Bruce Meyers, Father of the Dune Buggy

Like many of the great Southern California car customizers, Bruce Meyers was a returning World War II veteran who had worked on Jeeps. One of his first jobs upon his return was building and customizing boats for Jensen Marine. At his job, he became especially fascinated with the use of moldable fiberglass as a boat construction material.

In the early sixties, Meyers combined his interest in fiberglass construction and his love of Southern California's beaches with his mechanical experience with Jeeps and a newfound interest in Volkswagen Beetles. He then created a lightweight fiberglass body and mounted it on a Beetle chassis, and the Manx dune buggy was born.

Unfortunately for Meyers, he wasn't a great business. He began selling dune buggy kits, but priced the kits too low compared to the cost of production.

Baja

Despite himself, Meyers made a name for himself when his Manx achieved a record-breaking run along 832 miles of Mexico's Baja Peninsula coastline. This event gained Bruce Meyers the cover of "Car and Driver" Magazine and a swamp of orders for his dune buggy kits. But once again his business skills were lacking. He both couldn't meet customer demands and, even worse, he couldn't meet the physical demands of the job because he had been injured and incapacitated in yet another Baja run. (Note that eventually these early Baja runs developed into the famous Baja 1000 Race)

The End of the Manx as We Know it

By 1969, Meyers' fortunes took another turn for the worst when dozens of other companies began ripping off his dune buggy design despite his 1965 patent. Even Sears ripped him off with their version of the Manx. It was called "The Rascal."

When he attempted to take companies to court, Meyers was awarded only minimal damages mostly because the judge didn't understand the dune buggy as a product or design.

By 1970, Bruce Meyers grew frustrated and pressured, and he walked away from his company and anything else having to do with dune buggies for decades. During those years, he floundered about from job to job and idea to idea.

Bruce Meyers Returns

In 1994, Meyers accepted an invitation to attend a dune buggy festival held in Le Mans, France, where he was treated like royalty, This inspired him to create an updated limited-edition version of the Manx, the Manxster 2 + 2. This new version seated four passengers instead of two, and it cost $15,000 as opposed to the original price of $995.

SOURCES:

"The father of the dune buggy rides again", Larry Webster, Car and Driver

"A righteous beach baby", John Balzar, L.A. Times

"2006 Manxster 2 + 2", Larry Webster, Car and Driver