Overlanding a little "differently" this weekend...

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tjZ06

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Sand duning has always been one of my hobbies. I have a sand rail that's been under the knife for a remodel for about 2 years now, and it finally got ready for a shake-down so I decided to go out to Dumont dunes. In the past I've had a "toy hauler" type trailer, or an RV for the dunes but I sold all of those and just have my FWC and truck currently, so it got dune duty this weekend. It worked great, and it was really nice to have the simplicity of the FWC vs. a big RV, and the security of true 4x4 and 37x13.5"s camping out on the sand vs. the complete nightmare it is getting an RV stuck. Anyway, a few pics (and some pics of the rail thrown in for fun... it runs air suspension so it's dropped in the pics, that is NOT ride-height, lol):

Dumont1.jpgDumont2.jpgDumont3.jpgDumont4.jpgDumont5.jpgDumont6.jpgDumont7.jpgDumont8.jpgDumont9.jpg

-TJ
 
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Joaquin Suave said:
Boy! Sand buggies sure have come a long ways! What is the power train?

Your rig is KILLER!!!!
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Thanks! It's a 440 cubic inch LS7-based motor with a 4.0L Whipple Supercharger and an Albins 5spd sequential transaxle (11.5" ring gear). FWIW this is what it looks like at ride-height:

aFunco1.jpg

-TJ
 
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The really cool thing is that it looks like there is a passenger seat................sending you my cell # now! :wink:
 
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I totally failed to get any action shots in the sand. The tuner and I were focused on getting the tune right, making sure it was running well at full load in the sand, and chasing some fuel delivery issues. Soon I hope to get better vid if it doesn't sell first. But I do have a dyno vid:

It does indeed have a passenger seat, but passenger in it isn't for the faint of heart... if sliding sideways in a sand dune at 60 MPH then pulling the front tires sounds fun, you might be okay. ;) This car is geared for duning, so it's only good for around 120 MPH in the sand. But even at 80+ it'll pull the tires.

-TJ
 
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smritte said:
Nice toy. What's the chassis weigh?
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Honestly, I'm not sure what the bare chassis weighs, and now that the car is complete I need to weigh it too. My guess would be 2600-2800lbs as it sits. At 670 RWHP (on a very stingy dyno, it'd do 700+ on most Dynojets) it's a pretty decent power-to-weight ratio.

-TJ
 
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I meant vehicle weight. I guessed it at 2500-2800. Seeing this gets me motivated to start putting together my next project. AWD Volkswagen Thing, Porsche 996 awd transaxle, stretched long travel. Torn between engines though. I keep looking at the STI engines. Trying to keep the weight down. I can get a dependable 300 ish hp if I didn't go nuts on the engine. It wouldn't be built for sand, street legal dirt toy. I saw this build on a Bug a while ago. Issue right now is finding a body. During covid, everyone bought up everything older and did half assed restore on them. Trying to find one under 10k is proving difficult.
 
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smritte said:
I meant vehicle weight. I guessed it at 2500-2800. Seeing this gets me motivated to start putting together my next project. AWD Volkswagen Thing, Porsche 996 awd transaxle, stretched long travel. Torn between engines though. I keep looking at the STI engines. Trying to keep the weight down. I can get a dependable 300 ish hp if I didn't go nuts on the engine. It wouldn't be built for sand, street legal dirt toy. I saw this build on a Bug a while ago. Issue right now is finding a body. During covid, everyone bought up everything older and did half assed restore on them. Trying to find one under 10k is proving difficult.
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That would be a really cool rig! Keeping it light to preserve parts would be the key, IMHO.

-TJ
 
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