Mack’s Restored ‘Big Red’ Shines at Evel Knievel Documentary Screening
Editor’s Note: Additional coverage of this event and Mack’s partnership with Evel Knievel will be included in the Aug. 31 print edition of Transport Topics.
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – As part of events celebrating the release of “Being Evel,” a new documentary about the life of Evel Knievel, Mack Trucks displayed the fully restored 1974 FS786LST model the daredevil used as his show truck.
Known affectionately as “Big Red,” the truck was parked Aug. 19 just outside the theater here where a red-carpeted premiere screening was shown for invited guests.
Mack provided a Pinnacle 70-inch high-rise sleeper model to haul the show truck to the premiere.
“Seeing Evel’s restored Mack FS model in the film, then experiencing the rig in real life, adds a great dimension to Evel’s fascinating story,” said John Walsh, Mack vice president of marketing.
The film, released in selected cities Aug. 21, was a joint effort among a numbers of actors and Knievel admirers, including Johnny Knoxville of “Jackass” fame and George Hamilton, who played the daredevil in a movie.
As part of a recently announced partnership with Evel Knievel Enterprises and Historic Harley-Davidson of Topeka, Kansas, Mack is providing two Pinnacle models and low-boy trailers to help transport Big Red and other memorabilia around the country.
Starting in Knievel’s hometown of Butte, Montana, last month, Big Red also traveled to the Sturgis, South Dakota., home of the nation’s largest motorcycle rally.
Next year, it will make its way to its permanent home in Topeka, where Mike Patterson, owner of the Harley dealership, is building an Evel Knievel museum.
It is being built with the help of Lathan McKay, a former professional skateboarder who has spent several years searching for Knievel memorabilia around the globe. The Knievel family also is involved with the project.
Big Red was discovered in a salvage yard in Clearwater, Florida, and took about 18 months, $300,000, and almost 100 individuals and businesses to meticulously rebuild the truck cab and trailer bolt-by-bolt once it was acquired by McKay.
It is exquisitely decorated to re-create its appearance from the 1970s, when Knievel was at the height of his worldwide fame.
Besides using Mack for his show truck, Knievel jumped a record 13 Mack trucks lined up side-by-side Aug. 20, 1974, in Toronto.
