Motor Trend Takes a Dune Buggy to the Beach

Fred Williams is the Motor Trend Channel’s resident off-road expert and on his show he takes all manner of motorized machinery off the paved road. Naturally, he’s had more than a few VWs in his day, and on the latest episode of his show, Dirt Every Day, he takes an early ‘60s dune buggy to an Oregonian beach.

Anybody who’s owned, or worked on, or even been near a classic car will know the pain of an engine that just won’t run. Sadly, that’s most of what Williams faces on this episode, number 53.

The little 36hp flat four can do little but struggle when faced with batteries that don’t really work and a set of tires that would make Ferdinand Porsche roll his eyes in his grave. As a result, Williams and his co-host spend most of the episode push starting the dune buggy until they give up on the “starting” part of that equation.

Fortunately, dune buggies weigh little to nothing, so when the motor eventually fails completely, they just ride it like a Radio Flyer to the beach.

It may sound like a painful episode, but really it’s just showing a reality of old car ownership. Sometimes they’re terrible. A long life doesn’t suit every example of every car, but that kind of adds to their charm when they do work.

And don’t even try to tell me that you don’t want a dune buggy more at the end of this episode than you did at the beginning.

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