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Bangshift Mini-Feature Re-Run: Bigfoot


Bangshift Mini-Feature Re-Run: Bigfoot

Every BangShifter out there has one vehicle that strikes at the heart of his gearhead self. For us, that vehicle is Bigfoot 1. Unbeknown to us, Bigfoot 1 and a 35th anniversary Bigfoot truck were on display at the SEMA show a couple years back, and we spent oodles of time with them. Throw rocks at us if you want, but we’d say that no list of influential vehicles in the history of American motorsports can leave Bigfoot 1 out of one of the top three spots. It is the only vehicle to literally invent a genre of motorsports.

Click here to fast-forward to our Bigfoot photo gallery from SEMA.

Created in the mid 1970s by the hands of Bob Chandler, the owner of Midwest Four Wheel Drive, Bigfoot started out as a testbed for new products at his shop. As the truck grew, the powerplants were improved, rear steering was added, and the archetype monster truck was taking shape. The addition of massive Rockwell top loader axles and 48-inch tall tires from agricultural fertilizer spreaders pushed the truck to sizes and heights that no one had ever seen. Soon the truck was showing up at truck pulls and making parade laps, crab walking around arenas with its rear steering at odds with the front. People loved it, but Chandler was just getting warmed up.

Prior to fitting the 48-inch Firestones, Chandler had taken some video tape of himself crushing cars in a farmers’ field. It was a fun stunt, got some laughs, and made for a good home video. It wouldn’t be long before that stunt in a rural field would launch an empire and rocket a new breed of race machinery onto the stage of American motorsports.

The seminal moment came in 1982. By then the truck was so popular a clone was built that sported the standard rubber for monster trucks, even today, the 66-inch tire. Now looking all the world like a “real” monster truck, Chandler was booked into a truck and tractor pull at the Pontiac Superdome in Pontiac, Michigan. In front of a crowd that looked more like a 70,000 person riot waiting to happen, Chandler rolled Bigfoot out onto the pulling course where two full sized junk cars sat awaiting their fate. The huge truck, powered by an exotic 640ci Alan Root Hemi Ford motor topped with Predator carbs, slowly climbed the backs of the cars as flashbulbs went off in a retina melting blaze and the crowd watched slack-jawed.

At that second, Bob Chandler’s life changed. Both he and the truck became international celebrities. Every type of licensed merchandise hit the shelves (we still have a Bigfoot radio), a Saturday morning cartoon came along, then there were movie appearances, television commercials, and video tapes. It was and is a massive business.

Chandler worked the hell out of Bigfoot 1. He mudbogged it, beat the snot out of it at Gravelrama on the Big Eliminator hill, used it at truck pulls, and generally worked it to within an inch of its life. All on gas shocks and leaf springs!

This is a very truncated look at the history of Big Foot’s early years, but the video below will show you some more neat stuff. Don’t forget to hit the BangShift.com gallery of photos showing both Bigfoot 1 and a special 35th Anniversary Bigfoot truck that the shop built and debuted at SEMA. Make sure to read the captions for more monster truck knowledge. You can also hit Bigfoot’s homepage by clicking here.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY8VFWfxdZA&feature=player_embedded


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