Early History of "The Dune Cat"

This all started back many many years ago when I was a child in 1972 or so.

This is a warehouse that housed almost anything.
The saying was if they don't have it
you don't need it.

This is near the location where the store
was. It is a sign with an arrow pointing to
the actual store. 

My father and I were returning from a trip to help my grandfather do some work on his farm. We passed a small local hardware/general merchandise store in the town of Sycamore, Ga. called One Stop Denham's. This store had sitting out front two shiny new Muskin Dune Cat go carts. They looked like twins sitting there.
I begged my dad to stop and lets take a look at them. After much begging and pleading he finally agreed to stop and look at them. Man I could just see myself cutting through sand dunes of the desert on this thing. Wait a minute I live in Ga. there are no sand dunes in Ga. much less a desert so I thought. Turns out there are sand dunes and pits all over south Georgia. Much to my surprise, Dad went inside and talked to the owner that he knew very well they may have even gone to school together. You know small towns everyone knows everyone. Well we left and headed home to Chula, Ga. where we lived. Everytime for the next 3-4 weeks we would go by One Stop Denham's I would see that blue beauty sitting out front just begging for a good home that I could easily provide.

Dune Cat advertisement  picture

A month or so passes by, Dad and I do our usual Saturday morning routine. Go to his work, work until lunch, leave there go to Grandaddy's house and work the rest of the day. Something was amiss this day though; we stopped working early and headed home. I asked Dad "Why are we going home early? Is Mom sick? Did one of my brothers get hurt?". Dad assured me everything was fine but he had a surprise for me. We stopped at One Stop Denham's and I didn't see the Dune Cats sitting out front. Man my heart sank like a rock in the river. Dad pulled around back and the men loaded my brand new Dune Cat in the back of the truck. Shazam!!!! I thought I can't wait to ride this thing. Once home the chaos began; Robbie, my middle brother, got on it in the yard and was riding it around in circles. Dad was talking to one of my uncles leaning beside his F100 pickup so he could keep an eye on Robbie. Rob floors the gas does a doughnut spins out loses control and slams into a telephone pole right beside the truck. The Dune Cat then digs in and starts climbing the pole. Holy Shit Batman!! Thank God the pole was there or he would have smashed the side of the truck and possibly gotten hurt. Because of that we created a dirt track around our small garden that at the time seemed huge. The whole thing was less than a half acre. Oh I would ride and ride until the thing gave slap out of gas. Well my neighbor and good friend Kirby Jones rode dirt bikes all of the time. When we could we would strike out for the day riding through their pastures seeing how fast they would run. Over hills, pond dams, through Pecan orchards, woods, spillways, creeks, and cow pastures, I just had to be sure to watch out for the cow patties. Nothing like cow shit in your mouth to ruin your day.

This is what Kirby had

Over time the Dune Cat got rode so hard it had to give up the ghost. The drive system on it was a Comet torque converter to a chain and jack shaft. The driven part of the converter broke so my Dune Cat got parked and started weathering away. The advancement of this thing was sick for its time. It acts as a CVT transmission starting off at a 3:1 ratio finishing off with .9:1 ratio. This provides for ample takeoff torque and good top end speed. Top speed should have been in the neighborhood of 45 mph.

Comet Torque Converter

Later on a guy was riding by, saw it sitting in the back yard, stopped and asked Dad if could he buy it. Dad being the man he was said let me think about it. The guy said "I'll give you $75 for it". Dad said "Sold but I keep the motor". The guy agreed and off went my Dune Cat in the back of a Pinto Station Wagon never to be seen or heard of again.

Dad was fair he gave me the $75 to put toward the purchase of a dirt bike. I had been working all summer to purchase a new dirt bike. Man I couldn't wait. This was almost enough to put me over the top. Well we got the bike and long story short over time got over the loss of My Dune Cat.

See our pictures here

http://picasaweb.google.com/bigdaddyal77/DuneCatRestorationSchoolProject#

Visit our site for this build

https://sites.google.com/site/thedunecat/