Shropshire Truck Show 2010
17th May 2010
The Shropshire Truck Show is held at the Oswestry Showground, just off the A5. Last year was a good day out and this year promised to be just as good. Saturday was forecast to be the best day of the weekend weatherwise. However, after setting out under a pretty much blue sky, the cloud increased further into Shropshire.
At 10.30 Steve Murty and his wheelie fire truck ‘Backdraft’ made a quick appearance with a short wheelie display and tour of the arena, promising more later in the day, as they hadn’t long arrived. Steve apologised for the fact the truck wasn’t as clean as he’d have wanted!
After the Iveco trucks dealer showcase parade the Monster truck showdown with Lightning and Podzilla started at 11.15. The change this year was that the monster trucks would make one jump in the morning before the jump off in the afternoon so that anyone who couldn’t stay until the end would at least see some action.
Podzilla, from the Santa Pod raceway in Northamptonshire, had had a new more powerful £30,000 engine installed the previous day so this was the first run for it. Podzilla was driven by Drew Thornton who is currently leading the UK Monster Truck championship. Drew is a previous European monster truck champion, despite not having the fastest or biggest engine truck but having excellent reliability. Drew is currently seeing a chiropractor every week because the landings of the truck can sometimes be very heavy and not spine friendly.
Lightning is driven by Rob Williams from Wales. Rob drove Red Dragon last year which has since been fitted with 10 passenger seats. Rides on Red Dragon cost £7.50 for two figure of eight tours of the arena and two drives over the cars in the centre of the arena.
Lightning
The engines are 7.5 litre Chevrolet V8s running on methanol, developing 1500 horsepower. They are mid mounted underneath the truck body for ideal weight distribution. A member of staff at the edge of the arena carries a radio controlled interrupter in order to cut the truck’s engine in case of an emergency. Each tyre costs £2,000 and some thickness of tread is cut off before use in order to reduce weight. A brand new race spec truck costs in the region of £120,000-£140,000. Fuel consumption is 5 gallons to the mile.
Drew had been a bit wary of the new engine as it hadn’t been run in anger. He performed a spectacular jump which resulted in a wheelie (yes, with a monster truck!).
The point of impact for Podzilla's rear
A hole was created in the rear bodywork as he’d dropped vertically down before bouncing off. You can clearly see the impact in the series of images. Steve said later that he’d been told he’d not need a wheelie bar on the back of the truck! There was more bad news. On landing, the left front tyre had punctured and the rear steering arm had bent. Podzilla had to be removed with a JCB. Steve promised everyone that repairs would be done ready for the afternoon.
Rescuing Podzilla from the arena
A downbeat Drew Thornton
Podzilla's punctured tyre
The Crash rescue display with Enfield Recovery (a locally based operation) followed lunch. Recovery trucks are around £350,000, with some a whopping £450,000 or more depending on size and specification. It’s no exaggeration to say that there was well over a million pounds worth of gear in the arena. When you stop to think, there was several million pounds worth of trucks on show across the showground.
While one operation involved the righting of an overturned truck onto its wheels, another involved a team from the Shropshire Fire Service cutting off the doors from a Renault Clio underneath a truck. Apparently the full weight of the truck was resting on the car. It’s something rarely seen at close quarters so to see how the fire service operate gives us all an appreciation of what’s involved. It’s also useful practice for the crews themselves – who were on call and ready to dash off if an emergency occurred.
Fireman cutting the side of a Renault Clio
Righting an overturned truck
Rescue truck
The crowd was then treated to a full display of Steve Murty’s wheelie fire truck ‘Backdraft’. Steve has a head mike on during his display to provide a running commentary. Steve says, “Sometimes we’ve got to be very careful, as some politicians know, that occasionally we come out of the arena and we forget the mike is still on, and if the old PA man hasn’t turned it off, one or two people can find some insights”.
To get the truck to lift, power is applied to the rear wheels and the torque generated will lift the front of the truck. To control the descent of the truck the art is to increase the power to try to go back into the lift situation. This prevents the truck from hitting the ground too hard. Steve says the truck has standard springs on the front – that’s standard 60 tonne springs as opposed to the normal 20 tonne springs!
The fire truck is a Leyland Land Train built for third world markets where there are few roads and many potholed roads such as in Africa, as well as Australia and New Zealand. The truck body was obtained from Humberside. Flames out of the exhaust are produced by injecting propane gas into the exhaust behind the turbo.
The truck may be 20 tonnes, but Steve is able to perform a pirouette. He did this while his son stood with a balloon underneath his foot. As he pirouetted, he ran over the balloon. Next, with another balloon under his son’s foot, Steve carefully brought the truck down from its raised position to pop the balloon with the front tyre.
Steve Murty’s wheelie fire truck ‘Backdraft’
The Renault Trucks Midlands dealer showcase showed off a Renault Magnum which comes with a choice of 480 and 520 engines. The Renault Lander tipper is a fairly new offering for the construction and aggregate markets. The Renault Premium is the backbone or to quote one of the drivers the ‘shopping trolley’ of the range. Automatic transmission makes it as easy as a car to drive.
Renault tipper truck
Fuel consumption is very important for truck operators and with Euro five drive lines these trucks have been shown to be very fuel efficient in tests. Last year was very bad for sales, but registrations in the last two months have been up. There is a recovery albeit fragile.
Jamie Squibb
The freestyle motocross display saw Jamie Squibb (27) and Neil Kirby (38) both from Exeter in Devon. They were riding Yamaha 250 two stroke motocross bikes which have been slightly modified for freestyle motocross. Jamie is ranked the UK number one freestyler.
The riders performed superb mid air stunts between take off and landing ramps, Jamie even flipping sideways at one point. The starting distance between the ramps was 55 feet. This increased to 85 feet at the end of the display. The riders checked the distance and alignment at each change to ensure they were happy with it. Before a run, the riders do a couple of circuits of the arena to warm up the engines so that they don’t bog down on take off. They finished the afternoon stint by jumping over two monster trucks, first individually and then simultaneously. This last stunt demands utmost trust between the riders, especially from the following rider.
Jamie Squibb followed by Neil Kirby jumping over the monster trucks
The final activity was the monster truck showdown with Lightning and Podzilla. Unfortunately Lightning only made one run. As the trucks come down from leaping over the cars, fuel can be forced into the engine system and flood it and create a stall. The engine couldn’t be restarted in time even though there was determined activity by the mechanics.
Podzilla made a couple of runs over the cars and parked up on top of them at the end of the display.
At least it had stayed dry, even with some sunshine. A challenge was laid down to the guy on the PA to play as many different tracks mentioning the sun or summer weather. Last year he chose tracks relating to rain and wet. It’s now a running joke that it’s wet for this event.
The day finished with a final opportunity to take a ride in Red Dragon, which, despite all the other attractions was the highlight for many. Let’s hope the Dragon returns next year.
Red Dragon ride
Scania trucks on show
The general election was just over a week ago - was it accident or design these trucks were lined up by colour?
Plenty of accessories for sale
Light refreshment
One of the older vehicles, from Guy Motors
A very butch colour for a truck!
Truck lights - notice the cleaning materials
Some trucks sport some great artwork
Admiring the trucks
Making the tyres look good
The foreground truck is called 'Lady Holly'
Trucks need to be spotless to stand a chance of a competition prize
More trucks on display
All text and images © Keith Rowley 2010
At 10.30 Steve Murty and his wheelie fire truck ‘Backdraft’ made a quick appearance with a short wheelie display and tour of the arena, promising more later in the day, as they hadn’t long arrived. Steve apologised for the fact the truck wasn’t as clean as he’d have wanted!
After the Iveco trucks dealer showcase parade the Monster truck showdown with Lightning and Podzilla started at 11.15. The change this year was that the monster trucks would make one jump in the morning before the jump off in the afternoon so that anyone who couldn’t stay until the end would at least see some action.
Podzilla, from the Santa Pod raceway in Northamptonshire, had had a new more powerful £30,000 engine installed the previous day so this was the first run for it. Podzilla was driven by Drew Thornton who is currently leading the UK Monster Truck championship. Drew is a previous European monster truck champion, despite not having the fastest or biggest engine truck but having excellent reliability. Drew is currently seeing a chiropractor every week because the landings of the truck can sometimes be very heavy and not spine friendly.
Lightning is driven by Rob Williams from Wales. Rob drove Red Dragon last year which has since been fitted with 10 passenger seats. Rides on Red Dragon cost £7.50 for two figure of eight tours of the arena and two drives over the cars in the centre of the arena.
Lightning
The engines are 7.5 litre Chevrolet V8s running on methanol, developing 1500 horsepower. They are mid mounted underneath the truck body for ideal weight distribution. A member of staff at the edge of the arena carries a radio controlled interrupter in order to cut the truck’s engine in case of an emergency. Each tyre costs £2,000 and some thickness of tread is cut off before use in order to reduce weight. A brand new race spec truck costs in the region of £120,000-£140,000. Fuel consumption is 5 gallons to the mile.
Drew had been a bit wary of the new engine as it hadn’t been run in anger. He performed a spectacular jump which resulted in a wheelie (yes, with a monster truck!).
The point of impact for Podzilla's rear
A hole was created in the rear bodywork as he’d dropped vertically down before bouncing off. You can clearly see the impact in the series of images. Steve said later that he’d been told he’d not need a wheelie bar on the back of the truck! There was more bad news. On landing, the left front tyre had punctured and the rear steering arm had bent. Podzilla had to be removed with a JCB. Steve promised everyone that repairs would be done ready for the afternoon.
Rescuing Podzilla from the arena
A downbeat Drew Thornton
Podzilla's punctured tyre
The Crash rescue display with Enfield Recovery (a locally based operation) followed lunch. Recovery trucks are around £350,000, with some a whopping £450,000 or more depending on size and specification. It’s no exaggeration to say that there was well over a million pounds worth of gear in the arena. When you stop to think, there was several million pounds worth of trucks on show across the showground.
While one operation involved the righting of an overturned truck onto its wheels, another involved a team from the Shropshire Fire Service cutting off the doors from a Renault Clio underneath a truck. Apparently the full weight of the truck was resting on the car. It’s something rarely seen at close quarters so to see how the fire service operate gives us all an appreciation of what’s involved. It’s also useful practice for the crews themselves – who were on call and ready to dash off if an emergency occurred.
Fireman cutting the side of a Renault Clio
Righting an overturned truck
Rescue truck
The crowd was then treated to a full display of Steve Murty’s wheelie fire truck ‘Backdraft’. Steve has a head mike on during his display to provide a running commentary. Steve says, “Sometimes we’ve got to be very careful, as some politicians know, that occasionally we come out of the arena and we forget the mike is still on, and if the old PA man hasn’t turned it off, one or two people can find some insights”.
To get the truck to lift, power is applied to the rear wheels and the torque generated will lift the front of the truck. To control the descent of the truck the art is to increase the power to try to go back into the lift situation. This prevents the truck from hitting the ground too hard. Steve says the truck has standard springs on the front – that’s standard 60 tonne springs as opposed to the normal 20 tonne springs!
The fire truck is a Leyland Land Train built for third world markets where there are few roads and many potholed roads such as in Africa, as well as Australia and New Zealand. The truck body was obtained from Humberside. Flames out of the exhaust are produced by injecting propane gas into the exhaust behind the turbo.
The truck may be 20 tonnes, but Steve is able to perform a pirouette. He did this while his son stood with a balloon underneath his foot. As he pirouetted, he ran over the balloon. Next, with another balloon under his son’s foot, Steve carefully brought the truck down from its raised position to pop the balloon with the front tyre.
Steve Murty’s wheelie fire truck ‘Backdraft’
The Renault Trucks Midlands dealer showcase showed off a Renault Magnum which comes with a choice of 480 and 520 engines. The Renault Lander tipper is a fairly new offering for the construction and aggregate markets. The Renault Premium is the backbone or to quote one of the drivers the ‘shopping trolley’ of the range. Automatic transmission makes it as easy as a car to drive.
Renault tipper truck
Fuel consumption is very important for truck operators and with Euro five drive lines these trucks have been shown to be very fuel efficient in tests. Last year was very bad for sales, but registrations in the last two months have been up. There is a recovery albeit fragile.
Jamie Squibb
The freestyle motocross display saw Jamie Squibb (27) and Neil Kirby (38) both from Exeter in Devon. They were riding Yamaha 250 two stroke motocross bikes which have been slightly modified for freestyle motocross. Jamie is ranked the UK number one freestyler.
The riders performed superb mid air stunts between take off and landing ramps, Jamie even flipping sideways at one point. The starting distance between the ramps was 55 feet. This increased to 85 feet at the end of the display. The riders checked the distance and alignment at each change to ensure they were happy with it. Before a run, the riders do a couple of circuits of the arena to warm up the engines so that they don’t bog down on take off. They finished the afternoon stint by jumping over two monster trucks, first individually and then simultaneously. This last stunt demands utmost trust between the riders, especially from the following rider.
Jamie Squibb followed by Neil Kirby jumping over the monster trucks
The final activity was the monster truck showdown with Lightning and Podzilla. Unfortunately Lightning only made one run. As the trucks come down from leaping over the cars, fuel can be forced into the engine system and flood it and create a stall. The engine couldn’t be restarted in time even though there was determined activity by the mechanics.
Podzilla made a couple of runs over the cars and parked up on top of them at the end of the display.
At least it had stayed dry, even with some sunshine. A challenge was laid down to the guy on the PA to play as many different tracks mentioning the sun or summer weather. Last year he chose tracks relating to rain and wet. It’s now a running joke that it’s wet for this event.
The day finished with a final opportunity to take a ride in Red Dragon, which, despite all the other attractions was the highlight for many. Let’s hope the Dragon returns next year.
Red Dragon ride
Scania trucks on show
The general election was just over a week ago - was it accident or design these trucks were lined up by colour?
Plenty of accessories for sale
Light refreshment
One of the older vehicles, from Guy Motors
A very butch colour for a truck!
Truck lights - notice the cleaning materials
Some trucks sport some great artwork
Admiring the trucks
Making the tyres look good
The foreground truck is called 'Lady Holly'
Trucks need to be spotless to stand a chance of a competition prize
More trucks on display
All text and images © Keith Rowley 2010
