Jack Willman’s Taurus was one of my favorite monster trucks of the 1980s. The always clean, always shined up, and always American flag wearing Chevrolet was a part of virtually every monster truck tape I owned (ok still own). This was the era where monster trucks were about putting on a show for a crowd, not so much racing head to head. As you will see in this clip, 1980s monster trucks and their drivers were treated like rock stars and conquering heroes by the huge crowds that showed up to see them perform.
In this video, you’ll see Willman handle two of the 1980s monster trucks primary tasks, one of which is done with an oddly cool plot twist. Said twist is the use of the tiny transport front wheels on Taurus when the truck was working against the weight sled. Obviously done to get huge rake and the mechanical advantage to pull near vertical wheelstands while the weight was on the back, the flaw in the program is exposed pretty early in the pull when Willman senses he is heading toward the boundary line but can literally do nothing about it because these trucks don’t have steering brakes. The second thing that rules about this video is the closing footage of Willman climbing up onto a pair of buses and driving across their roofs Think about the stability aspect of this and also What it must have felt like to Willman who was the better part of twenty feet in the air while the buses were bring crushed/drive across. If one of those buses had crushed more and more quickly on one side, the truck would immediately flip off and Willman would be in immediate danger.
Thankfully it all works out OK and Willman gets to bask in the adoring cheers of the crowd.
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE THIS CLASSIC CLIP OF 1980S MONSTER TRUCK SWEETNESS –
