Those days weren't that long ago if you stop and think about it. Bert (sanddunesaddict) and I were talking about this today. I remember when I really started going to Dumont (about 98-99), it was a pretty rare occasion that you'd see a "long travel" car out there. I remember almost running out of our camp to check one out as they'd cruise by. That was only less than 8 years ago.
Take a look at this site that I ran across when I was doing some searching on Dumont one day.
http://www.sandslingersclub.com/Sand9a.html
Scroll through a couple pages of it and check out the cars. It almost seems like those pics were from the 70's or 80's... when, in fact, they were from 99-2001. It's crazy how time flies and how quickly the sport has changed. Now everyone and their mom has a long travel car.
Hey, maybe with the recent change in economy, this season Dumont will be full of more standard travel beam cars.