by Pete@DumontDuneRiders.com

On the morning of Saturday, June 28th we had the chance to get a feel for the new Short Sand Car at our home dune riding area, Dumont Dunes. As some of you may remember, it was mentioned in the 08 SSC buildup write-up that the 1st shakedown run for this car was up at Little Sahara. The car did fantastic but between the elevation difference and very steep hill climbs up there, it was still difficult to judge how the car would perform out at Dumont.

Arriving at 5:00 AM, Dumont welcomed us with some beautiful, untouched sand dunes and a sunrise that was just about to come up. We quickly unloaded and hit the dunes. The first run through the dunes started off fairly slow because of the summer dune conditions. I wanted to get a feel for the car, but at the same time find our usual line that we take on the fast runs. As I navigated through the virgin sand making brand new tracks of my own, I could already tell the car still had plenty of power. Being that this car weighs over 100-150 pounds more than my last SSC, I actually expected the car to be slightly sluggish due the added weight. Well, that wasn't the case at all. The 1300cc Hayabusa engine still provided plenty of horsepower and enough torque to push the car right through the dunes with ease! What a rush.

After one pass through the dunes and out to the north pole, I knew the car also handled extremely well. Adding weight to a sandcar doesn't always sound like good thing, but in this case I believe it actually helped with it's overall balance. First off, using thicker wall tubing and more bracing added much more rigidity to the chassis. There seemed to be zero chassis flex when cresting razors and pounding the whoops. Next...by having more weight on the front end, the front tires seemed much more planted and in control.

On the way back from the north pole it was time to really see what this car could do. Having a set of tracks to follow allowed me to focus more on driving and less on navigating. So this meant to step it up a notch. Hitting 5th and 6th gear a couple times meant speeds up to 60+ mph through the dunes. That doesn't sound very fast to some because 60 mph on flat ground is nothing. But negotiating transitions at those speeds while choosing whether to stay in the throttle over the next hump or let out makes for some very intense driving. As we flew into some turns in the tighter areas, getting the back of the car to come around was no task at all. Having a solid, live axle rear-end (with no differential) allows for a very quick pitch of the car. With a slight turn of the steering wheel and by chopping the throttle quickly it comes right around almost as fast or faster than car's that use a turning or cutting brake. The car flew through the dunes as if it were on rails. These cars are amazing and can almost out-maneuver an ATV with their agility and speed.

As we were almost ready to exit the dunes from the backside of Banshee Hill, I saw a nice smooth roller coming up. I stayed in it to see how the car would  wheelie. This would be the true test of whether or not the extra weight of this car truly affected it in all areas of duning. I was in 4th gear approaching the roller and all in one quick motion I clicked down to 3rd and rolled on the throttle. To my surprise the front end came right up and the car carried it no problem. With the weightless feeling of being on a roller coaster, we were looking up at the sky and felt completely safe and in control. It was such a great feeling that must be experienced to be completely understood.

After wiping the big grin off my face, we proceeded down Banshee Hill and burped it off the starting line launch berm. We caught some air and the car landed very nice and smooth. Then we continued over to comp to see how it would race up the hill. While this car isn't set up or even built for drag racing, it still jammed up the hill without lugging down at all. I think we were in 3rd or 4th gear at the top at a nice pulling rpm.

At this point I was extremely happy with the car. It out-performed my expectations and had me grinning from ear to ear as I left Dumont that day. Thanks again to Short Sand Cars! They really know how to make a fun machine. It's going to be a long summer as I am pretty anxious to get back out to Dumont in October for some cool weather and long runs through the dunes.  See you in the sand!