Jalopnik: monster truck

600 HP Mini-Monster Truck: Sound And Fury In A Tiny Package

Ben Wojdyla — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:30:00 EDT

Ever wish you had the ruthless power of a full-sized monster truck in a size scaled for garage storage? This guy did. So he built one and there's nothing sane about it.

Bonkers. It's bonkers in a special way only bona fide rednecks with no fear of death or explosive castration can muster. Straddling a transmission hooked to a supercharged engine sprouting zoomies from the sides is one thing, driving it with all-wheel-steering is another, doing jaw-droppingly fast donuts that would make an astronaut queasy is yet another. This guy is a brave and stupid genius. (Thanks for the tip Travis)

[Live Leak]

Hoon Of The Day: Back-Flipping Monster Truck

The Auto Insider — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:00:00 EDT

Rhys Millen's failed Vegas back flip has us pining for more, so we wholeheartedly thank this monster truck daredevil for stepping up to the plate, giving us what we've so desperately craved.

Project Car Hell, Brain Worms Edition: 1941 Lincoln Lead Sled or MOGZILLA?

Murilee Martin — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:30:00 EST

Welcome to Project Car Hell, where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! Today we have a couple of projects that defy easy categorization.

There are the projects that make your friends shake their heads in awe, and then there are the ones that just make them shake their heads, period. You lock yourself in the Hell Garage and tell yourself that the stench of sulfur is perfectly normal. We had a pair of old Lincolns win the last Choose Your Eternity poll, so we're going to see if Ford's luxury marque can keep the string going… against one of the most ridiculous- yet coolest- project trucks we've ever seen.

I prefer to use the CAPS LOCK key sparingly, if at all, but sometimes there's just no choice but to apply it to the name of a Hell Project. When you take a four-wheel-drive chassis from a one-off Alaskan snowplow and perch the body of a 404 Unimog on top: behold the might of MOGZILLA! We're not looking at your usual silly-body-bolted-onto-Blazer-chassis deal here; why, that wouldn't even be particularly hellish! These days, MOGZILLA doesn't quite look as nice as it did when the photos in the listing were taken (and wouldn't you know it, the seller can't seem to provide any shots of its current appearance), because… well, there was a little mishap: "While attempting to set a world record for longest water crossing in a monster truck (dont ask me, I had nothing to do with it) the truck got stuck in the Hudson river in NY and the running gear got water in it and eventually froze up and busted the rear axle gears. The owner tried to replace the rear axle with one from a U.S. Deuce and a Half truck, but to find out that it turned the opposite direction of the existing drivetrain. So now it sits." Right, so it's a mystery Alaskan snowplow chassis- the secrets of which are probably buried in a hole in the permafrost- with an equally mysterious (and dead) drivetrain that rotates in the wrong direction, and the body of a vehicle so beloved by its aficionados that they won't be able to restrain themselves from attempting to tear your throat out with their teeth the moment they see your monstrosity. No problem! Thanks to Ben for the tip.

Sometimes there's a project car that so embodies both sides of the totally cool/totally hell PCH philosophy that its appearance on eBay triggers a disturbance in the Van Allen Belt, jolting hundreds of Hell Project addicts from their slumbers and triggering a phenomenon known as Optimism In The Face Of Eternal Vehicular Torment Disorder (OITFOEVTD). OITFOEVTD- which should be included in the DSM any day now- causes its sufferers to believe that they are capable of bringing the most hopeless Hell Projects back to life, and this early-40s customized Lincoln is such a project. Within hours of its appearance online, I had several tips on it- thanks, guys!- and no doubt many of the rest of you are cursing me for bringing in even more bidding competition for your ~~nightmare~~ dream project. It's a 1941 Lincoln Custom limo chassis with a heavily customized body, which the seller theorizes was built between the mid 1940s and the early 1950s. A lot of talk about possible appearances in car magazines of that period follows in the description, but the upshot is that nobody seems to know the real history of this car… which doesn't keep it from having a reserve price of $17,900. It's got a Ford flathead V8 in it now, but of course it should be powered by a Lincoln V12, regardless of the dictates of 1947 hot-rodding fashion (if the brain worms noshed the last remaining specks of my rational mind and I purchased this fine machine, I'd immediately start shopping for a GMC Twin Six… and a bulletproof vest to protect me from whatever scary variety of purist would insist on this thing remaining Ford-powered). The seller seems to think it will be an easy project and implies that owning it would make even Billy Gibbons hisself look at his own collection and shake his head in despair. Of course! You can't go wrong here!

Monster Fiat: What Would Carrozzeria Bertone Think?

Murilee Martin — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:00:00 EDT

When you're in Tennessee and you have a Fiat X-1/9 parked next to a Ford F350, what do you do? Why, you combine them, of course! This 351M-powered creation needs some work to be a reliable daily driver (the brakes don't work, the fuel is kept in an old air tank, the engine runs badly because it's "cold natured" and so on), but the seller makes it clear that this Monster X-1/350 is a "real head turner." We'd have to agree with that statement, and (given that $1,001 didn't meet the reserve price) we think it should be possible to make an offer this guy won't refuse. Thanks to Fliffknight and a whole slew of others for this one!

[eBay Motors]

Biggest El Camino Ever? Aces High Monster Truck-Car

Ben Wojdyla — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:40:00 EDT

Woo hooo! 11,000 lbs, supercharged, alcohol injected 383 cubic inch V8 good for 1250 horsepower, two and a half ton Rockwell transfer case, and 66" Goodyears. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Aces High. An all steel bodied 1972 El Camino SS which has been transformed in a wheel standing, car crushing, fire breathing (no really, it shoots fire) monster. It holds the record for the longest monster truck freestanding wheelie at 700 feet going 45 miles per hour. While an all fiberglass, higher performance version was recently completed and dubbed Shell Camino, the original version is way more in keeping with Maximum El Camino Day in our opinion. Oh, did we mention there's awesome 80's quality video of the beast in action set to the Iron Maiden riff of the same name after the jump?

[Aces High Homepage]

In Russia, Monster Pobeda Crushes YOUR Volga!

Murilee Martin — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:30:56 EDT

Where would we be without the mighty English Russia? A world as drab as a Vladivostok sausage-ration line, circa 1958, that's where we'd be without our conduit to brilliant Russian vehicular madness. Take, for example, this 50s-vintage Pobeda converted for not-very-well-paved-road use. You know it's sitting on the chassis of some sort of indestructible Red Army truck. Even El Goatamino cowers in terror before the Monster Pobeda! [English Russia]

Have No Fear, Big Red Is Watching Over Woodward Avenue

Mike Spinelli — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 09:00:30 EDT

Lock up your arsonists. It's Big Red, possibly the world's longest (38') and heaviest (29,960 lbs) monster truck in the world, parked at the corner of 13 Mile and Woodward Avenue for this year's Woodward Dream Cruise. The sign also notes Red is the world's only fully functional monster fire truck, which could prove handy if a blaze ever erupts atop a double row of crushed cars. It's a late-30s vintage International Harvester D series, best known as the platform of the psychedelically painted school bus named "Furthur." That was the groovemobile in which Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters crisscrossed the US in 1964, dropping more acid in a year than the entire student body of UMass did in all of the 1980s. But you won't find Wavy Gravy crashed out in this ladder truck. It's the product of Monster Truck Rides USA and Liberty-1 Motorsports, which reports the massive rig will depart from New York City on September 11, 2007 for Los Angeles on a cross-country fundraising trip for children's charities [Big Red Monster Fire Truck]

Video Of Illinois Monster Truck Crash

Ray Wert — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:15:00 EDT

Here's yet another example of why it's generally a bad idea to do running of high-po jet vehicles or smashing of normal-size cars with monster trucks on city streets without adequate protection and distance. This example comes to us today from the city of DeKalb, Illinois. We'll let CBS give you the story from here:

"The demonstration, part of a monster truck tour sponsored by NAPA Auto Parts, featured the truck driving over four cars, crushing them.

"After its third or fourth attempt of rolling over the cars, and getting back down to the street, it appeared to have lost control and at that point careened off to the left into part of the crowd that was watching the event," said City Manager Mark Biernacki. "

The result — seven injured. Remember, only you can prevent unsafe public hooning. So give a hoon, don't ~~pollute~~ do things that will injure others. [CBS]

Monster ZAZ, Y'all!

Murilee Martin — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:30:35 EDT

The Zaporozhets was generally considered a sub-optimal car for use on heavy snow during the Russian winter. However, give a Russian mechanic any vehicle and he'll do some Field Expedient Engineering that solves the problem!

Well, actually, the air-cooled 26-horse engine in this thing probably has some issues with the huge tires, not to mention the whole broken-drivetrain-parts thing- but so what? We love the Monster ZAZ!

Another Russian Car for Winter [English Russia]

Related:
It's Got ZAZ! Zaporozhets! [internal]

The Yeti! Monster Truck Rides on Tractor Tires, Unimog Axles

Mike Spinelli — Wed, 23 May 2007 11:39:10 EDT

Whether or not you think the Himalayan abominable snowman is a hoax, this Yeti is as real as getting capped in the nuts by a sock filled with flour. It's the product of master fabricator Rex Bailey, who built the monster Dodge atop 76" tractor tires and Mercedes Unimog axles. As appointed, the Cummins diesel-powered 3500 can power through snow up to three-feet deep. [Thanks to prplhaze for the tip.] – Mike Spinelli

Samson™ Helps Build Giant Snow Truck [Samson]

Don't Try to Race Gary Numan — You'll Crash

Davey G. Johnson — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 20:45:00 EST

Nothing must've seemed right to UK celebrity Ingrid Tarrant when she took on singer Gary Numan in a monster truck race for a Sky TV series called The Race. We have no clue who Tarrant is, as the only TV we watched while in Europe was CNN International and Starsky and Hutch reruns. Regardless, she's famous enough that they handed her the keys to a monster truck and had her race Numan. While leading she hit a ramp designed to launch her onto some cars at an angle and flipped the vehicle. Luckily, Tarrant is fine, but presumably, Gary won that one. Of course he did. – Davey G. Johnson

Ingrid Tarrant escapes injury in reality TV driving stunt [The Daily Mail]

Bigfoot the Fourteenth: King of Monster Trucks?

Davey G. Johnson — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 13:11:13 EDT

The 14th and latest incarnation of the legendary Bigfoot isn't owned by Bob Chandler, the O.G. monster truck guru who kickstarted the genre 30 years ago. It's the property of one Dave Harkey, who does 35 shows a year, driving his own rig and often working on the truck alone. A former circle track racer, Harkey's truck (with teammate Dan Runte at the tiller, holds the world record for the longest monster-truck jump, at 202 feet. Harkey himself owns the title of Longest Wheelie Guy 217 feet although he claims he's gone over 400 in unnofficial circumstances. Eep.

Tuner Trucks: Bigfoot, Ford Super Duty-based [AutoWeek]

Related:
Bigfoot Waves Farewell to his Twenties [Internal]