What got you interested in Manx style buggys?

[newmanx59]

Cairo Manx's posting about "Manx Restorations" prompted me to ask this question. What, who and how did you get interested in Manx style dune buggys? My Story: I built a sandrail in 1978 which was my first foray into the VW scene. I had a couple friends with fiberglass buggys, one being an original Manx. At that time Manx style buggys didn't impress me at all, probably because the only ones I drove were powered by a 36hp and a 40hp VW engine. My sandrail was powered by a built 1641 with Webers and was a bunch more fun to drive. Years later...1984 or so, sitting in a pizza place in Silver Lake Michigan, my Sister and Sister in Law spotted a glass buggy driving by and mentioned that they would like one for the dunes. The next Monday they called me to ask me if I would go look at a buggy for them. Needless to say they bought it and I restored it and built a 1914 for it. The extra HP in the glass buggy, set the hook. Now I have 2 original Manx's and 1 Siggy Manx. The story goes on but I don't think I can type that much

[Tom-Kathleen]

In 1968, my father gave me a 1963 bug to use to commute to college. I was just 18, but had been reading magazines like Hot Rod for years. He wouldn't let me fix up the bug too much, so I decided to build my own car. I was working in a gas station at the time, so I bought another 63 bug and stripped it down, shortened and rebuilt the chassis and build a hot rod 1200cc motor. Just as I was getting ready to buy the body, I got drafted. This was 1971. I told my dad to sell everything but the motor, and I put the project on hold for many years. After playing with a newer bug, Formula Vee's and even a Rabbit & 91 GTI, I saw a basket case buggy at one of the CT VW shows. This was 1994, I checked it out, but passed. It was at another show in 1995, with a lower price, so I bought it to build the car I never got to finish as a Kid. The car was "finished" and registered in 1998, and I have been improving it ever since. It will probably never really be done. It is a Fiber Fab. I will enter it in Buggy of the Month this year. In September, 2003, I showed Kathleen the release information about the Manxter. She read it several times, and then asked me if I would build it for her if she paid the bills. This really suprised me (her mid life crisis?) but I was happy about it. After figuring out what it would cost, she was still willing, so I said I would do it, with 2 stipulations. #1 was that if she would have to help build it. #2 was that said she wanted her car to be a real "driver", so I also said we should take it on the Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour. We found a decent local 1974 bug to start with, and the project got started. It took 18 months to finish the car, and she has been having a blast ever since. We both thank Bruce for giving us so much fun in our lives by designing the dune buggy so many years ago, and so many new buggy friends. Tom

[tgodber]

Friends had a buggy that they bought in New Mexico and brought back to Canada. They made a number of trips to Mexico and Central America towing it with a VW bus. We sat in the buggy but have never had a ride in it. They are retired and have lots of fun with it. My wife and I decided we needed one and bought a basket case 5 years ago. Progress is ongoing and plan to have it on the road this year. George's buggy:

[Jon]

I bought my Manx after seeing an article in Popular Mechanics Magazine and had to have one. Went for a short ride with a distributor in Kirtland, Ohio, and I was hooked for life. The body was then purchased in Detroit Michigan, from another Manx dealership, in the spring of 1970. A Yuma Yellow tub, fitted to a 1963 shortened chassis, was the 3202 Manx the Bruce produced. It was molded in July of 1969. Link front beam and rear swing axle. Fitted with a 12 volt 1835 cc engine, and a Holly Bugspray 4 barrel carb/ matched to duel ported heads. This was mated to the '63 transaxle converted to the 12 volt system. Ran the off road hills of southeastern Michigan every weekend for a couple of years, while driving it to school during the week. Winter months found a gasoline heater in the back seat aimed forward for my turbo thrusted defrost system. Toasty real toasty! Fast forward 35 years, and my Manx is finally being rebuilt from the ground up. Only a few VW things are being recycled. Hoping to end up with a 180 HP 2270cc. street screamer. Still got a long way to go to finish it.

[CairoManx]

In 1967 the guy that lived across the street from me owned a 66 Beetle 1300. We lived in Oakland, California and there was an Empi parts dealer down on East 14th St. My friend bought all the usual Empi hop up bits he could afford and I did what I could to help him install the stuff. One day we went down to Hayward to a new shop we heard about called Allison Enterprises. It was a Meyers Manx dealership. It was the first time I'd seen a Manx in person. The little show room was amazing with beautiful new bodies and dozens of different accesories. Out back people were busy shortening pans and mounting Goodyear Terra Tires. From then on, anytime there was a Manx on TV or in a magazine, I was all over it. When I turned 15 my father finally caved in. We bought a wrecked 59 VW for a $100. We pulled the body and had the pan shortened by another local shop(who made it too long). Manxs were the most expensive buggy at the time so we started looking at other options. Then we found a discounted Meyers Manx B kit that had been sitting unsold in a VW repair shop in San Francisco. We tied it to the top of our station wagon and brought it home. We finished it and the day I turned 16 and got my license, I took it out for a drive.

[Gene-C]

My story is not that great but it is what got me started. I saw the first issue of Dune Buggies and Hot VWs when it first came out (1967). Cost I think 60 cents at that time. There was Bruc's creation on the beach and in full color on the cover! I fell in love with it right then. Then I had the prvilage so see a "street Manx" down here on the main drag. Crager Wheels, top, rear window, nad Metal Flake Blue! We refered to them in those days as a poor man's hot rod. Siince I already knew how to build VW engines and stuff I was hooked. Then I had to choose between Viet Nam and College. Since I was so clumsy, I chose college. Years went by but the dream stayed alive and I found anything and everything I could to keep up with Bugggies. I sad to say, I have never had the chance to own a real Manx, but I know the creation of Bruce lives in the hearts of generations. And by the way, I have the first issue of Dune Buggies and hot VW's hanging on the wall for insperation anytime I need a lift. Neal Meyer's Manx Club member 1898 Member No 1 - Texas Manx Club RBC Member general idiot who has a bad bad buggy habit.

[fubar]

I grew up in San Diego, my dad owned Tacoma Wheels and our next door neighbor owned Hallcraft Wirewheels. There were always choppers and dunebuggies around. Marvin Hall gave me a Honda z50 and I got hooked on motorcycles and 3 wheelers. "With age comes a cage"...I got my first sand buggy about 6 years ago and started driving my glass buggy about one year ago. Now I am building an air cooled Manx style buggy for something to do with my niece and nephew.

[flaboyjim]

Gey, I thought you would never ask.... I saw the EMPI article in Popular Mechanics in 1965 (?) and then the Manx article in Dune Buggy Mag (now DB&HVWs) in 67... In 68 my dad bought me a 62 beetle for transportation to and from school. I insisted upon going off road with the bug and probably had the first Baja in Florida (didnt know what it was) I took the rear fenders off, put 12 inch wide spit rims and dirt track tires on it - no one could keep up with me in the central Florida orange groves... but that wasnt enough... I wanted a MANX....helped friends build glitterbugs, but never got around to getting my own manx. after college, I went for Corvettes and blondes - was a NCCC governor - lost the corvette to the blonde in a divorce and have spent 30 years trying to remember anything about cars... Last year I was given the Manx Clone body - I went to Bug-In 32 to meet Bruce Myers, my original inspiration..... the rest is now history... O to be 18 again - I would not choose corvettes or blondes.... I would stay with bugs... (or would I?)

[Don Giovanoni]

I first saw the Manx in national magazines. While I was in high school I used to visit the local Meyers Manx dealer. This place was heaven! They had a showroom with completed buggys for sale and bodys of all colors stacked up. They also had a service area where they built buggys. Of course I had no money (or tools or anything) I could only droll. The irony of it was that about 5 years later I bought one of their customer cars. I bought it from the original purchaser and it had almost all of the Manx options. That was the start of it all...

[CM-Rick]

Great thread idea..... I got hooked early as young boy watching the Disney films with Curt Russell flying around in his buggy. Fast forward at the age of 16, one of the neighborhood guys bought one and used to fly that thing all over town! I knew then that I had to have one. When I saw that Bruce was making the Signature series Manx, I put my order in and now own #68 of 100. I'm getting pretty close to taking that first ride around the neighborhood......and plant the seed into someone elses mind !

[90volts]

gosh you guys are old! i got interested watching speedbuggy cartoons and the kroft supertstar show with the beat up buggy that when you beeped his horn would transform into the glittery buggy. other than that, i never saw a buggy in person until i went to WV to pick mine up. I even spent 4 years in tustin and never saw one! and i hung out in laguna and newport most of that time! where were you guys?! but what got me back to thinking about them was when i went to a car show with my son and came upon the vw section and he was so excited because there was no engine- LOL- then saw then engine out back. and the owners were noticibly more friendly than many of the other types of cars . so i started looking around for a buggy to enter in the show ourselves the following year- which we were able to do. researched too little, paid too much, bit off more than i could chew- you know the deal. all the first buggy mistakes , so i am told heheh.

[tpinthepack]

[I like buggies for the same reason I like the Single Cab Vw truck. Very Practical fun vehicle, and not many windows, very little interior. Basicly when it comes down to the budget, if you eliminate carpet, door panels, tons of rubber products and chrome goodies. This is a great deal. And it is a VW of course.

[joemama]

In high school, back in 71, I helped a friend build a buggy, everything was old and used, powered by a 36 hp. When we graduated from high school we towed it from so. cal. to Florence, Oregon, and had an incredible time on the dunes, and logging roads, and on the highway along the coast. I fell in love with the buggy, and Florence, Oregon. My friend and I lost touch over the next few years, and I thought I outgrew V.W.'s Almost 30 years later, I was looking thru some old pictures with my 11 year old son, ran across pictures of the old buggy, and he asked if we could build one. I will never forget my son and my 8 year old daughter scraping the pan clean with spatulas from the kitchen, driving around the block with no seats, or body, the kids sitting on the bare pan. And later duning with the kids, driving the buggy with all four of us thru Yosemite, my wife driving the kids around town, just the best. I wish I had a Manx, I dont, just a clone. But the experience I am sure is what Bruce had in mind when he came up with the buggy. Our buggy gets used and abused, and thats our tribute to Bruce, and his creation.

[mightymanx]

I got my first car a manx in 1971 when I was in high school. My parents bought it for me because they felt it was a low HP car that would be safe. Well I found a job and put most of the money that I earned into such things as nice wheels, tires , seats , and other goodies. It became the envy of many kids and adults around town and was one of only a few vehicles able to get around during the big ice and snow storms of 1972-73 here in SC. Then came the urge for more speed and it was sold in favor of a 1969 camaro. I almost cried when it left. Flash forward to 2002 I was watching television and saw just blip on tv about a meyers manx dunebuggy and the bug that had been knawing at me for 30 years bit hard. At this time one of my co-workers came down with cancer and I had to spend my time trapped in the office. I began looking around on the various web sites and found a body ( a real basket case) in Atlanta and went and got it .Then started the rebuilding process. By June 2003 after many hours of work ( and $$$ that my wife doesn't know about) I had completed the rebuild and was driving it around and receiving the same looks that I did some 30 years earlier.

[Gene-C]

I didnt even know what a dunebuggy was. I had never had a VW either. A contractor friend of mine was doing a roofing job. when he was finished, the widowed old lady took him in the garage and asked him if there was anything in there he wanted. At first he said no but then the lady asked if he wanted the old motorcycle and car that was in there. Well he took the car ( manx II buggy) and the bike ( '81 Honda 550 V-Twin). He gave me the bike and took the buggy home. I asked him if he wanted to sell it but he said no ( I offered him $3,500). At this point, the buggy was in excelent cond. He put it in his back yard and let it sit uncovered for 5 years. Periodicaly, I would ask him again if he would sell it ( I just thought it was a cool looking car). He always said no. After 5 years, I was at a party at his house and he was drunk. I asked him again about the buggy, He told me if I really wanted it I could have it for $300.00. I bought it on the spot and left the party to get my truck before he changed his mind.It sat in my garage for 5 more years until one day I started taking it apart. This was the begining of my quest to make it what it was when I first saw it. It is hard to explain waht happened to me that day but I was obsessed with the car. I spent every free moment reading about VW's or working on the buggy. Today it is totaly restored (for for twice as much as I offered him for it 10 years ago). Now I have 3 buggies (2 projects, a bus, a ghia, and have had numorous bugs. I look in the papaer most every day and constantly search the countryside forgotten buggies.