Edition

Stark White Is Such A Becoming Color on a Vehicle, Isn’t It?

A couple weeks ago while heading out to The Roar Before The 24, this olelongrooffan passed by the OceanCenter here in beautiful Daytona Beach, Florida. As I was heading south on A1A, I spotted a monster truck pulling into the entryway of that facility. As I was feeling as if I had some really big KaHoonas after my Transporter Truck Thursday, this olelongrooffan decided to try my luck one more time.


Well, my fellow Hoons, I whipped my Comanche into the local municipal parking lot, dropped a quarter in the parking meter, I don’t remember the last time I have had that experience, and walked around to the front of the OceanCenter. The driver of the last monster truck was driving it through the oversized access door and the crew was following it in.
Well Hoons, in typical Hoon fashion, this olelongrooffan just waltzed right through that door with those monster truck guys and the dudes working security at the door never said a word to me! I fricking loved it!
Now I must present my apologies for the ultra cheapness of my 28 dollar ebay acquired image taking device, once again. It works fairly well in bright sunlight but not so well in low level light conditions.
But I was able to capture a few images inside the OceanCenter and thought I would pass them along to my fellow Hoons. And yeah, they offer rides in the back of that truck above!


By the way, as I was loading these images I was checking out today’s Hooniverse Asks question. This olelongrooffan is in total amazement at the depth and breadth of my fellow Hoons. I am honored to be in such esteemed company, without exception.

As I am not much of a fan of this version of motorsport, occassional NASCAR is about as red as the neck on this olelongrooffan gets, I don’t really know alot about them. I may have seen one previously in some of my adventures but I know that, other than on SPEEDTV (I miss my Speedvision) and following one into the OceanCenter, this olelongrooffan has never seen one in action.

As I was walking around this arena, I spotted a dude wrenching on the suspension of one of the trucks, and this olelongrooffan, of course, struck up a conversation with him and found out there are actually more than one edition of most of these trucks, especially the more “name brand” of them, ie Big Foot and Grave Robber. He further disclosed that this scrubbed, but otherwise brand new, tire retails for right at $1,200.00. Man, that is way out of LeMons territory.
So, I headed out to see the display that was installed out on the sidewalk along A1A to draw attention to this event.

I am certain my fellow Hoons will spot so much more in these images than I noticed but

I will note this is a mid-engine 4by4

with the brakes located on the fore and aft driveshafts.

It has, what appear to me, 4 shocks at each tire and

definitely a plexiglass floorboard to see what was just crunched.

There appears to be a blower attached to that honking motor

and each of the wheels was tethered onto the axle with a relatively large cable.

On the way back to the Comanche and onward to the Daytona International Speedway, I spotted the transporter for the Firestone sponsored entry as well as

this mini Monster Truck.

And although this olelongrooffan knows it is Honda powered,

I will leave the determination of its displacement, original two wheeled origin and output to our esteemed Two Wheel Tuesday editor.

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  1. SSurfer321 Avatar
    SSurfer321

    When I was younger, on every 4th of July we would pile into the Ski Nautique and motor down the Maumee River into Downtown Toledo. There was never a better seat in the house than directly below the pyrotechnics.
    One fateful year our seat was exceptionally spectacular. As we sit around waiting for night to fall, we begin to hear a faint rumble. As the area is a No Wake Zone we just assumed it was a big bore powerboat idling up on us, but the pitch was too high. It was turning thousands more RPMs than no wake would allow. We turn around and what do we see?
    A late model Ford Pickup!
    <img src="http://www.trucksgonewild.com/reviewpics/float1.jpg"&gt;
    A local resident, as it turned out, built and owned monster trucks. That year he decided to drive it right into the river to enjoy the festivities.
    I've been in love with them ever since.
    Thanks olelongrooffan for stirring up a fantastic old memory.
    *not actual photo of actual truck. Thank you to FullSizeBronco.com for helping to illustrate my point.

  2. lilwillie Avatar

    Back in the day we used to catch the Monster trucks in Madison every year on my Birthday. Same place as a few years ago the promoter got squashed by one. They hold it in the worst possible location during the worst time of the year. I'd love to see them outdoors in the summer really tearing stuff up but when they run them on something the size of a hockey ring, pathetic. Saddest part is one of my suppliers sponsors the show and every year they offer free tickets and I turn them down. I couldn't disappoint my kids the way I was.
    But outdoors on Speedvision back in the day, that was a blast to watch.

  3. Smells_Homeless Avatar
    Smells_Homeless

    Monster trucks were MUCH more fun in the early days before they went to the current drag-style races. They used to run them through the mud bog and before they got the suspensions all scienced out they really crushed the cars, being unable to bunny-hop them. I also remember at least one of them wading into a lake and just floating on top.
    Then again, there was Bigfoot jumping a jetliner (sorry about the quality.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vxv5j7PAk4

  4. OA5599 Avatar
    OA5599

    Several years ago, one of the trucks was on display at a neighborhood car dealer the day before an event. When things got quiet (no other kids around to say "me next"), the driver (Phil Foster) let my son play around.
    <img src="http://i52.tinypic.com/10dttdw.jpg&quot; width="500/">
    <img src="http://i54.tinypic.com/28vgjut.jpg&quot; width="500/">
    <img src="http://i53.tinypic.com/2hi1gs6.jpg&quot; width="500/">
    We were at the dealership for a while talking to Phil, then we left to go eat and process the film. After dinner we went back to drop off an extra set of prints for the driver. The next day we went to the show. There was a line of probably 100 people waiting for autographs, but he recognized us from the day before and pulled us to the front. He thanked us again for the pictures and introduced us to his boss, Tom Meents.

  5. Rust-MyEnemy Avatar

    Last monster truck display I saw in the uk (not a massive scene here) was when I was about 13. I remember a Renault 6, Princess 2200 and a Jaguar MK10 being among its crushing victims. There doesn't seem to be a great understanding here of what a Monster Truck is, any Hi-Lux on a set of axle lifts seems to qualify.
    Good stuff, Longrooffan, I can taste the air, heavy with unburnt fuel, from behind my desk.

  6. AlexiusG55 Avatar
    AlexiusG55

    $1200 may be out of LeMons territory- but aren't wheels and tires exempt from the limit?

  7. chrystlubitshi Avatar
    chrystlubitshi

    if you've never been, go to a monster truck jam. even if you buy the 20 dollar cheap seat ticket (i was about 7 rows from the top of Lucas Oil Stadium (indianapolis)) for the last one i went to… and that was plenty close… there isn't a bad seat in any house due to the sheer size of these machines.
    you owe it to yourself to go see it at least once– bonus for those of you who (like me) enjoy people watching… — it's incredible in person..
    that being said- Thanks for this article. I am impressed with the way you just "sneak" in to stuff.. and somewhat encouraged to start doing it myself…. security at the indy 500 can't be *that* tight… right? might just give that a go this year…

    1. Smells_Homeless Avatar
      Smells_Homeless

      Just from experience, security at the 500 is pretty loose at the stands, but getting into the garage area can be challenging. The 400 is just about impossible. But Moto GP is pretty much wide open. And way more fun.

      1. chrystlubitshi Avatar
        chrystlubitshi

        don't care about the stands at the 500— my tickets are right across from the pits…. and that's where i wanna go…. never been to the 400. probably won't ever. moto GP has coincided with my phone woes/forgetting to bring a camera… F1.. i went for 5 of them… had a camera a few times… and hundreds of pics from those years…
        so… we'll see what mischief i can get in to at the 500 this year……
        also.. must note (once again) your avatar… if you see a guy in a blackwatch kilt in broadripple…. come talk to me.

  8. LTDScott Avatar

    I thought that Bigfoot was a Chevy now? I remember them announcing it recently and I thought it was a travesty.

  9. Lotte Avatar
    Lotte

    I haven't seen any kind of monster truck in real life, but the one that has stuck with me is this version of the Bigfoot:
    <img src="http://static.autoblog.nl/images/wp/ford_f250_bigfoot.jpg&quot; width="400">
    It was an episode of Popular Mechanics for Kids (I must have been in grade 5…ahh, memories) and it has been stuck in the back of my head ever since. I mean, that is the quintessential Bigfoot (I think)! Looking at this Bigfoot here is…well, let's just say I wished the wheels get larger over time. Not that that's actually humanly possible, but still.

    1. Smells_Homeless Avatar
      Smells_Homeless

      That one definitely looks the coolest, but it's slooooooow. And if I remember correctly, it steers like a tank, by braking one side or the other.

      1. Lotte Avatar
        Lotte

        I think it steered, otherwise they wouldn't have driven it around the street with a kid Elisha Cuthbert in the passenger seat.
        I checked; video!
        [youtube pFP4QYE9dgk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFP4QYE9dgk youtube]

        1. Smells_Homeless Avatar
          Smells_Homeless

          Well, there you go. One more case where I don't mind being wrong! Now the tall-wheeled Bigfoot can go back to the top of my personal list. Thanks!

  10. Jim-Bob Avatar
    Jim-Bob

    The destruction of that Geo Metro makes me angry! It would have been a killer base for my planned super-ultimate Metro powered by a Suzuki Alto Works drivetrain. 660cc's of turbocharged, 3 cylinder fury! Plus, the frame horns probably weren't rusty and could have been used to salvage a northern Metro with the dreaded frame horn rot.

    1. zsm Avatar
      zsm

      I'm sorry you saw that. I wish olelongrooffan would have left a warning for you. Other than that, it was another great post by him (and with more sneaking into places). Look at the great replies of these bringing back memories for people! My kids got to sit on tractors, get pulled by one on a trailer, and then touch Grave Robber (not Rob, the car, that would be weird). They got a real kick out of it. I'll be honest, I did too. I got to talk to a mechanic and driver too, it was out near DeKalb and not many people were around that early in the day yet.

    2. Arco777 Avatar
      Arco777

      Given the paint marker on the side, I would bet that it spent time in a U-Pull-It style yard donating its parts before the shell was loaned to the monster truck event.