Cynthia Witthoft - Monster Truck Madness video free download

"Cynthia Witthoft"

Song: "Monster Truck Madness"

Album: "Drunken Orgy In Hell 2 - 2004"

In the late 1970s, modified pickup trucks were becoming popular and the sports of mud bogging and truck pulling were gaining in popularity. Several truck owners had created lifted trucks to compete in such events, and soon competition to hold the title of "biggest truck" developed. The trucks which garnered the most national attention were Bob Chandler's Bigfoot the first Monster Truck, and Fred Shafer and Jack Willman Sr.'s Bear Foot, and Jeff Dane's Awesome Kong, At the time, the largest tires the trucks were running were 48 inches in diameter.

Sometime in the late 1970s, Bob Chandler drove over cars in a field making BIGFOOT the first Monster Truck to crush cars. Chandler drove Bigfoot over a pair of cars in a field as a test of the truck's ability, and filmed it to use as a promotional tool in his four wheel drive performance shop. An event promoter saw the video of the car crush and asked Chandler to do it in front of a crowd. Initially hesitant, Chandler eventually caved in. After some smaller shows, Chandler performed the feat in the Pontiac Silverdome in 1982. At this show, Chandler also debuted a new version of Bigfoot with 66 inch diameter tires. At a prior event in the early 80's when BIGFOOT was still running 48" terra tries, Bob George, one of the owners of a motorsport promotion company named Truck-a-rama, coined the phrase "Monster Truck" when referring to BIGFOOT. The term "monster truck" became the genaric name for all trucks with oversized terra tires.

Both Awesome Kong and Bear Foot followed Bigfoot to 66 inch diameter tires, and soon other monster trucks, such as King Krunch, USA-1, and Virginia Giant were being constructed. These early trucks were built off of stock chassis which were heavily reinforced, used leaf spring suspension, a stock body, and heavy military axles to support the tires. As a result, the trucks were incredibly heavy (usually 13,000 to 20,000 lb.) and most times had to crawl up onto the cars.

For most of the early 1980s, monster trucks performed primarily exhibitions as a side show to truck pulling or mud bogging events. In 1985, major promoters, such as the USHRA and TNT Motorsports, began racing monster trucks on a regular basis. The races, as they are today, were in the form of single elimination drag races, held over a course littered with obstacles. The change to racing eventually led truck owners to begin building lighter trucks, with more power. The establishment of TNT's first-ever monster truck points championship in 1988 expedited the process and found teams beginning to use straight-rail frames, fiberglass bodies, and lighter axle components to shave weight and gain speed.

In 1988, to standardize rules for truck construction and safety, Bob Chandler and George Carpenter formed the Monster Truck Racing Association (MTRA). The MTRA created standard safety rules to govern Monster Trucks. The organization still plays a major role in the sport's development in the USA and EU.

With racing taking precedence, several teams began to think in new ways as to how the trucks could be built. In 1988, Jack Willman Sr., now with his own truck, Taurus, built a new truck which used a four-link suspension system and large coil springs, and that weighed in at close to 9,000 lb. The following year, another coil sprung truck, Equalizer debuted. The ultimate coup de grâce, however, came from Chandler, also in 1988, whose Bigfoot VIII featured a full tubular chassis and a long-travel suspension using nitrogen shock absorbers to control the suspension. The truck revolutionized how monster trucks were built, and within a few years most top level teams built similar vehicles.

In 1991, TNT was purchased by USHRA and their points series were merged. The Special Events championship began to grow in popularity with teams as it had open qualifying spots which the invite-only USHRA championship did not have. The Special Events series lost its Pendaliner sponsorship in 1996, but the series is still running. The short-lived ProMT series started in 2000.

Although racing was dominant as a competition, USHRA events began having freestyle exhibitions as early as 1993. These exhibitions were developed as drivers, notably Dennis Anderson of the extremely popular Grave Digger, began asking for time to come out and perform if they lost in early rounds of racing. Promoters began to notice the popularity of freestyle among fans, and in 2000 USHRA began holding freestyle as a judged competition at events, and now even awards a freestyle championship.