The reason I am bringing this up, is that many of my long-time drag race, street rod, and performance car customers are getting involved.

Here in the Soutwest, the dunes on the California border are causing a phenomenon in sand vehicles. The old dune buggy has been replaced by sand rails, 4X4s, utility vehicles, quads, trikes, and bikes. Every form of perfomance enhancement is used, along with custom paint and upholstering.

The sand rails are most impressive of all, many with blown or turboed V8s, and usually seat 4 to 5 people. I hear chatter of touring the dunes at 100MPH. Drags are a common passtime on any weekend, along with hill climbing, and playing "follow the leader" through the dunes.

Some of the sand rails eclipse $100K, but the average new 4 seater with good power starts about $45K. Of course that doesn't include the toy hauler, tow vehicle, or gas money.

Weekend festivities include a lot of barbequing, and beer, and obviously the whole family can be a part of it. I am told that some dune areas have a population of a quarter million people on holiday weekends.

Is anyone else seeing similar trends? I know their are dunes in the Northwest, North-central, Southeast, and some southern states.