Here’s a public admission I may get pilloried for but I am not much of a dune buggy person. I mean, I like them enough and they have cool nostalgia value and all but probably because I am a New England guy at heart, I look at them and kind of shrug. Until now. Technically this may be a dune buggy but it looks like one of the neatest little open wheeler speedsters we have seen. Straight out of the 1970s, it has a great shape, good proportions, and the mechanical bit truly put it over the top. How about those slot mags? Big-n-little tires? Kinda roll bar looking thing? You get where we are going. Like the “Vette-cart” that Finnegan and Freiburger built this one is minimal and cool. The there’s the engine.
Power for this machine is derived from a 500cc two stroke Chaparral snowmobile engine. Figure about 50hp so not a ton but it weights little and the two stroke mill must be the loudest and most obnoxious thing ever. We understand that these engines are pretty rare as the company folded up as they were going into production on them. We also have to wonder if these were the same style of engine used to run the sucker fans on the famous Chaparral 2J “fan car” that used two giant fans (powered by snowmobile engines) to create downforce and essentially glue the thing to the course.
This is a really neat piece and frankly my knowledge stops here. Do you know anything about it? Was this a kit machine or did someone go whole hog and make this one themselves? Someone out there has to know something! Check out the photos below and then hit the Craigslist link to learn more.
Thanks to Ron Ward for the tip on this great creation!
Snowmobile engine?
That’s a hell of a comedown from building the most beautiful and innovative Can Am and endurance cars of all time!
Oh I get it – when GM pulls the plug you have to do what you can to get by!
I like the buggy by the way.
Meh……ugly AND slow. I’ll grab home lots of junk but that one doesn’t get a second glance.
Meanwhile BS members with Real street legal sand toys sporting nearly 2hp per pound get the shrug? New England indeed.
Not nearly as BangShift as Steve McQueen\’s screaming little beast . But very BangShift and very cool never the less .
As to the New England comment …. from Mr Lohne\’s … WTF ? Where the hell were you back in the 70\’s when Dune Buggies littered the streets from Cape May NJ to the coast of Maine [ Nova Scotia as well ] and all places in between ? Oh yeah … thats right … you weren\’t even a glimmer in your parents eyes yet … never mind come of age . You\’re excused … this time 😉
As to Stiney\’s derogatory New England comment ? Bite me sonny boy . We may of been a little late to the Dune Buggy party … but we took the concept a whole hell of a lot further than you Doc Sportello types on the left coast ever did … dude ! As far as the looks ? What ? You\’re gonna try to tell the Meyers Manx was a stunner ? Ha ! Functional … you betcha … good looking …not really
FYI ; Born and raised New England . An honorary Coloradan now going on 40 years . Making the mistake midway of wasting some time on the left coast .. a mistake never to be repeated
While the engine very likely came from a Chaparral snowmobile, it is NOT a Chaparral engine. Like the majority of snowmobile manufacturers back in the “hay days” of snowmobiles, they bought engines from other sources. This motor looks to be an early to mid 70s Xenoah from Japan.
“You Doc Sportello types on the left coast”…..might want to rephrase that. You won’t catch me on either snobbish coast, I’m fly-over country born-n-bred, and intend to keep it that way.
Once again proving that all the awesome machines in the Heartland get ignored.
Here in New England there’s hardly any beach to run them on. I built a neat Corvair powered Deserter (locally fabbed) and got busted after five minutes on Sandy Neck, “Don’t come back!” That Steve McQueen stuff happens only in the movies I learned.
Chaparral Speedway, part of the old Legend City in Phoenix AZ
Scroll down for the link. http://www.legend-city.com/audio_video/video.php