That is an authentic Meyers Manx, the primary and solely genuine fiberglass-bodied Beetle-based seaside buggy, and a automobile that has spawned numerous imitations over time.
Bruce Meyers was an engineer, sailor, yacht builder, surfer, racing driver, and an artist who developed a fiberglass physique tub that might be fitted to a shortened VW Beetle chassis. It proved preferrred not simply as a seaside buggy however as a file breaking off street racer, generally with Meyers himself on the wheel.
Quick Details – The Meyers Manx Seashore Buggy
- The seaside buggies of the Nineteen Fifties had been typically easy affairs, typically both minimize down manufacturing automobiles or crudely welded automobiles that couldn’t be pushed on the street.
- Bruce Meyers was an skilled yacht builder who was deeply accustomed to fiberglass constructions, he developed the primary seaside buggy to make use of a monocoque fiberglass physique, and he was the primary to make use of a shortened Beetle floorpan with the fiberglass physique hooked up.
- The Beetle-based buggy would show the most well-liked and the best to fabricate given the huge numbers of low-cost Beetles accessible on the time.
- Bruce Meyers would develop a kit-built buggy based mostly on the Beetle floorpan with one in all his personal fiberglass our bodies on high. It will change into an icon of the Sixties and the unique survivors at the moment are extremely collectible.
Who Constructed The First Seashore Buggy?
Nobody truly is aware of who constructed the primary seaside buggy – modified automobiles being pushed on sand dunes (dune buggies) and on seashores started to climb in reputation within the Nineteen Fifties. It will be Bruce Meyers who developed the primary fiberglass-bodied seaside buggy and put it into manufacturing – one of these buggy shortly grew to become by far the most well-liked.
Above Video: This full size documentary tells the story of probably the most well-known Seashore Buggy of all of them, the Meyers Manx.
The Origins Of The Meyers Manx
It virtually looks as if Bruce Meyers was destined to remodel the world of seaside buggies. As an engineer, a surfer, and a fiberglass yacht builder he had a singular set of talents, and he was in the fitting place on the proper time – Southern California within the early Sixties.
As a surfer it’s no shock that Meyers had an curiosity in seaside buggies, as they allowed fast and quick access to in any other case inaccessible breaks. The primitive nature of the buggies being constructed on the time, the late Nineteen Fifties and early Sixties, will need to have rankled his inner-engineer and so he got down to construct one thing higher.
His first design was a masterpiece, however it proved too advanced to be reliably mass-produced. It had a fiberglass physique that acted as a monocoque construction, with the engine and entrance/rear suspension bolted straight onto it.
It was virtually definitely one of many first composite monocoque tubs ever utilized in an automotive utility, predating the identical method being utilized by many supercar makers by ~40 years.
For his second design Meyers opted for a simplicity-first strategy. He took a VW Beetle floorpan and minimize it right down to shorten the wheelbase. He then developed a fiberglass tub-style physique that bolted on high.
The Meyers Manx used a shortened VW Beetle platform onto which a fiberglass physique tub is put in.
This design proved preferrred because it used the Beetle suspension, brakes, engine, steering, and transmission – all of which remained hooked up to its authentic fixing factors. Beetles had been an inexpensive and straightforward to supply donor on the time, and so they might be modified with uprated suspension, improved engines, and bigger wheels/drained to be used in dunes and on seashores.
The Meyers Manx
Bruce Meyers opted to name his creation the Meyers Manx, named for the Manx cat which is understood for its lack of a tail – in reference to the bobtail design of the buggy. As soon as the design was productionized it was supplied on the market as a package and it proved instantly in style.
With the intention to show the sturdiness of the design Bruce Meyers partnered with Ted Mangels to aim the unimaginable – to interrupt the 1,000 mile time file between Tijuana and La Paz that had been set by off-road racing legend Dave Ekins and Billy Robertson Jr. in 1962 on bikes.
Meyers and Mangels had been adopted by a journalist from Highway & Monitor journal to witness their feat, and so they drove a specifically ready Meyers Manx. Remarkably the 2 males achieved their aim, setting a time of 34:45 and beating the previous file by over 5 hours.
The media protection following the Tijuana to La Paz run considerably boosted the profile of B. F. Meyers & Co. and it did no hurt to gross sales – the corporate would promote over 6,000 of their kits.
Maybe probably the most well-known Manx of all was the highly-modified instance powered by a Corvair engine that was pushed by Steve MxQueen within the 1968 movie The Thomas Crown Affair alongside Faye Dunaway.
That is Bruce Meyers along with his most well-known creation – the Meyers Manx.
Apparently the corporate was introduced again within the 12 months 2000 and it lately introduced that it’s going to be producing a line of 100% electrical, road-legal seaside buggies strongly influenced by the unique Bruce Meyers design.
The Meyers Manx Proven Right here
The Meyers Manx you see right here has been authenticated by the Meyers registry as #0702. It’s completed in metallic pink paint and it has chromed 15″ Cragar wheels, a cultured roll bar, a black inside, and it comes with an identical surfboard.
As with virtually all examples of the Meyers Manx this buggy is powered by a VW Beetle flat-four, a 1.6 liter alternative unit on this case mounted to a four-speed transmission. This engine is topped with a Weber carburetor and it has a twin exhaust system.
This Manx has polished chrome nudge bars back and front to assist protect the fiberglass physique, Hella H4 headlights, entrance disc brakes, and it’s exhibiting 10,000 miles on the odometer.
In case you’d wish to learn extra about this uncommon buggy or register to bid you’ll be able to go to the itemizing right here on Convey a Trailer. It’s being supplied on the market out of Islip Manor, New York.
Photos courtesy of Convey a Trailer
Articles that Ben has written have been coated on CNN, Well-liked Mechanics, Smithsonian Journal, Highway & Monitor Journal, the official Pinterest weblog, the official eBay Motors weblog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Journal, Wired Journal, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and lots of extra.
Silodrome was based by Ben again in 2010, within the years because the web site has grown to change into a world chief within the various and classic motoring sector, with properly over 1,000,000 month-to-month readers from all over the world and lots of a whole bunch of 1000’s of followers on social media.
