The Raminator monster truck set a speed record of 99.1 mph at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas. Ram
The Raminator is a monster truck in every sense of the term. It’s heavier than an adult rhinoceros (5.25 tons) and quicker than a Ferrari Enzo (0 to 60 mph in 3 seconds). It’s 10 feet tall and 12.5 feet wide. It rides on tires that are 66 inches tall and weigh 900 pounds each. It’s powered by a 565-cubic inch supercharged Hemi engine that produces 2,000 horsepower and came out of a funny car. It has crushed buses and combines, and it cost roughly $280,000.
Oh, and it just set the Guinness record for the fastest monster truck, topping out at 99.1 mph. This answers a question you may not have even thought to ask, but many others have.
“One of the questions we often get is, ‘How fast will one of those things go?’,” says Tim Hall, who built Raminator with his brother Mark. “Well, let’s go find out.”
Hall and his brother are the two halves of Hall Bros. Racing, and he’s been building monster trucks for 30 years or so. Their trucks, sponsored by Ram since 2002, have racked up accolades and championships in the Monster Jam series.
Each of the four tires is 66 inches tall and weighs 900 pounds. Ram
The top speed record run, held Monday morning at the amazing Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, was something entirely different for these guys. They’re used to crushing obstacles and soaring through the air in an arena, not hauling ass on a world-class racetrack. “There’s Formula One at one end of the spectrum, and there’s us down here at the other end,” he says of the run. “We ran on the same track.”
Though F1 and monster trucks may occupy different ends of the motorsports spectrum, do not for a moment underestimate the engineering involved in a truck like Raminator. The current generation Raminator is the product of decades of work, says Hall. As their expertise and available technology have progressed, they’ve improved things like the chassis and suspension, making each iteration more powerful, durable, and completely ridiculous in the most awesome of ways. Each wheel gets two shock absorbers, the chassis is made of all steel tubing, and the axle shafts are made of special steel alloys to take all the abuse life as a monster truck presents. The Raminator, Hall says, is part drag racer, part desert racer, and part farm equipment: Fast, durable, and powerful. “Throw it all in a blender and this is what you come out with.”
To set the record, the team tweaked the truck’s gearing to emphasize top speed over outright acceleration. Beyond that, the truck was “stock.” Mark Hall did the driving, falling short of the 100 mph mark he wanted to hit, but beating the former record of 96.8 mph, set in March 2012 by the Aaron’s Outdoors monster truck.
Raminator is many things—big, quick, and more than a little silly. One thing it’s not is fuel efficient. Hall doesn’t have an exact mpg figure, but estimates the high-speed run burned five gallons of methanol. On a quarter mile run, that comes out to 264 feet per gallon.
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