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    The Dune Buggy Phenomenon 2
    The Dune Buggy Phenomenon 2
    The Dune Buggy Phenomenon 2
    Ebook134 pages48 minutes

    The Dune Buggy Phenomenon 2

    By James Hale

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    About this ebook

    After their initial advent in the 60s dune Buggies continued to grow in popularity and many diverse models evolved, in the 1970s they were a worldwide phenomenon. This book, a follow up to the hugely successful first volume, documents - in words and stunning archive photos - the development of the Buggy into the 1980s. Also featuring unique reproductions of product advertising using Buggies, promotional material and Buggy ephemera. This ebook is a must have for enthusiasts.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherVeloce
    Release dateMay 15, 2015
    ISBN9781845848491
    The Dune Buggy Phenomenon 2

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      Book preview

      The Dune Buggy Phenomenon 2 - James Hale

      Acknowledgements

      The author and publisher are indebted to the following for the provision of photographs and other assistance, without which this book would not have been possible: Alex Dearborn; Peter Rhodes; Mike Key; Robin Wager; Ed Radlauer; Andrew Bennetts; Roland Sharman; Peter Noad; Street Machine magazine; Custom Car magazine; Volksworld magazine; Motor; Auto Archive.

      All photographs in this book have been credited, where known, to the original photographer or magazine. Where this has not been possible, they are credited to the person from whose collection they came. Whilst every effort has been made to trace copyright holders of photographs used in this book, any omitted credits will be included in future editions.

      The first 12 Manx buggies were monocoque design. Later versions fitted the shortened VW Beetle platform chassis with its independently sprung suspension, and rear-mounted air-cooled engine.

      Foreword

      By Alex Dearborn, designer of the Deserter buggies.

      The history of Volkswagen-derived dune buggies is a wild one. From the metal-clad home-built ones of the early sixties to the well-engineered cars and kits of the late sixties and seventies, the genre grew in sophistication and popularity.

      Denise McCluggage, the noted sports car racer and automotive writer, said in a 1968 article about Deserter buggies for Town & Country magazine … Man the Driver has become bored enough to – ugh – walk! Now something else has appeared to alleviate driving boredom – the Anti-Car, the raw-vehicle side of cardom. Just as the US anti-pollution and crash-safety organizations EPA & DOT were gearing up to standardize, dumb down and emasculate regular production cars, along came the little glassfibre wonder called the dune buggy, saving the day for car enthusiasts.

      The freedom of expression implicit in the moulded body placed on a VW platform chassis ignited a sleeping market for car enthusiasts with moderate mechanical skills. Engineers and entrepreneurs dreamed of ways of improving on the genius of Bruce Meyers’ glassfibre body design. At Dearborn Automobile Co., we tapped a pool of racing-car designers from Autodynamics to produce mid-engined dune buggy-like street machines, and went racing at Pikes Peak and on paved circuits. Others developed VW powerplants to make double their original power, and sandrails got intense development, as races such as the Baja 1000 proliferated. Small accessory makers became big corporations with worldwide dealer networks and, as in real life, fortunes were made and lost.

      Bruce Meyers with his VW-based Meyers Manx dune buggy in its true element on the beach.

      Today we see a resurgence of interest in buggies. The rise in values of sixties sports cars has enthusiasts paying $60,000 for Austin-Healeys and $100,000 for Porsche Speedsters, so it’s no wonder that some brand name dune buggies are becoming collectable. The restoration parts market is ready. Back in the sixties, we struggled to achieve 90bhp from a VW Type 1 engine in our dynamometer-equipped engine shop. Now, one can order such an engine as a turnkey product for about $4000, a fraction of the 1968 cost, adjusted for inflation. A rebuilt transmission in a crate is a mail-order item at $450. Bruce Meyers has recently introduced a new buggy kit. I am restoring a 1969 Deserter GT 912. (Not for production.)

      James Hale has recorded much of the history and many of the cycles of the dune buggy phenomenon. He has relentlessly pursued the minutiae of our hobby, ferreted out the survivors of long-shuttered dune buggy shops, and chronicled the fun through his many magazine stories and previous books. Those of us who were adults (actually, grown-up children) in the sixties will enjoy this review of dozens of buggy variants, and recall how to identify some of the subtle distinctions among them. Those of us who are younger will learn much, and be able to make use of Hale’s work as a handbook for the hobby. Want to build, buy, or restore a dune buggy? Want to see what it’s all about? Read on …

      Author’s Foreword

      The consumer world currently seems ready to embrace ‘retro’ in all its many guises. Hardly a day passes without today’s manufacturers promoting goods that have a supposedly ‘original’ look to their styling, and a design evocative of a past era. Sometimes it is all just marketing hype, but often – as in the automotive world – it is a case of manufacturers realising that to create desirable products that will appeal to the forty-something market,

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