Bigfoot (truck)
Bigfoot is a monster truck. The original Bigfoot began as a 1974 Ford F-250 pickup that was modified by its owner Bob Chandler beginning in 1975. By 1979, the modifications were so extensive, the truck came to be regarded as the first monster truck. Other trucks with the name "Bigfoot" have been introduced in the years since, and it remains a well-known monster truck moniker in the United States.
Early history
A former construction worker and off-roading enthusiast from the St. Louis area, Chandler began racing in 1975, using the Chandler family's 1974 F-250 four-wheel drive and found that automotive shops in the Midwest generally did not carry the parts needed to repair his frequently-wrecked 4×4. To remedy this problem, Chandler and his wife Marilyn, along with friend Jim Kramer, opened a shop called Midwest Four Wheel Drive and Performance Center in Ferguson, Missouri. The shop moved to Hazelwood, Missouri, in 1984, which remained as Bigfoot's headquarters until 2015 when the headquarters was relocated to Pacific, Missouri.In 1979, Chandler replaced the under assembly of the truck with one from a military-surplus top loader featuring four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering that used 48-inch tires. This modification drew attention and Chandler started making appearances at tractor pulls and car shows with his newly christened "Bigfoot" to show off the truck's capabilities as well as to promote his shop. The truck's growing popularity led to its appearance in the 1981 Gus Trikonis film Take This Job and Shove It.
Chandler's next experiment would prove revolutionary. In 1981, Chandler placed two dilapidated cars in a field, so that Chandler could videotape himself crushing the cars with Bigfoot as a joke. When Chandler began playing the video in his shop, a man promoting a motorsports event in Columbia, Missouri, asked him to duplicate the stunt in front of a crowd. After initial hesitation because of the destructive image it would convey, Chandler eventually agreed to perform at the event in April of the following year in what is believed to be the first public car crush. Later that year, a second Bigfoot, built to help meet the steadily rising demand to see the vehicle and sporting 66-inch tall tires, received more major media attention by crushing cars at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan. In 1983, Bigfoot began receiving sponsorship from Ford Motor Company, a relationship which continued until 2005.
By 1984, many truck owners around the country had taken to imitating Chandler's template of outfitting their vehicles with tires standing 66 inches tall, with some trucks sporting even larger tires. Promoters of truck and tractor pulls, such as SRO Motorsports and Golden State Promotions, noticed the exploding popularity of the giant trucks and began booking several to crush cars at their events, with the eventual result being the advent of side-by-side, drag-racing style car crushing events. A popular example of the early days of monster truck racing is portrayed in the 1986 home video release Return of the Monster Trucks, which involves a truck pull, car crushing, and mud bogging all in the same course. That event, held in the Louisiana Superdome, was won by Bigfoot, as well as most of the events it was entered into in the mid-1980s. By this point, Chandler had already built an entire fleet of "Bigfoot" trucks to accommodate the vast demand for his vehicle, which remained as the most popular and marketable monster truck despite the large number of imitators. In 1987, Chandler added to his innovations by founding the Monster Truck Racing Association, which remains today as the chief voice in monster truck safety.
Another form of competition Chandler faced was the physical size of the competition. Many truck owners had taken to calling their vehicles the "world's largest monster truck", so Chandler outfitted his "Bigfoot 4" vehicle with 10-foot-tall tires he had purchased from a junkyard owner in Seattle, for $1000. The tires had been previously used by the US Army in Alaska on their overland train in the 1950s. In 1986, Chandler built a new truck, "Bigfoot 5", specifically for the tires. Upon its public debut in Indianapolis, Indiana, the truck immediately took the title of the "world's tallest, widest, and heaviest monster truck" and was eventually given official recognition of the title by the Guinness Book of Records in 2002. With a second set of 10-foot-tall tires attached, the truck stands 15 feet, six inches high, measures 20 feet, 5 inches across, and weighs over 38,000 pounds.
Racing history
The fledgling all-sports television network ESPN also took note of the popularity of monster trucks in the 1980s and began showing events promoted by the United States Hot Rod Association and TNT Motorsports on a regular basis. With the frequent broadcasts of monster truck races, the next logical step was to create a championship series of monster truck races. TNT began the first recognized series in 1988, and was dominated by Bigfoot for much of the season. However, upstart rookie Rod Litzau, driving the USA-1 truck, gained momentum and passed Bigfoot in the standings going into the last weekend of the season in Louisville, Kentucky. With the way the points system and elimination brackets had been structured, Bigfoot and USA-1 met in the semifinal round with USA-1 clinching the points championship if it beat Bigfoot. USA-1 won the race in spectacular fashion, rolling over in the process, and took the championship. After losing the championship, the Bigfoot team made the decision to shift their focus less on competition and more on research and development in 1989, as well as running frequent events for the USHRA and USA Motorsports and a limited TNT Schedule.During this time, Chandler began working with computer-aided design programs, and using technology he had learned from professional off-road racing, designed a tubular frame for his next Bigfoot truck, along with a nitrogen suspension system sporting 24 inches of travel. This innovation allowed Bigfoot to possess four times as much suspension travel as those used by nearly all previous monster trucks. Chandler would be awarded a patent for his designs. After testing the vehicle for three months, driver Andy Brass debuted the eighth incarnation of Bigfoot, with the new frame and suspension, in late 1989. It officially made its debut at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis, Indiana at the Four Wheel and Off Road Jamboree in a special 5,000th show for Bigfoot. It made its debut in competition at a USHRA race in the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, reaching the final round of competition before rolling over against Jack Willman's Taurus.
The following year, after running the USHRA races in Anaheim, California, and Pontiac, Michigan, the truck would debut on the TNT Motorsports Monster Truck Challenge points circuit in Memphis, Tennessee, and would find the Bigfoot 8 chassis briefly banned from the circuit on April 5, 1990, due to a rule clarification that only allowed leaf, coil, and coil-over suspensions to be run. Although TNT stated that safety was the primary reason for the clarification, they also admitted that another reason was that Bigfoot 8 was simply too technologically advanced and was upsetting the competitive balance of the series. Former BMX racer John Piant, piloting Bigfoot 4 raced in place of Bigfoot 8 from Dallas, Texas to Myrtle Beach. Andy Brass did drive Bigfoot 4 to victory at the Louisville Motor Speedway. Bigfoot 8 returned to the TNT circuit after the temporary ban had been lifted. Chandler also took legal action against TNT.
Team Bigfoot ended up winning 24 events that season and took the 1990 TNT points championship over Greg Holbrook in Gary Cook's Equalizer and Gary Porter's Carolina Crusher, the first racing championship for the Bigfoot team. Also that year, Piant took the Special Events Triple Crown Championship, in addition to placing third in the USHRA's new point series. After not winning any championships in 1991, Team Bigfoot would go on a 12-year stretch from 1992 to 2003 of winning at least one championship a year, taking a total of 16 series championship victories during that span. In 2007 Bigfoot 16 and driver Dan Runte won the first championship series held by the Major League of Monster Trucks. As of 2016, Team Bigfoot now a total of 41 series championships.
Present day
Bigfoot continues to be in demand. Sponsorships include Firestone, Summit Racing and Vi-Cor. In December 2005, Bigfoot's sponsorship with Ford ended, though was not announced officially until 2007.Bigfoot ceased running events for the Monster Jam series in 1998 due to a dispute over involving licensing of video footage and pictures, and has not returned since. Bigfoot also appeared frequently for USA Motorsports and Motorsports Entertainment Group until those companies were purchased by the USHRA's parent company at the time, PACE Motorsports.
Bigfoot still races for the Special Events Promotion Company, Chris Arel Motorsports, Toughest Monster Truck Tour, Monster Nation, Monster X Tour, Checkered Flag Promotions, and many others.
In May 2006, Bigfoot signed former professional wrestler and Monster Jam driver Debrah Miceli. Miceli drove the "Bigfoot 10" chassis until the end of the 2007 Major League of Monster Trucks season. Miceli now drives Madusa for Feld Motorsports.
In July 2010, it was announced Major League Baseball would provide sponsorship to Bigfoot. For the first time since the first Bigfoot truck was built in 1974, the Bigfoot 10 chassis would now have a Chevrolet Silverado body due to their partnership with MLB. In March 2012, Bigfoot formed a partnership with Robby Gordon to promote both his SPEED Energy Drink and his new Stadium Super Trucks racing series. For the partnership, a chassis initially built for Gordon himself was dubbed Bigfoot 19. Despite a promotional picture depicting the body as being a Ford, this truck would also compete with a highly modified Silverado body.
For his innovation of creating monster trucks, Bob Chandler has been inducted into multiple halls of fame. In 2006, he was inducted in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. In November 2011, he was inducted into the International Monster Truck Museum Hall of Fame with its inaugural class. Former driver Jim Kramer was inducted into the second class the following year. Also, in 2013, Chandler was inducted into the Off-road Motorsports Hall of Fame.
On November 30, 2018, Bigfoot was announced as one of the participants in the new Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live tour being coproduced by Hot Wheels owner Mattel and the Raycom-Legacy Content Company. This reunites a marketing relationship dating back to the 1980s.
List of vehicles
The following is a list of all the vehicles built or owned by Bigfoot 4×4, Inc. Bigfoot #13 was skipped due to superstition regarding the number 13.| Name | Built | Details | Photo |
| Bigfoot 1 | 1975 | In 1974, Bob Chandler bought a stock 1974 F-250 pickup truck. Over the next few years, Chandler made modifications to the truck to increase its horsepower and off-road capabilities, while promoting his Midwest 4 Wheel Drive Center business. The truck was used in local truck and tractor pulls, mud runs, and other off-road events. In 1979, the 1974 front clip was replaced with a 1979 front clip that flipped forward to allow greater access to the engine and rear steering was introduced. That same year, Bigfoot made its first paid public appearance in Denver, Colorado. In 1981, Bigfoot made the first monster truck car crush. That same year, Bigfoot was featured in the film Take This Job and Shove It. In 1982, Bigfoot was the first monster truck to crush cars in front of an audience. In March 1983, Bigfoot 1 performed in front of 72,000 fans in the largest single day monster truck event at the Pontiac Silverdome. It was in competition until 1987. Currently used as a display vehicle, it resides at the Bigfoot 4 × 4 shop outside St. Louis. | |
| Bigfoot 2 | 1982 | Completed in the fall of 1982 to meet demand for appearance of the original truck, Bigfoot 2 was the first monster truck to use 66-inch tall tires, the standard monster truck tire used from that point forward. The truck raced a paddle steamer on the Chattahoochee River in Columbus, Georgia in 1985. Modified in 1992 for the purpose of giving fans monster truck rides in the bed of the vehicle, and renamed SafariFoot. The truck was sold to a private customer in 2000. | |
| Bigfoot 3 | 1983 | Built in 66 days in the fall of 1983, it made its debut in January 1984 at the Pontiac Silverdome. Received same ride-truck modifications as Bigfoot 2 in 1992. It appeared in the movie '. It was donated to E.M.T. Financial Fund in 2000. Owned by Steve Ford from 2007 to 2014, it was renamed Legend and used as an exhibition vehicle. | |
| Bigfoot 4 | 1984 | This truck debuted on July 31, 1984, at the grand opening of the new Bigfoot headquarters in Hazelwood, Missouri. It was the first of the "Stage II" trucks, built specifically as a monster truck and not modified from a stock production vehicle. Bigfoot 4 made its on-track debut on September 14, 1984, at the Riverside Centroplex in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This truck won the first ever side-by-side monster truck race over an obstacle course in January 1986 at the Louisiana Superdome. This truck was the first of the Bigfoot monster trucks to roll over, which occurred in Murray, Kentucky in 1986. In April 1991, Bigfoot 4 became the first monster truck to have a 3-D concept body, and was redesigned as Snake Bite. The final competition for the truck was February 1998 at the Worcester's Centrum Centre in Worcester, Massachusetts. From 1998 to 2006, Bigfoot 4 was used as a full-time display truck. The truck was sold in 2007. | |
| Bigfoot 5 | 1986 | Completed in the summer of 1986 and designed exclusively for use with 10 foot tall Firestone Tundra tires. Bigfoot 5 debuted at the 1986 Fall Jamboree in Indianapolis, and set the record for the tallest, widest, and heaviest pickup truck in the world. Mostly used as a display vehicle, the truck resides at the company headquarters in Missouri. | |
| Bigfoot 6 | 1986 | Built in the fall of 1986. At the Indiana State Fairgrounds in 1987, Bigfoot 6 set a record of jumping over 13 cars. The truck was featured in the 1989 film '. During 1992 and 1993, Bigfoot 6 toured the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, and other European countries. In 1993, Bigfoot 6 and driver Jim Greco completed 160 performances in 164 days in the United Kingdom. It toured Thailand in 1994. The truck was later sold to a British promoter.. | |
| Bigfoot 7 | 1988 | Built in May 1988 specifically for the movie Road House. In the movie, Bigfoot 7 destroyed a new car showroom and crushed four new cars. That scene cost $500,000 and was shot in one take. It also was used in the movie Tango & Cash. Modified in 1995 to accommodate 10-foot-tall tires like Bigfoot 5, the motor, transmission, and steering were removed and the truck was sold to the Race Rock theme restaurant in Orlando. After the restaurant went out of business, it was sold to Fun Spot USA in Kissimmee, Florida, where it currently resides. | |
| Bigfoot 8 | 1989 | Built in mid-1989, Bigfoot 8 was the first Computer Aided Design designed truck. These "Stage III" trucks use a tubular steel chassis design and cantilever suspension system. In its first year in competition, driver Andy Brass and Bigfoot 8 won the 1990 TNT Monster Truck Challenge. Used as a display truck and as a race truck if another cannot attend a scheduled date. | |
| Bigfoot 9 | 1990 | Bigfoot 9 debuted on February 10, 1990 in Dayton, Ohio. The truck was seized by Brazilian customs after a tour in 1998 and has never been returned. | |
| Bigfoot 10 | 1992 | Bigfoot 10 debuted at the St. Louis Arena on January 31, 1992. This was Team Bigfoot's first mid-engine monster truck. This truck won the 1992 Special Events Penda Points Series Championship and the 1999 Checkered Flag Points Championship. Retired after a crash in Amarillo, Texas in February 2015. | |
| Bigfoot 11 | 1992 | Bigfoot 11 debuted at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas in 1992. In 1993, the truck was redesigned as "Wildfoot", and went on to win the 1993 Special Events Penda Points Series and named 1993 MTRA Truck of the Year. The truck set a record in 1995 for world's longest monster truck jump at 117 feet. In 1999, Bigfoot 11 set a world record for monster truck wheelie length at 217 feet, 3 inches. Bigfoot 11 was retired after a crash in Springfield, Illinois in June 2015. | |
| Bigfoot 12 | 1993 | Built specifically as a display truck, Bigfoot 12 sports a retro-styled body based the original Bigfoot. It debuted on January 28, 1993 in conjunction with Super Bowl XXVII in Los Angeles. | |
| Bigfoot 14 | 1993 | This truck debuted at the Louisiana Superdome in January 1994. This truck won its first points championship in 1995. On September 11, 1999, driver Dan Runte and Bigfoot 14 set a then-world record jump of a monster truck at 202 feet, breaking the previous record of 144 feet, 10 inches. The truck set the record by jumping over a Boeing 727 airplane at the Tennessee Aviation Days air show at the Smyrna, Tennessee Airport. | |
| Bigfoot 15 | 1994 | Bigfoot 15 debuted at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nevada in November 1994. In 1997, the truck won its first championship competing as Snake Bite. The truck won championships in 2000, 2007, 2010, 2011, and 2012. | |
| Bigfoot 16 | 2007 | Completed in April 2007, Bigfoot 16 debuted at the Four Wheel and Off Road Jamboree in Springfield, Missouri. This was the first Bigfoot monster truck to have a 2-speed Abruzzi transmission rather than a 3-speed Ford C-6 transmission. In its first year of competition, Bigfoot 16, driven by Dan Runte, won the Major League of Monster Trucks championship. Retired after a crash in the fall of 2012 at the Indianapolis 4x4 Jamboree when piloted by Larry Swim. | |
| Bigfoot 17 | 2003 | Built and operated by Nigel Morris, owner of L.A. Supertrux, Ltd., in a partnership with Bigfoot 4x4, Inc. Bigfoot 17 made its debut at Truckfest Peterborough on the May Bank Holiday in 2003. The truck competed exclusively in Europe. It was sold to an operator in Spain when Morris retired from driving in 2017. | |
| Bigfoot 18 | 2011 | Bigfoot 18 was completed in December 2011 and was the first Bigfoot truck to feature a trophy truck-style body. Dan Runte and the truck won the Toughest Monster Truck Tour Championship in its first year of race competition. In September 2012, Dan Runte and Bigfoot reclaimed the Guinness Book of Records title for world's longest monster truck jump at the 2012 Indianapolis 4x4 Jamboree. The truck jumped 214 feet, 8 inches to break Bad Habit's previous world record long jump. | |
| Bigfoot 19 | 2012 | Bigfoot 19 was completed in September 2012. It is the first Bigfoot truck to make its debut overseas, doing so in Aruba in October 2012. Bigfoot 19 made its American debut in Cincinnati on December 29, 2012. This is the only Chevrolet big-block engine-powered Bigfoot. | |
| Bigfoot 20 | 2012 | Bigfoot 20 was built as the world's first electric monster truck. The truck is powered by a custom electric motor and 36 Odyssey PC1200 batteries. Bigfoot 20 debuted at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 30, 2012. The truck made its first car crush on November 8, 2012. | |
| Bigfoot 21 | 2014 | Bigfoot 21 was completed on December 24, 2014, and debuted in Southaven, Mississippi on January 9–10, 2015, winning a race and freestyle competition in its debut weekend. This truck uses "zoomie" headers that gives it "a very loud and unique sound as compared to other Bigfoot trucks." |
Other vehicles
Snake Bite
Snake Bite is an alternate name and appearance sometimes used when a second truck is scheduled to appear at the same event. The first Snake Bite was originally driven by Gene Patterson, under the pseudonym of Colt Cobra. He wore a mask to hide his identity and came from the fictional town of Cobra Creek, Colorado. Other Bigfoot trucks and drivers have used the identities over the years.Video games
Bigfoot has been the focus of multiple video games. The first Bigfoot video game was released in 1990 by Acclaim Entertainment for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Bigfoot is also the featured truck in the Monster Truck Madness series by Microsoft in the 1990s. was released on multiple platforms in 2008. Most recently, Monster Truck Destruction was released on iOS and Android platforms in 2012.Film and television appearances
The original Bigfoot appears in the 1981 film Take This Job and Shove It, where it appears as the main character's personal truck. This was the first appearance of a monster truck in film. A virtual Bigfoot is used by the character Aech inside the virtual reality universe OASIS in the 2018 film Ready Player One. Other appearances by Bigfoot trucks in film include Cannonball Run 2,', Road House, ', Tango & Cash, and '.Bigfoot has also been a prominent part of animated TV series. Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines was a 1985 animated miniseries produced by Sunbow Productions as part of their Super Sunday anthology series. A self-aware version of Bigfoot was one of the main characters of the animated series, The Power Team; it was included to advertise the NES game. A Discovery Kids TV series called ' was released in 2006.
Legacy
Bigfoot was listed by Hot Rod magazine as one of 100 most influential vehicles in the history of hot rodding for its February 2009 issue, it was ranked 69th.The truck also entered the International Monster Truck Hall of Fame in 2011.