Bigfoot is one of, if not the most famous monster truck of all time, and there are plenty of people who loved watching it when it first debuted back in the 1970s. There were also many people who were inspired to build their own monster trucks after seeing Bigfoot, and Paul Arft and his best friend Brian Shell were two of them. In the 1980s, they fell in love with Bigfoot and decided to build a monster truck of their own that looked and performed just like it. They spent many days, nights, and weekends working on their truck and eventually came up with a bright yellow creation that they called Showtime.
A few years later, it got too expensive for them to maintain Showtime, so they sold it to a guy in Pennsylvania for about $20,000 more than two decades ago. Recently, Shell passed away, and Arft decided that he wanted to pay homage to his fallen friend by tracking down Showtime. He eventually found out that Showtime had been scrapped, though, so Arft went about trying to build a second Showtime that was, once again, modeled after the original Bigfoot. Alongside his son, Arft got back into the garage and started building another Showtime.
It took Arft and his son a long time—and they poured a lot of money into their project—but according to Autoweek, they were able to successfully build a new Showtime. They had to track down a number of parts and get creative in some instances, but they found everything that they needed to put the truck together. They are still ironing out some kinks on the inside of it, but Arft told Autoweek that the truck reminds him of the original Showtime. He also said that he’s looking forward to getting it out on the road so that he can attend some shows with it. It’s been a long time coming, but Showtime is ready to back in the spotlight.
SCS Gearbox loves stories like the one involving Arft and Showtime. We also love helping monster truck owners obtain the parts they need to put their monster trucks together. If you are looking for one of the heavy-duty parts necessary for a monster truck, check out our inventory or call us at 419-483-7278 today to see how we can help.