I am very sad to say that Bruce Meyers, the man who created the dune buggy industry, has died at the age of 94

I’ve come to realize that I have a kind of type when it comes to people I consider personal heroes. They’re usually mechanical-minded artists / artists, people like Alexander Calder or Rebecca Horn or mine friend Tom Jennings. They don’t necessarily take themselves too seriously, but they do meaningful work. There’s another big one on this list, someone I’ve admired for years: Bruce Meyers, the man who started pretty much the entire Volkswagen-based dune kit and stroller car industry. He died today, at his home in Valley Center, California.

Bruce was best known for the car that bears his name, the Meyers Manx, which is, I think, an absolute icon of car design, which remains the image that pops into everyone’s mind when they hear the words “dune buggy “.

People in Southern California had been hacking together “dune buggy” type vehicles from old Jeeps and stripped cars for years, and once the Volkswagen Beetle began to gain popularity in the United States in the 1950s, the type of people who liked to drive piles of sand began to notice that the small light car had a surprisingly good traction, was sturdy and the bodywork was easy to remove, all for a bit of off-road.

People began removing beetles for off-road use, and Bruce noticed this in the early 1960s. Bruce not only contented himself with removing the bolts from a Bug and calling it up to date; Bruce was a real artist, no joke, and had been building fiberglass boats for Jensen Marine, a combination that led to the formula that would make him famous: a wonderfully designed fiberglass body that could be attached to a shortened (shortened) chassis.

The first version of Bruce’s idea, built in 1964, was a little different from the later production ones that would be called La Mancha, after the tailless cats, in which it was rather a unique design, with hard-to-lock points. the axles and the Volkswagen transmission, but no frying pan is needed.

That first Manx, with additional green fuel tanks made from reused welding gas tanks, known as Old Red, did an off-road race from Tijuana to La Paz, a test that would inspire the famous Low ground race 1000 this is still running today.

Let’s take a moment here and look at the Meyers Manx, because it’s one of those designs that is so intertwined in our car cultural awareness that it can be hard to think objectively.

Given the limitations of the requirements for the manx (sturdy, cheap, easy to assemble in a garden with basic tools), the result is, I think, and the absolute triumph of the design.

The body is a basic bathtub that incorporates almost everything – just look at a windshield, lights and a anti-red bar and you’re fine. For the time, it was a completely up-to-date design, a completely different design direction from the design of the beetle of the 1930s and with its curved bolts almost catenary that form the general shape. Eero Saarinen Architectural work, only on a much smaller scale.

Meyers described the Manx in an interview:

I am an artist and I wanted to bring a sense of movement and gesture to Man. Dune buggies has a message: funny. They are fun to drive and should look like. Nothing he did at the time. So I looked at it and took care of the acquaintances. The top of the front fenders had to be flat to hold a couple of beers, the sides had to go up high enough to hold the mud and sand from the eyes, it had to be compatible with the beetle mechanics and you had to be able to build it yourself. Then I added all the female line and shape and Mickey Mouse adventure I could. ”

The result was absolutely perfect for what it was supposed to be, perhaps too perfect, because it was imitated almost immediately, without mercy and without rest.

Everyone, even the cornerstones of American trade, like Sears, were pushing ahead and selling cheeky Manx clones and despite having a design patent, Meyers had no luck in court and the flood of eighths ended up leaving him out of business in 1971.

Bruce bounced, inventing the fiberglass jacuzzi, and later in life, rebuilding La Mancha.

I met Bruce a few years ago, when He drove a Class 11 desert race beetle; he was warm and friendly and we talked very carefully about all sorts of ephemeral Volkswagen products and dune buggy. He was so sharp and warm, and it was hard to reconcile that he was a real human being who had created this thing that seemed to somehow have always existed.

Manx dune buggy design was so iconic to me that meeting Bruce had the same surreal effect you would feel if you were introduced to the person who invented this feeling you have after a long day of fun on the beach with your friends. You are young and beautiful, a little sunburned and your hair feels thick and salty and the sunset makes the interior of the car have bright orange tones and everything feels wonderful in the world.

It would be like meeting that person. Just all this feeling is a car.

Bruce Meyers I think often doesn’t get the recognition he deserves as a vehicle designer; he is recognized for sure: his first Manx is listed in the historical register of historic vehicles, after all, but I think his success places him among the most recognized car designers like Virgil Exner or Gordon Buehrig.

He designed a car that sparked a new class of vehicles, a whole sub-industry; how many vehicle designers can say that?

Bruce Meyers showed the world how fun cars could be, and then put the ability to really do it. build These cars in the hands of anyone who has a few free weekends and a cheeky old Volkswagen. His manx was free of foolish pretensions, status, or postures: it was simple and fun and was a gift for everyone who loves the feeling of being on the move.

Bruce is still one of my car heroes, and he will miss him.