Hey howdy, I am Joe Friday at the Evel Knievel Museum. I am inside Big Red, which has a great story behind it. It lived in obscurity for a long time. Actually, there’s a guy who really ought to tell you about it. Let’s go find him.
In the 1970’s Mack Truck donated this truck to Evel Knievel in exchange for a sponsorship. In his Thank You card to Mack Truck, Evel Knievel wrote, “Thank you so much for the big red truck. It gets just as much attention from the ladies as the Maserati, but it holds twice as many women.”
Let me show you the inside.
Lathan McKay is the Evel Knievel Museum co-founder. In this video, he takes you on a tour of his dressing room and shows you what you can buy with a few dollars if you’re willing to jump a motorcycle over nineteen cars. He's got about three or four hundred shirts here valued at two or three thousand dollars. On any given day, he ‘ll choose the appropriate attire for the evening. This where he gets dressed, suits up in his leathers for the performances.
Knievel: “I don’t know how many shirts I have here, two or three hundred. That’s three or four thousand dollars worth of shirts.”
Lathan fingers an empty bottle of Wild Turkey. "None left. Empty. What do you expect?" He says, "Big Red sat in several places decaying for many years. It was in Butte, Montana from the late 70’s through the mid-80’s.Then it went down to Arizona after the Robbie Knievel tour. Then it went down to Florida where it sat outside Clearwater at Jerry’s for many years. That’s when the bulk of the decay took place. I started collecting in 2012, February. One of my first goals was to locate his truck. Quickly figured out who owned it and where it was. Then became friends with this guy Robb Mariani. "
Robb Mariani says, "Years ago when I’m a boy in the 70’s I’m reading this Overdrive Magazine. My grandpa had Overdrive Magazine. I open it up and there’s a huge editorial on Evel Knievel’s rig right here. This truck, I’m almost out of my mind . I pull it out of the magazine. I pin the pictures up on the wall of my bedroom. Ever since that day I’d watch for him on tv. When he did his jumps I looked for that truck, this Mack truck. Lo and behold, the Mack truck went away. His career went away and so did the truck."
Lathan says, "Robb and I went after the truck, purchased it and made a phone call to an ex partner of mine and he put me in touch with Mike Patterson. That’s how the truck ended up being restored in Topeka.Mike took the baton with me and had the same passion."
Mr. Mariani expounds, "We find the truck. It was in Clearwater. Evel last lived in Clearwater. He had the truck there, never got it restored. Lathan McKay enters the scene. Lathan’s got all of Evel Knievel’s everything. He’s got motorcycles, his leathers, his helmets. He knows everything there is to know about Evel Knievel. He and his team at Topeka Historic Harley Davidson, a guy named Mike Patterson, restored this truck. Every single bolt that’s in this."
Lathan McKay says, "Three and a half years later, after getting it down from New Jersey, in 2015 it was completed and went on tour. After the tour with the truck the plan was to start building a museum and have the truck as its main attraction. This is where it sits today."
According to Mr. Mariani, the chassis, the motor is rebuilt. "Take a look at the side of this. It is absolutely 100% back, better than it ever looked."
A hundred local contractors banded together during the restoration to do their own part. The painting was done by the dream team of Tex, Travis, and George, who was Evel Knievel’s original painter.There is $75,000 worth of paint on here from House of Kolor.
original ramps were used from Evel Knievel's Hollywood Daredevil days, from 1967 on, the Caesar’s Palace through the end of his career. It takes two forklifts to exhume these babies. They weigh in excess of three tons.
Mariani points out, "Hey #1, let me just take you back. Evel Knievel has Mack as his big corporate sponsor. Without Mack, Evel never got to his shows. This is the truck that brought his show on the road, in front of the cameras, and into the homes, where kids like me saw Evel Knievel."
A safe that was found inside the Mack truck. Evel always demanded that he got paid in cash before he made the jump. So Lathan was really excited as if it would be filled with gold. Unfortunately when he opened it, there was nothing but… dust. Dust and rust.
The truck became the centerpiece to the museum which houses a collection of all sorts of jewelry and clothing, jump attire, videos, notes, letters, contracts, and of course motorcycles.
Hope to see you all soon. Happy Landings!