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| Baja Bug History
Baja Bugs originated in Southern California in the late 1960's. The building of the first Baja Bug is generally credited to Gary Emory of Parts Obsolete circa 1968. The first Baja Bug in racing is credited to Dave Deal, the famous Californian cartoonist, in the Mexican 1000 of 1968. While the first fiberglass baja kit (bug eye kit) was not introduced until 1969 by Miller-Havens company, In the early days before fiberglass body panels became available, enthusiasts and racers simply made their own modification to both the body and mechanicals of a stock VW to develop a machine suited to harsh, off-road environments.Why The Beetle? The Beetle was popular in less-developed areas of the world because of its rear-mounted air-cooled engine, flat floorpan, and rugged torsion bar suspension. In fact, advertising of the period touted the fact that the Beetle was so watertight that it floated. Those same attributes made the Beetle the perfect choice for the basis of an off-road vehicle as evidenced by the car's success both then and now in the Baja 1000 off-road race.
The Baja Bug TodayThough Baja Bugs have been greatly supplanted in recent years by tube-framed, purpose-built buggies known as sand rails, due to the slowly dwindling supply of suitable donor cars, they remain a popular choice in desert regions as few beaches in the US are open to vehicular traffic. Many are fitted with highly modified Volkswagen engines and a few homebuilt hybrids have Ford Pinto engine, Chevrolet Corvair, Porsche, Mazda or even Subaru engines. Customized roadgoing Baja Bugs remain fairly popular as well.
Recently, Volkswagen has attempted a revival of the Baja Bug with the Dune concept in 2000. |
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