Dune buggy

A dune buggy — also known as a beach buggy — is a

recreational off-road vehicle with large wheels, and wide tires,
designed for use on sand dunes, beaches, off-road or desert
recreation. The design is usually a topless vehicle with a rear-
mounted engine. A dune buggy can be created by modifying an
existing vehicle or custom-building a new vehicle.

Design Meyers Manx by Bruce Meyers

Dune buggies are typically created by modifying an existing road

vehicle,[1] while sandrails are built from the ground up as a custom
vehicle.

Beetle-based buggies
For dune buggies built on the chassis of a rear-engined existing
vehicle, the Volkswagen Beetle has been most commonly used as the
basis for the buggy, though conversions were made from other rear-
engined cars (such as the Corvair and Renault Dauphine).[2] The
model is nicknamed Bug, lending partial inspiration to the term
"buggy." The Beetle platform chassis was used because the rear
engine layout improves traction,[3] the air-cooled engine[4][5] avoids
the complexities and failure points associated with a water-cooled
Bugre II, a Brazilian buggy made
engine, the Beetle's front torsion bar suspension was not only
in the early 1970s
considered cheap and robust,[6] but it was also extremely easy to alter
and adjust its ride-height. Furthermore, spare parts — and donor
vehicles themselves — were cheap and readily available.[7] While
early dune buggy conversions were left with no body, or featured
custom bodies of sheet metal (such as the EMPI Sportsters and similar
buggies), glass-reinforced plastic (fiberglass) bodies, developed in the
1960s, have become the standard image of the modern buggy, and
come in many shapes and sizes.
Greek beach buggy built by Pan-
The original fiberglass dune buggy was the 1964 "Meyers Manx" Car in 1980s
built by Bruce Meyers.[2] Bruce Meyers designed his fiberglass bodies
as a "kit car", using the Volkswagen Beetle chassis.[3] Many other
companies worldwide have been inspired by the Manx, making similar bodies and kits.[3] These types of
dune buggies are known as "clones".[2]

Sandrail
A sandrail is a lightweight vehicle similar to a dune buggy, but
designed specifically for operation on open sand.

Sandrails are usually built as a spaceframe by welding steel tubes

together.[8][9] The name sandrail is due to the frame "rails" present.
The advantage of this method is that the fabricator can change
fundamental parts of the vehicle (usually the suspension and addition
of a built-in roll cage). Sandrails, as per dune buggies, often have the
engine located behind the driver. Sizes can vary from a small-engine A custom buggy
one-seat size to four-seat vehicles with eight or more cylinders.[10]

A similar, more recent generation of off-road vehicle, often similar in

appearance to a sandrail, but designed for a different use, is the "off
road go-kart". The difference may be little more than fitting all-terrain
tires instead of sand tires and the much smaller size of the engine.

Racing buggy with a V8 engine

Military use and fiberglass body

Because of the advantages a buggy can afford on some terrain, they

are also used by the military.[11]

The buggies built for the United States military used to be called
Desert Patrol Vehicles (DPV) or Fast Attack Vehicles (FAV), and with
the latest improvements are known as Light Strike Vehicles (LSV).
They are used by United States Navy SEALs, the SAS, and other
forces. Among the dune buggies used by the United States military is
the Chenowth Advanced Light Strike Vehicle.[12] The US Border An Iranian military dune buggy
Patrol also uses this (although it is not a military organization).

In the United Kingdom, the SAS have used cut-down, light-weight all
terrain vehicles for secret special operations "behind the lines" since
early in World War II.[13] A buggy was used by the British Special Air
Service (SAS) forces during the Gulf War. A long-range special desert

George W. Bush riding a US

Border Patrol dune buggy
operations vehicle was developed in 1992 and nicknamed "pink panthers" because of their color,[14] but
these were only modified Land Rovers.[15][16]

See also
Buggy (automobile)
Autozodiaco
Baja Bug
Citroën Méhari
EMPI Imp
Mini Moke
Volkswagen 181
Yamabuggy
Tomcar

References
1. "Dune Buggy History" (http://www.dunebuggyarchives.com/DuneBuggyHistory).
www.dunebuggyarchives.com. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
2. "Meyers Manx, the Beetle-based cure for summertime blues" (https://www.bbc.com/autos/sto
ry/20140508-dune-buggy-deity). www.bbc.com. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
3. "This man invented the dune buggy" (https://www.topgear.com/car-news/modified/man-inven
ted-dune-buggy). www.topgear.com. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
4. "How Bruce Meyers Turned the VW Beetle Into the World's Most Famous Dune Buggy" (http
s://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/classic-cars/videos/a32568/for-meyers-manx-fans-its-
better-to-be-lost-in-a-buggy-than-found-in-a-jeep/). www.roadandtrack.com. Retrieved
13 April 2018.
5. "Air-Cooled VW Racers to Compete in the Texas Desert Racing Association Twin 150s
Desert Race" (https://dunebuggywarehouse.com/https/air-cooled-vw-racers-to-compete-in-th
e-texas-desert-racing-association-twin-150s-desert-race.html).
www.dunebuggywarehouse.com. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
6. "Dune Buggy" (http://www.buildyourownracecar.com/racecartype-dunebuggy/).
www.buildyourownracecar.com. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
7. "The History of VW Sand Rail Vehicles" (http://www.insideyourrv.com/offroading-products/sa
nd-rails/vw-sand-rail.shtml). www.insideyourrv.com. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
8. "How they are built sandrails" (http://www.marksdreamshack.com/how-they-are-built-sandrail
s). www.marksdreamshack.com. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
9. "Twister Sand Cars" (http://thebuggyshop.50megs.com/sandcars/).
www.thebuggyshop.50megs.com. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
10. "Buying a Sandrail 101" (http://www.acmecarco.com/berrien-buggy/sand-rails/buggy-101).
www.acmecarco.com. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
11. "The U.S. Army Had a Whole Battalion of Armed Dune Buggies" (https://medium.com/war-is-
boring/the-u-s-army-had-a-whole-battalion-of-armed-dune-buggies-1d83ea78976c).
www.medium.com. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
12. "Advanced Light Strike Vehicle" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110525072739/http://www.s
pecialoperations.com/Equipment/Vehicles/default.html). Specialoperations.com. 2000.
Archived from the original (http://www.specialoperations.com/Equipment/Vehicles/default.ht
ml) on 25 May 2011. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
13. "This Is What It's Like To Hoon An Ex-SAS Military Dune Buggy" (https://petrolicious.com/arti
cles/this-is-what-its-like-to-hoon-an-ex-sas-military-dune-buggy). www.petrolicious.com.
Retrieved 17 April 2018.
14. Watson, Bruce Allen (2006). Desert Battles: From Napoleon to the Gulf War (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=g4zHaTgvbO8C&q=Pink+Panthers+military+buggy&pg=PA200).
Stackpole Books. p. 200. ISBN 9780811733809. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
15. "Series IIA 'Pink Panthe' " (http://www.worldhistory.biz/contemporary-history/78472-series-iia-
pink-panther.html). World history. 2 July 2015. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
16. Smallwood, Karl (16 June 2014). "The SAS Used to Drive Bright Pink Vehicles During the
Gulf War" (http://www.factfiend.com/sas-used-drive-bright-pink-vehicles-gulf-war/). Fact
Fiend. Retrieved 16 February 2018.

External links
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