Buggy (automobile)

For other vehicles known as "buggy", see Buggy.

Buggy is generally used to refer to any lightweight automobile with off-road capabilities and sparse bodywork. Most are built either as a kit car or from scratch.

Buggy
Volkswagen Country Buggy, a military buggy
Overview
Manufacturer	Many
Body and chassis
Body style	Lightweight
Related	Horse and buggy

History

The word buggy was originally used in England to describe a lightweight two-wheeled carriage for one person,^[1]: 121 and later in America to describe a common 4-wheeled carriage.^[2]: 25 The term was extended to lightweight automobiles as they became popular.^[3][4] As automobiles became increasingly sophisticated, the term briefly dropped out of use before being revived to describe more specialised off-road vehicles.^[5][6][7]

Types

The U.S. Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle from Apollo 15 on the Moon in 1971

• Bennett buggy, a Canadian, depression era term for an automobile pulled by a horse
• Dune buggy, designed for use on sand dunes
• Baja Bug, a modified Volkswagen Beetle
• Moon buggy, nickname for the Lunar Roving Vehicle used on the Moon during the Apollo program's Apollo 15, Apollo 16, and Apollo 17 missions
• Sandrail, a variant of the dune buggy
• Swamp buggy, designed for use in swamps
• Rock buggy, designed for use in low-speed rock-crawling applications
• Rock bouncer, designed for use in high-speed rock-crawling/bashing or very steep, off-road hillclimb racing, typically tubular steel exoskeleton, 1000hp V8 petrol engine

See also

• Cars portal

• American (1902 automobile)
• Buckeye gasoline buggy
• Citroën C-Buggy
• High wheeler
• Kite buggy
• Truggy
• Volkswagen 181
• Volkswagen Country Buggy

References

1. Felton, William (1996) [1796]. A Treatise on Carriages (Reprint of both volumes). Astragal Press. ISBN 1879335700. OL 21753408M. (Original Vol I, Original Vol II)
2. Smith, D.J.M. (1988). A Dictionary of Horse Drawn Vehicles. J. A. Allen & Co. Ltd. ISBN 0851314686. OL 11597864M.
3. "Advantages of the automobile buggy". Popular Mechanics. Hearst Magazines. July 1909. p. 72. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
4. "untitled". Logansport (Indiana) Daily Reporter. 4 December 1901. p. 3. He is catapulted through space by the explosion of a 'gasoline buggy'.
5. "Amphibian 'Marsh buggy' used to hunt oil". Popular Mechanics. Hearst Magazines. April 1937. p. 529. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
6. "Jungle Buggy packs a load". Popular Science. May 1948. p. 122. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
7. Hunn, Max (October 1954). "Swamp-buggy Steeplechase". Popular Mechanics. p. 137. Retrieved 14 August 2013.