More like handling a high-priced sports car. We clocked 0-30 mph (48 km/h) in 4 secs, which is darned good for a Beetle engine, and 0-50 mph (80 km/h) in 10 sec, which is even better. It's now the proudest possession of a young Sydney girl but she loaned it to us for a brief try-out on the road.Īny similarity between the dune buggy and its Beetle ancestor was purely co-incidental. He also supplied a fibreglass roof you can remove in moments merely by undoing a few screws. He shortened the VW floor pan 14¼”, softened the suspension and fitted all the trimmings including sports steering wheel, mag wheels and the best bucket seats we've ever struck in a sporty car. Our test buggy was built by Richard Whillier, of Bronte, who sells do-it-yourself body kits, custom builds dune buggies himself and acts as a general adviser to the dune buggy clan. In fact, the Melbourne-made fibreglass top is actually called the Manta. It was made from the floor pan of a 1966 VW 1300 Beetle and fitted with a snazzy fibreglass top roughly shaped like a manta ray. Strictly not for the road.īut the dune buggy we had was a sophisticated job acceptable for registration for road use and an ideal fun machine for anyone with a limited budget. Some are mere steel frames powered by hulking V8 engines and wearing anything up to four rear wheels for better traction on the sand. They're big in America and they're gaining popularity here, too. A dune buggy, no less!ĭune buggies are exotic machines built to run over sandhills. Brother, but we've been having fun driving the weirdest looking, safest handling, most exhilarating crazy-type wheels we've ever seen.
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