Of all the booth vehicles that were on display at the 2012 PRI Show in Orlando, none drew a larger crowd than the Lucas Oil/MavTV Super Modified pulling tractor that’s campaigned by Rick and Keith Long. It was nearly impossible to get a clear photo of the tractor because hordes of people surrounded it from the moment the show opened to the second it closed. With four blown alcohol burning hemi engines, tires that were nearing six feet tall, more money in blower hats than some people spend on a compact car, and the general appearance of satan’s chariot, this thing is nearly beyond words.
Generally speaking, tractor pulling and its hard working participants don’t get the respect they deserve. There isn’t another motorsport on Earth that uses multiple powerplants that each make thousands of horsepower a piece. Make no mistake, this tractor makes more power than a top fuel dragster. As a conservative guess, each of those engines is creating at least 2,500hp. That number times four gets us to 10,000hp. These engines all run the same style of fuel systems that are used on alcohol drag race cars, they run data acquisition on all those engines, there are four clutch cans, the engines are linked by amazingly complex and strong gearboxes, and each of them is fired by a magneto, ignition box, etc.
Outside of the incredible horsepower these machines generate, there is the incredible expense needed to construct one. The math starts to spiral quickly. As we said before, each of those blower hats is about $2500, the superchargers are thousands of dollars a piece, basically before there is a frame, cage, wheels or tires, or a rig to move this monster with, the tab is going to be $200,000+. Then there are the consumables like clutch discs, fuel, spark plugs, etc. Like we said….dizzying.
If you’ve never seen one of these machines work in person, do yourself a favor and find a pull in your area to check out, even if it is just once to experience it. You’ll never forget the noise and you’ll gain an entirely new respect for the men and women who are so dedicated to this age old sport that began with farmers working out teams of draft horses against each other on Sundays after church.
Make sure you scroll down long enough to see the rear brake rotors. They are cartoonishly massive.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE A FULL TOUR OF THE LUCAS OIL/ MAVTV SUPER MODIFIED PULLING TRACTOR
Awesome machine. I love the fact these machines are generally built to show quality and maintained to that level. Of course, it makes me wonder wht the crowd would have been if it had been one of the 6 engine monsters. If you have never checked out a pulling event…add it to your bucket list
On that note, you should check out some of the European pulling action. 4 Turbines, 36 cyclinder radial engines, multiple diesels each with 3 and 4 turbo set ups… mind boggling !!
Tractor pulling RULES!!! It doesn’t get much better than all that horsepower singing in harmony and shaking the earths core!!!
I,ve always wondered , how do they start these rigs up , one at a time , two at a time or all at once?
I’ve watched this sport evolve over the years on TV. Incredible engineering as the rear engines face backward so that the output shafts all meet in the middle. I’d love to see the gearing for that! Notice the safety straps on each blower? Must be to keep them from going orbital when they explode. Relative to the rest of the thing, the front wheels are cartoonishly small. Personally, the rear rotors don’t appear to be that massive; kinda thin actually. Love it and want now to see one up close!