Surfer’s fibreglass dune buggy became an emblem of 1960s California cool
Flying across the sand like a fourwheeled rocket, the first fibreglass dune buggy was sleek, stylish and a little whimsical, a small car with big wheels and a tangerine-red paint job. Christened the Meyers Manx, the vehiclewas the invention of Bruce Meyers, a surfer and boatbuilder who melded old Volkswagen Beetle parts with a curving fibreglass body.
‘‘It’s sort of a reflection of my lifestyle, which is all about being free,’’ said Meyers, who made the front fenders flat enough to hold a couple of beers, kept the car’s sides high enough to keep mud and sand from the driver’s eyes, and designed the vehicle so a surfboard could be easily tied overhead.
Built in 1964, his Manx was far from the first car to race across the beach or desert. But the two-seater inspired thousands of imitators, turned the dune buggy into an emblem of 1960s California cool, and helped spur the development of off-road racing. Scores of drivers now flock to the Baja California Peninsula each year for a race that began in 1967, after Meyers and a friend drove 1000 miles through desert sand and scrub in record time.
Through his company BF Meyers & Co, which shut in 1971, Meyers built about 7000 dune buggies, which were sold as kits and originally priced at US$985. The vehicle inspired more than 250,000 copycat cars, according to the Historic Vehicle Association, which calls the Meyers Manx ‘‘the most replicated car in history’’. He spent decades away from the industry before reintroducing the Meyers Manx in 2000 and developing new models.
Meyers, who has died aged 94, was 37 when he started sketching his idea for the Manx, working out of his Newport Beach garage in Southern California. By then he had shaped surfboards, built catamarans, survived a kamikaze attack in the navy, studied fine art and built a trading post on a coral atoll in the South Pacific. Surfing by day, playing the guitar at bars by night, he was hoping the new car would be something he and his friends could use to access remote beaches in Baja.
‘‘I wasn’t thinking about buggies,’’ he told Autoweek in 2002. ‘‘I just thought, ‘What is something that would work well down there that’s cheap to drive?’ ’’
During a 1963 trip to Pismo Beach, he marvelled at a group of early dune buggies made from stripped-down cars. One of them, a modified Beetle, manoeuvred better than the others, inspiring him to incorporate the car’s engine, suspension and mechanical components into the Manx.
Meyers modified the mechanical components to make the vehicle lighter and faster. Drawing on his boatbuilding experience, he built a thick fibreglass body strengthened by steel tubes, later boasting that the vehicle’s shape was as distinctive as that of a Coke bottle.
‘‘I loved the funnies – the Mickey Mouse, the Donald Duck cars,’’ he said in 2014. ‘‘They all drove little cars with great big wheels, and there was no room for their feet. That stuckwith me. I guess I mimicked some of that in the Manx.
‘‘If I’d known a lot about car design,’’ he added, ‘‘therewouldn’t be a dune buggy because I broke the rules. You have to have freedom to break rules.’’
The youngest of five children, Bruce Franklin Meyers was born on his family’s dining room table in Los Angeles. He spent much of his childhood on beaches, becoming a lifeguard after one of his brothers drowned. He dropped out of high school to join the Merchant Marine and later enlisted in the US Navy, serving on the aircraft carrier Bunker Hill during World War II.
After the ship was struck by two kamikazes near Okinawa and began to sink,
Meyers jumped into the water. As he told it, he gave his life jacket to a struggling sailor and then helped a pilot who had been badly burned, staying by his side until they were rescued about five hours later. Nearly 400 sailors and airmen were killed in the attack.
He filed a patent for his ‘‘sand vehicle’’ in 1965 but struggled to prevent competitors from using his design. After taking a copycat manufacturer to court in 1970, he lost the case and, in his telling, the rights to his invention. His company closed down the next year.
‘‘I felt terrible and cheated,’’ he later said. ‘‘I spent the next twenty-something years just not thinking right. I was so unhappy.’’
He was married six times. Survivors include a daughter from his fifth marriage, a brother, and five grandchildren. He was predeceased by two children from his first marriage.
Before his vision worsened about two years ago, Meyers was still driving a Manx and making the cars by hand, often by himself. – Washington Post
‘‘If I’d known a lot about car design, there wouldn’t be a dune buggy because I broke the rules.’’