Monster Truck 'Slingshot' Crashes and Entertains at Modified Nationals 2011

A Monster Truck demo was one of the many attractions to see at Modified Nationals 2011 at the East of England Showground in Peterborough 28th & 29th of May.  I was actually genuinely excited at the prospect of seeing The 'Slingshot' Monster Truck as I cannot resist the spectacle of a bit of motoring carnage.  I arrived slightly early and set up my camera in anticipation.  As I waited for the show and the crowd grew around me I thought back to my childhood days when I would dream about driving the iconic Monster Truck 'Bigfoot' and especially the thought of being able to drive it over other cars.

During the 1970's (a phrase often uttered by someone who is older than they'll admit) modified pickup trucks started to become more and more popular at shows on the other side of the pond.  It wasn't very long before competitions were held to see who could create the biggest truck with bigger and bigger trucks entering each year, ultimately giving birth to the famous 'Bigfoot' Monster Truck with all of it's extreme modifications and the 48 inch tyres that I remember yearning after in my childhood.

In 1981 Bob Chandler not only decided to test the ability of 'Bigfoot' by driving it over some scrap cars in a field but decided to video the test to use as promotional material for the heavily modified, huge, monster truck.  That video inadvertently created the iconic image we all know and love of a monster truck crushing cars by driving over them.  Bob probably didn't realise quite what he was starting but it has inspired the Monster Truck scene to grow and grow with ever bigger, faster, and more exciting trucks being engineered with more modifications year on year.  I mean, have you ever seen a Monster Truck demo that didn't involve the Monster Trucks crushing some cars in some way?  No?  Well that's down to Bob Chandler.  'Bigfoot' may well not have been the first truck to drive over some scrap cars as there were comparable Monster Trucks called 'Bear Foot' and 'King Kong' around at the same time and they were equally huge, heavily modified, and capable vehicles.  What Bob Chandler and 'Bigfoot' did was simply bring the scene to the forefront of people's attention with 'Bigfoot' becoming the iconic vehicle on the scene.  It wasn't long before Bob was improving his original design and by 1982 he was driving a new version of Bigfoot with 66 inch tyres on.  Bob didn't sit back and relax though and constantly rebuilt and re-engineered the iconic automobile, launching a new version in 1989 called 'Bigfoot VIII' which featured a full tubular chassis, long travel suspension using cantilevers and nitrogen shock absorbers for control.  Once more Bob had revolutionised the Monster Truck scene and again more and more people started to follow suit, copy his design, and build similar vehicles.

The Monster Truck scene has been described as the motoring equivalent of professional wrestling, which when you consider some of the names given to the trucks themselves, and the accusations regarding rigging races between 'Bigfoot' and 'Grave Digger' in order to please the crowd, it does seem a fitting description.  The accusations of rigging races has always been fervently denied - much like with pro wrestling - but whether the actual races are rigged or not, the racing's certainly a spectacle to behold.  Who cares who wins when it's just so great to watch?  So with vehicles like 'Bigfoot' being splashed over the TV and magazines here in the UK since the 1980's, and with the odd appearance of the well known 'Bigfoot' Monster Truck at events on this side of the pond it was only ever going to be a matter of time before an Englishman said to himself, "I want one of those."

Since those days more and more people in the UK have created their own Monster Trucks and now there are even national competitions.  Santa Pod host the UK Monster Truck Nationals which not only features a Monster Truck showdown, racing, 6 way car crushing and freestyle event but actually also does feature professional wrestling too!!  The UK Monster Trucks that can be seen this year are:  'Grim Reaper' - 1999 Chevrolet Pickup with a Chevy big block, 'Big Pete' - lorry cab aluminium body with a Chevy V8 big block, Swamp Thing - 2004 Ford F350 with a Methanol injected 540 cubic inch tall block, 'Crusher' - 1997 Ford F150 with a 514 cubic inch blown injected Ford racing engine, 'Podzilla' - Chevrolet CK 1500 with a 502 cubic inch blown methanol engine and of course 'Slingshot'- 2004 Chevy Silverado with a Blown Methanol 540 Merlin engine.

The UK based 'Slingshot' Monster Truck is owned and run by Karl Swallow, with lots of support from friends and family.  Karl was already well-known amongst the customised pickup truck fraternity having had 15 years experience within the industry so Monster Trucks were the next step for him.  In 2004 Karl ran the newly created custom Monster Truck 'Slingshot' in an event at Hop Farm which fuelled an obsession with the vehicles ever since.  In 2005, while still running a petrol powered engine considered to be uncompetitive, Karl and 'Slingshot' achieved 3rd place in the European Monster Truck Racing Championship which spurred him onto to modify the truck further and make it more powerful.  Before long Slingshot was upgraded with a Blown Methanol Engine which produces 1800bhp, the F-106 Centers and Clark Planeteries that the majority of Monster Trucks run with and  Transmission was also changed from a turbo 400 transmission to a Coan 2 speed.

So there I was, in the Peterborough Showground, stood at the edge of the arena, scrap cars clearly in front of me ready to be driven over, and the sort of motoring excitement welling up and growing inside me that will pretty much reduce any adult into an 8 year old boy.  The first two jumps across the cars went smoothly with Karl piloting the flying Monster Truck safely over the line of four cars.  This was fantastic to see and made me think about how often I've wished I could do just that while sitting in traffic.  The third run however was taken a little bit over-enthusiastically.  Whether or not the success of the first two runs had increased his confidence or merely his adrenaline, you could see a rapid increase in speed on the third approach.  You can see from the video how much further the Monster Truck jumps from the first car as it loses control flying up vertically and landing awkwardly on the rear wheel twisting it around - ironically just in front of a sign advertising another event called, "The Wheel of Death".  The crowd were shocked and I could almost not believe it was happening right in front of my eyes and my camera.  The ambulance rushed in and the fire marshals rushed to deal with the methanol fire spewing out the back of the truck.  Along with the ambulance to rescue the driver and the fire crew to make-safe the sideways monster, there was also a JCB that pottered out ready to pick the truck up back onto it's wheels.  The presence and fast response of the JCB made me realise that such crashes must be quite commonplace for Karl and 'Slingshot'.  I don't know who provides Karl with his modified car insurance but judging by his regular record of accidents I'm sure that his claim forms would make for some interesting reading.  As the ambulance crew, who could only be commended for their speed, recovered Karl, he waved that he was okay in reassurance to the crowd and that the crash was just an accepted part of his job. 

In fact he didn't really seem bothered at all and when asked in the post-crash interview, "So what happened there?" he casually answered, "It ended up the wrong way up,"  thus dismissing the potentially serious implications of the crash.  He followed this up with such statements as, "Sometimes that happens" and, "I'm laughing my head off even when it's upside down."  So it would be safe to say that Karl is a man with very little fear - possibly a daredevil - possibly an idiot - but whatever he is he's definitely entertaining.  I, for one, am grateful that there are people like Karl driving vehicle's like Slingshot here in the UK, risking life and limb all for our viewing pleasure.  After all, we wouldn't want to have to travel all the way to America just to see a big truck would we?