Kris Eidinger sat down with Rugged Radio CEO and owner Greg Cottrell and talked about the company’s most recent builds—the Beach Buggy.
If you went to last year’s Sand Sports Super Show in southern California then most likely you saw the Beach Buggy. Or if you were at the 2016 Dune Fest in Oregon you saw Rugged Radio’s Baja RZR. Both buggies are hard to miss. To say they stand out would be an understatement.
Eidinger got some of the details about the Beach Buggy from Cottrell.
“It’s a brand new, old school build where we are merging a brand new Polaris RZR 1000 with old school classic dune buggies,” Cottrell said. “It is the coolest retro car you’ll ever see.”
Cottrell said they started off with a 2016 Polaris RZR, which underwent a full body change and custom frame build. Feature highlights include:
- PRP custom seats with original Volkswagen material
- Custom gel coat glitter paint job
- Boondocker Performance pump gas turbo kit
- GMZ Tires and Wheels
- Custom trailing arms
- KC smiley face lights
- Assault Industries radius rods and mirrors
- Custom blue eyeball shifter to match Greg Cottrell’s one eye
- Walker Evans hooked Rugged Radios with the best 2.0 shocks
- Custom Gibson Exhaust, which Cottrell said, “Changed the look and everything about it.”
In addition, Cottrell said his company debuted its newest Rugged Radio communications system into the Beach Buggy. This new system includes an intercom system, 25-watt radio and a variable speed air pumper system for helmets.
“Everything about this thing is old school cool,” Cottrell said. “We are merging all the old school fun and everything the industry was about then to all the brand new technology in this industry so we can go out, go fast and have fun.”
So why the Beach Buggy look? Cottrell explained, “Rugged had to do something to top last year’s Baja RZR and that was a hard thing to accomplish, being the biggest talked about UTV in the industry and I think we blew it away this time.”
He added, “Now we have taken everything and taken the most iconic vehicle in history and paid it respect to make it look old school and make it look like it was made in the early 80s. From start to finish everything was purpose-built to look old school.”
It was obvious listening to Cottrell that this new build was something that struck a chord for days long gone and a vehicle that he has long thought about building.
“Everyone wants us to build cars and we aren’t car builders and that’s what’s fun about it,” he said. “I’m not in the business of building cars. This is for my personal collection. My love for old school buggies is how this all started. My dad raced Class 11 in the early 1970s in the Mexican 1000 and that’s what I remember and that’s what I love. That is why the Baja Bug was born. I had to do something that was cool, something Baja. But now, this new car, it’s just over the top.”
We would have to agree that Rugged Radio’s Beach Buggy is indeed something to behold.
