The Virginia Beach Beast

I have a few oddball characteristics about me. For example: Whenever I find something from my past I investigate to see where or what it’s up to. I also tend to remanence about my time back in Virginia, where I was born, raised, and lived until I decided to follow my dreams of automotive journalism.

So, when I saw a picture of the Virginia Beach Beast sitting and rusting away on Facebook, I had to take a look. Growing up on Monster Trucks in the Commonwealth, the Beast was a legend and to see it in such a sad state was disappointing until I researched further.

First, the Beast was a part of an interesting era of Monster Trucks. Nothing was too outlandish, if you could use agricultural tires the next guy tried to find something wilder. We got trucks like Bigfoot 5 with its 10-foot tall tires, bigger engine trucks, and, of course, the tank-treaded vehicles like Fasttrax , the Orange Blossom Special, and our hero of this article the Virginia Beach Beast.

Like many of the tank monsters the Beast was built on top of a 1942 M4 Tank Retriever. The body came from a 1977 Chevrolet Blazer and to really make it live up to its name, the engine powering it was a 671 blown 454 GM V8 punched out to 468 cubic inches sitting in the back along with a TH400 transmission. Throughout the Tank era, Willie Townes from Norfolk, VA impressed crowds crushing cars in his tank tracks.

Then the era died. Probably around the early 90s, and so, to, did those amazing machines. For decades these trucks never really saw anything like they did in their heyday, if they drove at all. Then, sometime in 2012, Robbie Williams came across Willie in North Carolina while searching for this truck.

He and a friend went down and asked if they could look at the legendary tank. Willie had no problems with them taking a look. If you are unfamiliar with this part of the East Coast, weather doesn’t play nice with vehicles, especially ones that sit for long periods of time. So, instead of letting it sit, Robbie asked Willie if he could buy it. It was an offer Willie couldn’t refuse and Robbie had his childhood coming back on a trailer.

It was in some really rough shape; rust was everywhere, pinetags littered the truck, and who knows what used to live in it. However, it wasn’t enough to put Robbie off. He prepared and painted the chassis, installed a 366 V8 with a 740 lift cam and Accel HEI distributor.

He installed a rebuilt TH400 transmission that would match the nature in which this package was being used in. Finally, the body was restored though only about 70-percent was reused while the rest came from LMC Truck and salvaged K5 Blazers. Robbie painted it with the original graphics and ran it up until 2012 where I haven’t seen it again.

I haven’t been able to contact Robbie yet, but it would be a shame to hear that such an iconic machine would be sitting once again.