If you didn’t have a dune buggy or a van with outrageously flared arches and an eye-hurting paint job you were nothing in those days — or at least that’s what those of us who were too young ...

because Volkswagen has revealed a contemporary take on the original beach-bum VW Beach Buggy, finally a new cult hero for a generation of people who don’t remember a time before broadband internet.

Dune buggy driver and land access advocate Evelyn Tallman-Duceshi, who helped keep Oceano Dunes near Pismo Beach open to all, and whose knowledge of sand driving was sought out by both neighbors ...

Those with long memories will recall that this isn't the first time VW has put its reborn retrocar on stilts – back in 2000, the automaker showed a New Beetle-based concept, also called Dune.