![]() ![]() ![]() “We always get strange stares,” Marilyn Chandler, Bob’s wife, told The Los Angeles Times in 1980. The Ford F-250 retailed for about $4400 ($16,000 in today's money) new, but he got offers to sell it for as much as $50,000 ($185,000 today). If Chandler intended for Bigfoot to be part-billboard, it worked: Locals were awestruck. Business partner Jim Kramer joked that Chandler’s “big foot” was always on the gas Chandler was therefore known as “Bigfoot,” a nickname that he eventually painted on the truck. It was just kind of a vicious circle for about three or four years … the truck gradually got to be its own star, I guess.”Ĭhandler zipped around town in the ever-growing pick-up, his lead foot mashing the pedal as the truck rumbled down the road. Then I didn’t have enough power, so I put a bigger engine in the truck. Then I broke the axles, so I put bigger axles under the truck. “I had a stock and I kept putting bigger and bigger tires on it. “I really never had the thought to build a monster truck,” Chandler said in 2010. To help advertise the shop, he slapped some 48-inch oversized wheels on his F-250 and added larger axles for support. The new business also happened to give Chandler easy access to all sorts of parts for his own rig. Louis, Missouri, which sold aftermarket car parts to like-minded owners looking to customize their vehicles. In 1975, after a motorcycle accident curtailed his contracting career, Chandler opened Midwest Four Wheel Drive in St. He pushed the truck to its limits while off-roading, often wrecking its axles and engines in the process. Chandler's pride and joy was a brand-new F-250 in bold blue, but it wasn’t enough. ![]() He just liked pick-ups, which served utilitarian purposes like hauling lumber or tools or camping equipment. The Legend of BigfootĪ onetime Navy mine sweeper and carpenter by trade, the 35-year-old Chandler didn't always aspire to terrorize frail sedans. Its owner, Bob Chandler, rolled up the windows and stopped the show early, driving off before his truck was damaged.Ĭhandler didn’t realize it at the time, but he had created a monster. It brought out a kind of vehicular bloodlust in the crowd, which started to swarm Bigfoot. With its massive 66-inch-tall tires and the ear-splitting sounds spewing out from its engine, the Ford had become something else-something primal. With ease, the tricked-out truck climbed and then parked itself on top of the feeble vehicles. Steel screamed in agony as Bigfoot demonstrated no mercy, crumpling the puny sedans under its wheels, windshields bursting from the pressure. Roughly 68,000 fans poured into the massive stadium, screaming their vocal cords raw and then mobbing the star attraction-a converted Ford F-250 with oversized wheels and axles that could crush lesser vehicles like recycled water bottles, condemning them to a junkyard. In 1983, four years before Hulk Hogan and André the Giant collided in front of a full house at WrestleMania III in the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, another tectonic collision took place. Everyone was clamoring for a glimpse of Bigfoot. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |