Virginia Giant is a Ford F-150 monster truck out of Fairfax, Virginia currently owned and driven by Cliff Vowell. The namesake was originally owned and driven by Diehl Wilson from 1985-2019. The truck won 3 Thunder Nationals Championships from 2002-2004. The truck features a flashing grill with the word 'Giant' on it. The first truck was a bit of a show truck with a tilt body and was painted with pin stripes along the framework, but had high performance parts due to Diehl being a truck puller running a truck called the Virginian.
History[]
In 1988, it received an updated 1989 Ford bricknose tilt body which would see the truck continuing to run until 1993.
In 1994, the truck was converted into a ride truck, which it remains as, but Diehl is looking to locate the original body to restore it to its first look.
In 2019, Wilson retired, and Cliff Vowell began driving semi regularly, and would take over full time in 2020.
In 2021, Wilson had a brand-new ride truck built, which is currently carrying the 1999-2006 body and is operated by the Performance Motorsports crew.
In 2022, Vowell would take over full ownership of the operation as both owner and driver. In the spring of that year, the truck would have to be completely back halved after a shock failure in Brookville, PA snapped the chassis behind the drivers compartment. Kevin Ricco of Ricco Enterprises would pull off the impossible and completely rebuild the truck in less than three weeks, including backflip bars, new forward cab bracing, and engine repairs. This would make Virginia Giant IV the first ever PEI/REI hybrid.
In 2023, a replica of the original 1984 Ford body would make its debut in Clearbrook, VA. Graphic recreation had been done in secret by Gideon Bernard with the help of others behind the scenes, and the original bull nose body was fabricated by Trey Myers.
Video game appearances[]
Trivia[]
- Diehl was one of PEI's first customers and purchased three chassis from them.
- The first of which was a V-cradle chassis with cantilever rear suspension. This truck was sold in 2000 and became Thunder Dog 2.
- The second PEI ran until 2010, when it was sold to Jay Snyder, who ran it as the first Illuminator.
- The third PEI was sold to Chris Gilbert in 2016 with Diehl Wilson still serving as the driver.
- The truck's website is performancemotorsportsinc.com.
Gallery[]
