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Volvo: Safety Beyond the Star RatingsBest Monster Trucks: Did Your Favorite Make It?
Who doesn’t love a high flying, car crushing, donut spinning good time? Here’s the best monster trucks of all time. Who’s your favorite?
Big Wheels, Big Engines, and Crushed Cars
I remember my first monster truck show back when I was a little kid. I stared in amazement as these huge machines with eccentric styles made a ton of noise as they flew through the air and destroyed scrapped cars. There isn’t a kid out there that doesn’t love the idea of monster trucks, and there are a lot of adults who have grown up enjoying the motorsport show too. With the 2021 Monster Jam Season having come to the end, we decided it’d be fun to look back at some of the best monster trucks from over the years before we see these behemoths rumble stadiums again in 2022. Did your favorite make it?
Mohawk Warrior
We’ll start with the Guinness World Record holder for fastest monster truck at 100.31 mph, Mohawk Warrior. This truck was originally known as An Escalade, because that’s exactly what it was, a black Cadillac Escalade with some classy spinner rims. The Mohawk Warrior still carries its Escalade resemblance today, but a more punk rock design than the luxury one we typically see from Cadillac. The giant mohawk hairdo on top of this jacked up SUV was inspired by its original driver, George Balhan, and his similar rockin’ hair style. I guess that’s one way to nail down a sponsorship with Great Clips.
Monster Energy
Monster Energy drink loves to sponsor motorsports like rally racing, NASCAR, and even Monster Jam. The company has featured two monster truck designs since 2012, one being another Cadillac Escalade and the other being a Ford F-150. The group has had multiple drivers put on a show and climb to a podium spot at the Monster Jam World Finals, but they’ve yet to secure a win there. Here’s to hoping that this energy drink company can make a splash at next year’s event, because the Monster Energy drivers really give it their all.
Avenger
Who doesn’t love watching classic cars burn rubber and pop wheelies? Well Jim Koehler has you covered with his 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air monster truck called Avenger. While the Avenger nameplate was originally crushing cars as a Chevrolet S-10 back in ‘97, the lifted classic we’ve come to love has been around since 2002. Avenger has been a staple to Monster Jam for over 20 years and it has been through numerous championships and dozens of different paint schemes. I guess you could say Jim agrees with us when it comes to which cars are the best to restore.
Raminator
While other monster trucks may take after Ford and GM products, Raminator goes a different manufacturer route. It was originally a Dodge sponsored team and it was based on a 2002 Dodge Ram 1500. Today, Raminator resembles a 2020 RAM 1500 Power Wagon and it’s joined by a sibling truck known as Ramunition that looks like a 2019 RAM 2500 Power Wagon. Both RAM monster trucks stay true to the trucks they’re based on as they’re powered by supercharged HEMI engines, just 2000+ horsepower ones. While Raminator and Ramunition aren’t always in Monster Jam lineups, the duo does carry a number of championships and Raminator driver Mark Hall even has a Guiness World Record for the most monster truck national championship wins with 25 total.
El Toro Loco
Breaking into the more unique designs of Monster Jam, we look at El Toro Loco. “The Crazy Bull” has been charging around stadiums since 2001 and looks like a raging bull mixed with a pickup. The monster truck design even implements a snorting element by controlling a smoke machine that shoots out its nostrils. The El Toro Loco team has won some championships since its debut, including a 2004 Monster Jam World Finals Freestyle win that it unfortunately had to share. Speaking of freestyle, this truck has been known to push itself to go off jumps and show off even after losing a wheel. Seems pretty “loco” to me.
Megalodon
Ever heard the term “jumped the shark”? Well, the giant shark shaped truck named Megalodon flipped that idiom on its head as it holds the Guinness World Record for most monster trucks jumped by a monster truck. The deep-sea beast on four wheels has become a crowd favorite at Monster Jam events partly in thanks to its Jaws inspired exterior, but this monster truck does more than just look cool. Since Megalodon’s introduction in 2017, the truck has won two Monster Jam Triple Threat Series championships. Not too shabby for a fish out of water.
Batman
We’ve talked about superhero cars and even the Batmobile itself, but we haven’t mentioned the monster truck known as Batman yet. Its design takes inspiration from the Tim Burton movie adaptation of the Batmobile and was originally intended to be a DC Comics marketing stunt alongside a Superman monster truck. The Batman monster truck’s crowning achievement came when John Seasock took the wheel in 2007 and went on to win back-to-back Monster Jam World Finals Racing Championships. It’s been a bit since we saw this Dark Knight inspired monster truck fly through the air, but maybe we’ll see a rebirth of Batman featuring that new muscle car design found in the upcoming movie.
Maximum Destruction (MAX-D & Goldberg)
Now for one of the biggest names in the sport, Tom Meents and Maximum Destruction. Meents has been crushing cars since ‘93 and has a long resume of accomplishments. He has numerous Monster Jam World Finals Championships with six in racing and five in freestyle. Meents and Max-D also have a Guinness World Record for the longest monster truck stoppie at 63.77 meters. Couple that with Meent’s wild driving style, and It’s easy to see why Maximum Destruction is a major fan favorite. Fun fact about the creation of this iconic monster truck, the design originally debuted in 2000 as joint effort with WCW wrestler Goldberg. The truck ran as Goldberg for one year before WWF bought WCW, leaving Meents with the truck and allowing him to eventually rebrand as the Maximum Destruction we know today.
Bigfoot
We wouldn’t even be making this list if it hadn’t been for the original monster truck that started it all, Bigfoot. While lifted trucks weren’t out of the norm before Bob Chandler, he was one of the first people to craft a real monster and start crushing cars. The first Bigfoot started as a 1974 Ford F-250 that Chandler heavily modified with 48” tires, a military under carriage with four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering, plus a heavily modified big block boat engine under the hood. Bigfoot was paraded around tractor pulls and mudding competitions as a promotion for Chandler’s 4×4 shop. From there, the monster truck only got bigger and more widely known.
Bigfoot has become a monster truck folk hero of sorts. It’s held numerous firsts besides just being the first, like being the first electric monster truck and the first monster truck to jump over a Boeing 727 airplane. Bigfoot also holds the record of largest monster truck. That version of the famous monster truck featured the inclusion of tires that were 10 feet tall and famously promoted monster truck events by driving through cities with a police escort.
Grave Digger
While Bigfoot may have been one of the first to do it, Grave Digger has been the most popular monster truck of all time. The Grave Digger nameplate started out with long time driver and owner Dennis Anderson behind the wheel in 1982, but the ‘50s panel van design didn’t start until 1984 with the iconic graveyard paint scheme following soon after. Anderson and Grave Digger have amassed a long list of wins over the years, including four Monster Jam World Finals Championships with two in racing and two in freestyle.
Dennis Anderson retired from being the Grave Digger driver back in 2017, but his children have filled in and continued to keep the monster truck’s legacy in the Anderson family. The Grave Digger went on to win another World Finals Championship and holds the Guinness World Records for longest monster truck wheelie and highest monster truck ramp jump. Grave Digger also holds the honor of having the most toys created of it with Hot Wheels, RC cars, and ride-on cars all having worn the monster truck’s design. Next year marks the 40th anniversary of Grave Digger, one of the most widely recognized and favorited monster trucks of all time.
