![]() We waited 35 minutes just for them to stop selling anything bc of some thunder and for the “safety of their staff!!!” The other people around me were sooo mad and started yelling that they had waited for over an hour standing in line just for them to finally get to the front and get turned down. No monster trucks, no drivers walking around greeting people, no music, no food trucks, no bubbles, no face painting, no side games or races…it was a large empty parking lot with tons of people walking around lost, We finally decided to just wait in line to buy a monster truck. Nothing else!! We walked around looking for something to see. There was 1 truck that just said monster jam on it and the line was extremely long just to take a picture near it! No other monster trucks to see or climb in or anything!! The drivers were sitting under a large white tent signing, but those lines were soo long ppl said they waited over 45 minutes. “If we can get it back out there to an appearance at a grand opening or a car show or a wedding (yes, they’ve been there, done that), and people enjoy it, that’s all I really care about.The pit party was a HUGE disappointment!! There wasn’t anything to do or see! I saw more at Touch a Truck that was a free event a few weeks ago in Franklin. Always check with your local venue or the Event Promoter for updates. “Everybody loved it back in the ’80s,” Arft says. All dates are tentative and subject to change without notice. Now, to buy the same tires, it’s closer to $25,000, and I have a friend who was nice enough to give me those tires.” There’s still work to do on the interior-it resembles the skeleton of a stock car looking for a NASCAR track. When we built the original truck, they were $15,000 for four tires and four wheels. The biggest expense when the truck was built was the tires (they’re 73 inches and weigh 1,200 pounds) and wheels. “Everyone thinks I’ve got $300,000 into this thing. “About the only things I didn’t fabricate were the engine and the trans. You’ll find professional bull riding tours, monster trucks, tractor pulls, rodeos, auctions, craft fairs, Christmas events, car & truck shows, concerts, sports & equine events, and much more Offering corporate and family banquets, private events as well as hosting expos and events. We had a lot of people who gave us a part here, a part there,” Arft says. ![]() Period-correct sponsor stickers for the truck - some of the businesses represented are long gone-were re-created and digitized by a friend. The truck body for the remake, a 1978 Ford Bronco, was found in Algonac, Michigan. We had no measurements-we had to guess at a few things-but it all came together.” Finding the parts to rebuild the truck led to a lot of internet searches and to plenty of deal-making with old friends and folks willing to help in the Showtime effort. “We had some pretty good pictures, and my dad remembered a lot of it. They made deadline.“It all started coming together from staring at pictures,” Carl says. See these giant national TV Monster Trucks as they battle it out on a huge fast track for BIG AIR See them compete in earth shaking, ground pounding. Carl wanted to complete the tribute truck in time for Dad’s 60th birthday in May. Monster Truck Throwdown came to the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt Pleasant, Michigan on 7/2/22 and put on an amazing showLINEUP:Dirt Crew - Jerry Beck Dozer. The project began last year around Thanksgiving. Josh ScottĪrft then decided to re-create Showtime from scratch with son Carl - a guy who also knows his way around a garage as a 20-year employee for the same shop where his dad worked for 30 years. Michigan, and his son Carl re-created the Showtime monster truck after Arft and the late Brian Shell originally built the truck in the early ’80s. “He found out who last had it, but we were too late-they had cut it up and scrapped it.” “One of my sons lives in Pennsylvania, and he was heavy on trying to find it,” Arft says. Turns out, there was a fire and some monster trucks were destroyed-but Showtime was not one of them. Arft chased down leads, including one story of a garage fire years ago in Pennsylvania that was said to have gobbled up a few monster trucks. That led to a search for the original monster truck. Before long, he was kicking the tires on the idea of bringing back Showtime. ![]() Shell died in 2011, and Arft wanted to pay tribute to his friend. We played monster truck for a few years, took it to shows around the country, but then it just got too expensive and it just sat for a long time.” They sold the truck to a guy in Pennsylvania-Arft believes Shell might have gotten $20,000 for it - two decades ago. ![]() “We built the truck on nights and weekends at Gentile’s Collision shop, where I worked,” says Arft, who lives in tiny Attica in Michigan’s Thumb area. Showtime stood out as a bright yellow machine in a sea of mostly black, big-wheeled super trucks. ![]() he's some shots of the original that were used as a bluepint for the re-creation. ![]()
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