I know from time to time this topic comes up. Went to look at one that has been setting for years. Tube frame sand rail type. Would need to go through everything: brakes, fuel lines, lot of cleanup, etc. Mostly stock VW. How many of you guys own them. Do you use them much. Fun factor looks high. Actually has a title for on road use.
I worked for a dune buggy rental place for a little while. They're dead simple and surprisingly quick, even with stock ACVW power. The good news is that they're super easy to work on because everything is out in the open. Easiest engine to work on ever. Heck, as an amateur an engine swap on a full body beetle took me 30min alone. I always loved driving them around at 35 in town. We kept the tires at 10psi for sand driving so they weren't the best at highway speeds. My boss there had a street rail as a toy. Lowered, 265 tires, and a HOT 2276. It was a fun drift car!
I don't need a 4th car but I wouldn't say no to a rail. Check over the frame really well. I've seen some with really sketchy bends or welds. Stock and upgrade parts are plentiful and relatively cheap.
They are on par with most any convertible classic for a usability standpoint with a whole lot lower buy-in! Whats not to love?
Well going back to take another look. How much horsepower can you make with VW engine but still keep it reliable.
In reply to pirate :
As much power as your willing to pay for.
Edit: realized my response was a little to snide.
air cooled vw’s can make power , like any engine it’s all about heat management.
A 2276 is the biggest you can go with full thickness jugs and a readily available crank. You can do a 2332 but it's thinner metal in the jugs and a lot of people say they don't last as long because of (see 1SlowVW) heat. From there, decide how crazy you want to go with cam, compression and how high you want to rev. I've seen 200+bhp and 100bhp.
Then there's also the option to go MassIVe with a Type4 engine. Better cooling and more power available but much pricier.
At one time you could also get a suburban ej20 for under 500 bucks and an adapter from Kennedy engineering
the type 4 is the way to go for power, cooling, and reliability. It is all over better engine. Make sure you get the Porsche 914 heads, not the Bus ones. I had a 2.0 in the back of my superbeetle with dual carbs, cam, and headers. It spit flame and would catch rubber in three gears
I've always wanted one.
My uncle built race engines for the south Georgia dirt track buggy circuit in the 60s, before my time. My dad had a buggy with one of my uncles motors in it that he and my mom terrorized our neighborhood with. It was bad enough that one of the neighborhood teens painted him a sign with a Rat Fink style character on it and "The Tanglewood Termite," because we lived on Tanglewood drive. My parents met their best couple friends when they were out "jumping it off a dirt pile" and a new neighbor ran over an asked them to do it again.
Years ago I saw the frame of the buggy in the woods at my uncle's farm. It was stupid short wheelbase and all the bars were square junctions. No triangulation. It looked like two swing set frames stuck on a SHORTENED VW pan. Dad was nuts. My uncle also had a full glass body Chenowth style that was still collecting dust in the barn when collapsed in the late 90s.
TLDR; I want a buggy.
In reply to ultraclyde :
if it still had the bug "backbone" it really didn't need much more in the way of support. All the bars did was hold the body on.
In reply to mad_machine :
Pretty sure it did....but it was shorter wheelbase than a bug. I remember dad saying it was nearly impossible to drive over about 45mph.
My dad used to build them for a side job (he was an AC VW mechanic for a real job) we had one from the time I was 12 until I was 23 and it was always a blast. Very very capable off-road and plenty fun to see people look at it on road but some people treat it like it doesn't belong on the street and will drive right out in front of it alot.
Dad's sandrail had an 1835 and made decent power but even a few of the ones he built with a stock 1600 were a blast. Doesn't take much power to have fun. It did break transmissions fairly often though, wheelies on the street were hard on parts.
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