https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk3aizwxOiY
Watching a Monster Jam freestyle event is an amazing experience. You can really see what these trucks are capable of as they launch massive jumps, crush cars, and pull off numerous other stunts for the crowd. What you don't get to see very often is a monster truck putting pedal to the metal in an attempt for a high top speed. Unfortunately, the motorsport arenas are a bit too small to do this, but every now and then, a driver comes along with a record speed in mind.
The previous record for the fastest speed was 96.8 MPH set in 2012 by the Aaron's Outdoors truck. The Hall Brothers Racing team decided to try their luck in 2014, so they headed to the Circuit of the Americas racetrack in Austin, Texas, in an attempt to set a new speed record down the straightaway. It's definitely quite a sight, seeing a monster truck at full speed, and I can only imagine what it's like behind the wheel. Check out this wild record-breaking run in the video above!
The Raminator monster truck is absolutely massive. It's a Ram truck that sits 10 feet tall, 12.5 feet wide, sits on 66 inch tires, and boasts a 565 cubic inch supercharged Hemi engine. The engine came out of a Funny Car and produces a whopping 2,000 horsepower.
Driver Mark Hall and the Hall Brothers team successfully set a Guinness World Record for the World's Fastest Monster Truck, hitting a speed of 99.1 MPH. Although they weren't able to hit the 100 MPH that they wanted, the team still walked away as the proud record holders. Not only was the racing team ecstatic, but their sponsor, the Ram truck brand, was likely equally as pleased with the achievement.
Tim Hall, the other half of the company, also played a massive part in this accomplishment, as he's the one that built the Raminator into what it is today. This truck has been developed and re-engineered over a few decades, and it most definitely paid off today.
In preparation for the run, the truck was simply given different gearing to favor top speed as opposed to acceleration. Other than that, it was essentially in the same form as it would be for a monster truck event, which says a lot about the quality of this build.
This truly is one bad ass machine!