Monster truck
A monster truck is a specialized off-road vehicle with a heavy duty suspension, four-wheel steering, large-displacement V8 engines and oversized tires constructed for competition and entertainment uses.
Monster trucks developed in the late 1970s and came into the public eye in the early 1980s as side acts at popular motocross, tractor pulling, and mud bogging events, where they were used in car-crushing demonstrations.
Today they are usually the main attraction with motocross, mud bogging, ATV racing, or demolition derbies as supporting events.
Monster truck shows typically have two main segments: a race and a freestyle stunt driving competition, with an intermission at the midway point of the event.
Races are conducted as a single-elimination tournament on short, symmetrical tracks, which may include obstacles such as junk cars or dirt mounds.
The length and complexity of the track can vary with the size of the venue, with courses in indoor arenas typically being shorter with fewer obstacles.
This has drawn comparisons to professional drag racing, and depending on the promoter or size of the event, may even make use of a christmas tree starting procedure.
In freestyle events, each driver puts on a performance consisting of stunts such as obstacle jumps, backflips, wheelies, and doughnuts.
The trucks which garnered the most national attention were Bob Chandler's Bigfoot, Everett Jasmer's USA-1, Fred Shafer and Jack Willman Sr.'s Bear Foot, and Jeff Dane's King Kong.
Chandler drove Bigfoot over a pair of cars in a field as a test of the truck's ability, and filmed it to use as a promotional tool in his four-wheel drive performance shop.
In 1988, TNT Motorsports created a series to establish the first national championship of monster truck racing; USA-1 and rookie driver Rod Litzau edged out Bigfoot, driven by Rich Hoosier, for the title.
These exhibitions were developed as drivers, notably Dennis Anderson of the extremely popular Grave Digger, began asking for time to come out and perform if they lost in early rounds of racing.
The USHRA's Monster Jam series, now owned by Feld Entertainment, is currently the largest, touring through the United States, Canada and select regions of Europe.
Axles are mostly taken from either heavy-duty military trucks or road vehicles such as school buses, and are modified to have a planetary gear reduction at the hub to help turn the tires.
Most cabs are shielded with Lexan or comparable polycarbonate, which not only protects the driver from track debris, but also allows for increased visibility.
On January 16, 2009, at a Monster Jam event in Tacoma, Washington, six-year-old Sebastian Hizey was fatally injured when he was struck by flying debris from the truck Natural High.
[6] The world's longest monster truck is the Sin City Hustler, which measures 32 feet (9.8 m) long and was created by Brad and Jen Campbell in 2014.
