I recently had the opportunity to do a little off road racing just outside of Las Vegas in a single seat dune buggy; a vehicle with large wheels and wide tires designed to maneuver on sand.

Dune buggies are typically designed as an open chassis (that’s the frame of the vehicle where the wheels mount to) with a full protective roll cage surrounding the driver. Just like a regular vehicle, there is a gas pedal, brake pedal, and steering wheel.

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These off road vehicles can be manufactured from scratch or modified from an existing vehicle. Nominally there is a rear mounted engine, which sits behind the driver and that transfers a large proportion of the weight to the back of the vehicle for extra traction and handling on the sand! And ideally they have a high power-to-weight ratio. The dune buggies offer a seriously wild ride braced by long travel suspension.