September 8, 2016 Brady Cabe

Beach Buggy

Once again Rugged Radios has combined the latest in offroad vehicle with old school iconic fiberglass beach buggy. From start to finish this is the ultimate beach buggy. Powered by a 1000cc 2016 Polaris connected to a 4 wheel drive train this beach buggy can go any where. Built by fabricator Nick Valentine @ NV Fabrications, the Rugged Beach Buggy has old school styling with structural strength that builds the best platform for this go anywhere vehicle.

We started this build with a brand new RZR XP1000 and took it straight into NV Fabrication's shop in Grover Beach, California. Our president, Greg Cottrell, and NV Fab's Nick Valentine collaborated day in and out, hands-on, from start to finish. Greg spent several evenings at the shop laying out cage lines and going over chassis modifications. The entire frame has been modified except for the center frame rails. The front suspension geometry had to be modified first to allow fitment of the new fiberglass buggy body. Since we didn’t want the shocks to poke through the hood, the shock mounts had to be repositioned in order to discretely hide them under the hood.

Campbell Enterprises helped to stretch the wheelbase by 4.5 inches to match the fiberglass body's wheel arches. 30" GMZ Sand Stripper XL-HP paddles and tires fill out the buggy's wheel wells The entire back half of the car was reworked, including a set of one-off trailing arms specifically made for this buggy.

Reid Nordin of Walker Evans built the shocks, which are 2.5" custom piggybacks that match the Rugged Blue color scheme. We installed a set of RCV complete axles to ensure maximum strength in extreme driving scenarios. A Lone Star sway bar and oversized under-seat fuel cell were also added. The interior features custom PRP seats and harnesses to complete the retro look without forgoing any comfort.

Boondocker Turbos created a full bolt-on turbo kit for the Beach Buggy. The base kit includes a Garrett GT2860 turbo charger with a stainless steel header and stainless steel tubular piping. Filtration is handled by a UMP Air intake, which feeds a custom Boondocker Water to Air Intercooler. The Boondocker header bolts right up to a Gibson dual exhaust kit, coated in ceramic black.

"We wanted to build something to top the Baja RZR. Everyone seems to love that car, and we had to follow it up with something even more extreme. It was basically a full-frame build. We put extended trailing arms on it to match the wheelbase of the body. Essentially, the entire frame had to be hand-fabricated. Our goal was to build another iconic off-road classic racing-inspired car, and I think we nailed it!"

- Greg Cottrell, President of Rugged Radios