The Meyers Manx: A Reluctant Photo Thread

Nice, I own some early aircooled VWs. They definitely have a place in American culture (dune buggy or otherwise) that you can’t say about other foreign cars.

 

We had a dune buggy for one summer in the early 70's when I was still in single digits. I remember my 6'-2" dad folded over the steering wheel driving it and my mom freaking out he was going to get us all killed. I have vivid memories of the asphalt whizzing by only a few inches under my finger tips...

I also remember back in the day if you mentioned a VW here someone would always say "Hitler is laughing at you."

But f-'em. I love air cooled VWs and I always will!

 

I had one of those back in the early 70's... The kids loved riding in it! I had also built a Baja bug that the wife drove..

 

I have to admit, I've been a closet dune buggy fan since I was a kid... There always seemed to be a concentration of them at beach towns, in the 60's & 70's...
Way to hit a dormant nerve Ryan!

 

For those that can't afford the real thing, there's the Cox gas powered toy.

 

How about the Bitchenest ever Manx? The Steve McQueen one! Tony Nancy interior, Stewart Warner gages, ET wheels, Firestone Indy tires, etc...

 

Strip everything about trying to classify or explain them and you're left with what they are at the core- fun. Those little buggies are fun to look at, fun to drive, fun to build. They have a lot in common with what we love about these dumb hot rods, you couldn't buy one off the showroom floor you had to make it. There's a ton of room for individuality and character. No two alike and all that jazz...

Where I grew up in Northern San Diego Hot Rod and VW culture ran parallel and it was impossible to separate. In fact it was weird for me when I saw the rest of the country and how many VWs there weren't! I just assumed lowered bugs were ubiquitous.

 

Didn’t every kid have one of these?
Dan

 

Mark can you actually drive these bad boys?
Ah fuck the drooling started again!
Dan

 

I have a '70 EMPI Imp waiting it's turn to be put back together.

 

I figured as much, they are cool! A v8 in a dune buggy would be kick ass if you could keep the transaxle together
Dan

 

Or you could build the AMT kit, like I did (twice).

 

@Dreddybear - Same for me! I remember slammed bugs with crazy camber, even chopped bugs and "cal" rubber white window seals. They were everywhere. We still have a few, but I probably only see about one per week.

I have always wanted a Manx - someday...

 

One thing I haven't owned but always wanted. Someone over on the west side of the state put a back yard full of them that were in need of a bunch of work up for sale on FB and I don't think the add stayed up for two days.
Back in the 70's I had a customer in the shop I worked in who drove one as her summer car and drove the wheels off of it. We never worked on it but kept her family's fleet of late model vehicles up.

 

Here’s the one I completely rebuilt back in 1998ish. What’s not to like? Mis-matched wheels, including black steelies up front, gigantic ‘Dick Cepek / Fun Country’ meats out back. I recall the 4 dowel pins that locate the flywheel on the crank had ‘egged-out’ the holes in the crank and the flywheel due to an improperly torqued crankshaft gland nut, which would normally render the crank and flywheel junk. Anyone who knows anything about VW’s knows that the performance crowd installs 4 additional dowels, so I must give slight credit to them for my idea of re-drilling in between the factory holes.

 

A friend's dad had one in the late 60's. As young teenagers we thought we were shitting in tall cotton when he gave us rides in that metal flake thing.

 

Timely. Friend of mine has been feeding me old Hot Rod magazines he has picked from the free pile at garage sales, gave me this one last weekend. Late seventies high school buddy had a buggy, what a blast! Girls loved the thing! My favorite memory of that buggy, we went "wheeling" with a group of Jeep guys who had no faith in us being able to follow them, bad mouthed that buggy from the start, "you'll never make it". Scraped the pan a bit but we made it just fine. The best part, that trail was one way in turn around and go the same way out. We get to the end and there's a guy leaned up against the front of a beat Pinto wagon drinking a Rainer beer. How in the hell did you get up here? "Same way you Frs did". I'd love to do a buggy.

 

when the going gets weird the weird turn pro !

I’ve owned a dozen or so air cooled vw’s and 1 Manx , painter British racing green , thin cracked fibreglass on a home built tube frame , duel port 1600 engine duel carb with stinger exhaust .

Got it for next to nothing from a customer who had it in his garage for years and wanted it gone , remove the engine , free up the clutch , clean the carbs and fuel system …. And beat on that thing like a government mule all summer !!!!!!
Had a blast , no place to store it so sold it at the end of the season .
Silly , unpractical, but buckets of fun for a shoestring budget ( at that time , not so much now )
Real Manx buggies are worth a decent stack of nickels now !!

 

huh. all of a sudden everyone likes vw's?

sure wasn't the tune I got when I was trying to share the story of my hot rod. ..

and its way cooler than any dune buggy ever dreamed.



If you want the first half of the story, you can get it here:

A Historical Oddball

or, if you like to take it from someone else, and abridged, here's a version by the late Pat Ganahl:

THE MYSTERIOUS MINI-T

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