82 SEPTEMBER 2019 FOUR WHEELER fourwheeler.com
FOUR WHEELER (ISSN 0015-9123) September 2019; Vol. 56, No. 9. Copyright © 2019 by TEN: Publishing Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Published monthly by TEN: Publishing Media, LLC.,
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TR A I L’ S E N D
BY JERED KORFHAGE [email protected] PHOTOS: LEN TERRELLaluminum-skinned machine was built on a
frame of 2x4-inch steel tube braced with a
webbed arrangement of 1.5-inch steel tubing.
Power came from a 511ci Chevy V-8, and the
breather hose for the carb was routed along the
top of the buggy—far from any intruding mud
or water. Tall, skinny tractor tires keep the rig
moving in the Florida mire.
Were you in Naples for the birth of this
style of racing? Have you built a fire-breathing
swamp machine to slice through nose-deep
muddy water? Send your story to editor@
fourwheeler.com along with a high-resolution
image of your machine—we’d love to see it! FWto 80 mph. As the sport grew bigger and the
buggies grew wilder, racers were divided into
classes by engine (four-, six-, and eight-cylinder
classes), two- and four-wheel drive, a few class-
es for rigs powered by motorcycle engines, and
one class for Jeeps. Safety regulations included
quick-release fire extinguishers within reach of
the driver; 14-gauge, 1.5-inch-diameter steel
rollbars; front and rear recovery points; and
one-piece tires (no cleats or paddles). Torque
converters, flywheels, and chaindrives needed
steel scattershields measuring^3 ⁄ 16 inch thick.
One glowing example of a swamp buggy
was Leonard Dunn’s “Stand On It.” TheY
ou’ve heard of dune
buggies for blasting
dunes and rock bug-
gies for wheeling on
rocks, but what is
purpose-built for the swamps of
Naples, Florida? Nope, not airboats
(good guess though)—it’s swamp
buggies. The craze was pioneered
by Ed Frank, who began wrench-
ing at age 12 and owned his own
garage and machine shop by 19.
By 1947, he had built a Model T–
inspired, fat-tired mud monster.
These machines began as tools
for traversing the saturated lands
of Florida, but as folks began
engineering faster and more reli-
able buggies, it was only natural
that one buggy driver challenged
another to a race.
Whether or not they knew it at
the time, the oval-eight course
named “Mile-O-Mud” would be
the birthplace of the sport and
home to the first-ever swamp
buggy races in Florida. This tradition would
continue for decades to come in the sludgy
waters. The racetrack was actually a^7 ⁄ 8 -mile
long, and though the day-old-coffee-with-
cream brown water on top made it appear
docile, the underlying slop could be up to
6 feet deep. “Sippi Hole,” positioned in front
of the grandstands, was the deepest point of
the track, and it was named after “Mississippi”
Milton Morris—a racer who could never keep
from stalling his buggy in the hole’s deep,
murky waters.
Early buggies were described as a “junkyard
jubilee,” created with a dose of mechanized
madness and rebel ingenuity. Engines came
from Cadillacs, lawn mowers, and motorcycles,
and you could find parts ranging from aircraft
tires to pieces of road graders, rowboats,
and hay balers. It was common to see these
creations sailing through the goo at speeds up->“EARLY BUGGIES WERE DESCRIBED AS A
‘JUNKYARD JUBILEE,’ CREATED WITH A DOSE OF
MECHANIZED MADNESS AND REBEL INGENUITY.”
Swamp Buggies:
Mud Machines Custom-Built for
Racing in Florida Swamps