Va Dune Buggy is located .2 miles East of the Rt29/33 intersection at the SIR Spotswood Business Park. This is in Ruckersville Virginia which is about 15 minutes North of Charlottesville, Va and the University of Virginia.

The Blue Ridge Mountains make for some great terrain for dune buggy riding with easy access to Skyline Drive. University of Virginia students can make it to our shop in 20 minutes by car. Harrisonburg, Va dune buggy enthusiasts are only 30 minutes away from us along Rt33.

"What makes Va Dune Buggy different than a lot of the other dune buggy shops?"

We believe that every customer is worthy of our time and effort. It is our mission to serve each customer with respect as well as provide the customer support that we would wish in return. Word of mouth advertising is of high priority for us so we shoot for a 100% customer satisfaction rate to help insure only positive reviews of our small business.

Va Dune Buggy is a division of Speed Star Enterprises, LLC which was founded in August 2006 by owner/operator Jake Davis. Jenn Butt is Jake's lovely wife who serves as VP of Speed Star Enterprises, LLC.

I started in motor sports at age 12 with a broken down and extremely "well loved" Honda XR-80. It came with a locked up engine and many other small issues. With the help of my father, I rebuilt the engine and did enough repairs on the chassis to ride the thing. Everything was low budget so I really had to learn how to do most parts of the repair process myself. Over the next couple of years, I managed to keep that XR-80 together and had many wonderful times. Eventually, the cam chain stretched too much to keep the valves in time which resulted in a couple of bent valves which essentially made the bike unworthy of repair.

Bikes followed from this point on with mixed success and failures as well as innumerable learning experience's:

• 1981 Yamaha IT-175
• 1985 Honda XR200R
• 1988 Honda CR125R
• 1989 Honda CR500R
• 1995 Honda CBR900RR
• 1997 Honda CBR900RR
• 1998 Suzuki GSX-R750

In early high school, I knew my destiny was to be a Mechanical Engineer and work in the motor sports sector. Mechanical drafting, Calculus, Physics, Geometry, Trigonometry and many other advanced honors classes helped prepare me for the pursuit of an Engineering Degree at a major university. Working at "Jeff's Cycle Center" in Hayes VA as a mechanic helped pay for parts and other toys as well as provided practical experience in a motor sports repair facility.

Virginia Tech accepted me and I went away to Blacksburg, VA to study Mechanical Engineering. Various project groups helped hone my design and fabrication skills but my real education in fabrication came while juggling fabrication courses in Machine Technology at New River Vally Community college. There, I learned how to machine everything from gears to carburetors.

• SAE Mini Formula 1 Team - We built a small race car with a turbo charged Honda CBR600 engine. I designed and fabricated the custom intake system with multi-port fuel injection system with turbo charger. My abilities in the machine shop had me fabricating hundreds of other parts for the vehicle as well.
• SAE Mini Baja Team - Custom dune buggies with an 8hp B&S engine generally don't perform very well but this baby kicked ASS. We designed and welded a custom dune buggy chassis from chromolly steel which is very difficult yet VERY light and strong. The engine ran a CVT which drove a Polaris ATV transmission with 2 forward and one reverse gears. Top speed was around 45mph with 8hp which is CRAZY!

After College, I took a job as a structural engineer with a building supply manufacturer. Six years later, the building sector started to collapse so Speed Star Enterprises, LLC and Va Dune Buggy was born.