AMERICAN ORIGINAL: THE MEYERS MANX
In 1964, a gallon of gas cost 30 cents, Beatlemania was sweeping America, $1.25 could get you in to see the premiere of “My Fair Lady,” and Bruce Meyers — a surfer, engineer, boatmaker and World War II vet turned artist — created the first dune buggy, which he called “Old Red.”
To hear him tell it, Bruce Meyers wasn’t trying to create a whole new breed of vehicle. He was simply trying to make something that didn’t look like a Jeep but could take you anywhere you wanted to go.
Eighteen months after be- ginning work in his tiny shed outside Newport Beach, The Father of The Dune Buggy unveiled his creation. The first Manx had a fiberglass mono- coque with a Beetle engine and suspension bolted to it. Meyers hoped to sell 20 or 30 (then priced at $985) just to cover the cost of the project. Instead, he would receive more orders than he could fill.
In 1967, Meyers and surfing buddy Ted Mangels completed
a run on the unpaved 832-mile route of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula from La Paz north to Enseñada in a record 34 hours and 45 minutes. Car and Driver picked up on the story and featured the Manx on its April cover. This led to some 350 orders almost overnight. Rather than worry about a growing backlog, Meyers decided to go racing. He won the 1967 Mexican 1000 — the precursor to the SCORE Baja 1000 — and saw demand for the Manx skyrocket even more. Unable to keep up with production, Myers watched as dozens of clones and copycat manufacturers began cropping up to fill the void.
Despite bad deals, tax bites, a near-crippling off-road race accident and a failed attempt to patent his famous design, the now 86-year-old Meyers is currently producing five new Manx models. Kits start at around $5,000 and are available at
meyersmanx.com.
The HVA is looking for stories from historic vehicle lovers around the country to help create an oral history of the automobile within American culture. It’s easy to get involved. Check out the HVA website —
historicvehicle.org — and click on the This Car Matters tab to share your story today.
In addition to its record-breaking Baja run, the Meyers Manx also won its class in the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, beating Corvettes, Cobras and most open-wheel sprint cars.
THE REAL DEAL?
An original Manx is hard to come by. Only around 5,000 were produced between 1964 and 1971. Here’s how to tell if yours is the real deal:
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The dashboard of the first floorpan model, produced into the 1970s, is made of ABS plastic
surrounded by a steel frame.
The hood has a small bump on its nose, measuring 2” wide by 2½” tall. This bump wore a silver and black sticker on the first 150 kits or so into early 1967. A Meyers Manx never had any other bumps, air scoops, ridges, furrows or anything else on its hood.
Two tubular steel struts may be in place to stiffen the lower edge of the body at either side of the license plate. This continued until the end of 1971.
The first floorpan model had stiffening tubes glassed under the fenders from the pedal bulkhead to the engine bulkhead.
The second floorpan model was called the Manx 2. There were a few hundred Manx 2 bodies produced from late 1968 to late 1970. Some of these were built while Bruce was still with the company. Those kits have serial numbers starting with “A.” Some of these kits had the stiffening tubes under the fenders. The Manx 2 cars produced after Bruce left the company had four-digit serial numbers and no longer had the reinforcing tubes under the fenders. All Manx 2 cars are identified by a larger bump on the nose, a serial number tag and the lack of both a battery box and spare tire well.
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