Legends: Bruce Meyers

Like the dunes over which his vehicles were meant to travel, Bruce Meyer’s life is full of ups and downs. Considered by many to be one of the most groundbreaking automotive designs ever built, the fiberglass dune buggy wasn’t as much a car as it was a lifestyle. Bruce Meyers used backyard engineering to build something that broke convention and plowed through sand dunes. Meyers grew up in California during the early days of surfing, drag racing and beach combing. He loved sailing and his interest in boat building turned into all sorts of projects that involved fiberglass. But it was on California’s Pismo Beach, in 1966, where he saw his first “dune buggy.” Working out of his garage, Meyers made 12 cars that first year, produced using bodies that had their own integral frames mated to VW engines. They were expensive and difficult to produce, so Meyers redesigned the body to fit on a shortened Beetle floorplan. The “Manx” began the off-road revolution, eventually leading to more than 6,000 kits sold in 10 years. But imitators were everywhere. More than 300 companies made 250,000 look-a-likes and near-look-a-likes. Meyers went on to produce more off-road vehicles, including the Tow’d (a smaller and lighter Manx), the Manx S.R. (Street Roadster) built for hotel chains, and a few utility vehicles for Los Angeles lifeguards. But in 1971, after 10 years fighting competitors, Meyers called it quits. Decades after that first buggy, with a renewed interest in the hobby, Meyers reformed the company. “The return of retro styling in automotive circles happened to perfectly coincide with the need in the market for a car that was just plain fun.”