| Necessity, it is said, is the mother of invention.
After WW2 Californian Bruce Meyers saw a typical heavy American V8 powered cars on the beach, he knew there had to be a better vehicle. A lighter car that could float across sand, rather than bog down in it.
Yet, there was nothing on the market that would achieve what Meyers' wanted.
Like all good inventors, he decided to build his own: The perfect sand buggy. And he had assistance from an unlikely quarter. One of the rare positive legacies left by Adolf Hitler was the Volkswagen --- the people's car. These light-bodied and framed Beetles, and derivative Kombi van, were powered by flat four, air-cooled engines.
Popular history has Meyers, a fibreglasser, as the buggy inventor. It was at California's Pismo Beach where he saw V8-powered vehicles called `water pumpers'. Meyers felt the cars were too heavy and unsuited to soft sand.
The hard sand was one thing.
But soft sand has proved to be the graveyard of many a weighty four wheeler, let alone rear wheel drives only. His first concept was based on a modified Kombi, adding wide rims at the back, and using his talent in building fibreglass boat hulls to shape a fibreglass car body. The first car featured the fibreglass body over the steel VW Kombi chassis and used Beetle running gear and suspension.
It took Meyers little time to realise he had used the wrong flatform. The shorter Beetle platform with a shorter body was the way to go. This drastically reduced cost and soon became known as the Meyers Manx. Like all great ideas, it was the simplicity of Meyers concept that launched tens of thousands of buggies world wide.
It was not rocket science and soon there was fibreglasser in just about every corner of the globe manufacturing dune buggy bodies for Beetles and ever-eager buyers.
It was an idea impossible to patent and soon there 320 companies world-wide churning out their own beach or dune buggy designs. Hundreds of thousands of these fibreglass-bodied VW Beetles were manufactured around the world in the 1960s. They soon took on cult car status and it was fashionable to parade down any sun belt boulevard in a buggy ... the cheapest automobile kicks going around in that era.Outlay was minimal so buyers had a cheap-to-buy, cheap-to-run, convertible that could outrun any four wheel drive on the tarmac or sand. The softer the sand the better. With it's weight over the rear wheels, the light front end and super light fibreglass body the dune buggy could take those seeking adventure in the sand further than ever before.
Beach buggies, as they are called in Australia, are still familiar sights on our streets and are now collector cars, still revered after more than 50 years.
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