Beach Buggy History

The Beach Buggy was first conceived by a Mr. Bruce Meyers in California, in the early 60`s, Having Grown up surrounded by Surfing, Drag Racing and hanging out on the beach. Bruce`s first projects were small light weight catamarans and other fibre glass boats, including the well known California series which be worked on during the war.

Once back from the war, and back on the beach, Bruce became fascinated by dune buggies, but these machines were crude and heavy so Bruce took it upon himself to design a lightweight version that would be fun on the beach or in the wilds of Baja. After modifying a Kombi bus with wide rims (called "Little Red Riding Bus") Bruce used his expertise in boat building to design the first fiberglass bodied dune buggy.

The first 12 cars produced were monocoque bodies that had their own integral frame with VW engine and transmission (Bruce has restored and now drives old #4). These cars were expensive and difficult to produce so Bruce re- designed the body to fit on a VW shortened floor pan . As a result, the Meyers Manx started the off-road revolution by building 5,280 Manx kits and several hundred Manx II's - a total of nearly 6,000 Manx kits.

The performance of the Meyers Manx was amazing ! It handled better than any other off-road vehicle and was much more fun to drive. The Manx won numerous slalom events and the Pike's Peak Hill Climb (beating Corvettes, Cobras, and most open wheel sprint cars). It set the record for traveling the length of Baja at 34 hours and 45 minutes (driven by Bruce and Ted Mangels who beat the motorcycle record by more than five hours).

The Meyers company went on to produce the Tow'd for off-road use only. It was an attempt to short circuit the Manx copy cats but had production problems and never really caught on (about 850 kits sold). The body was smaller and lighter then the Manx built on a custom frame. Bruce raced the Tow'd in the second Baja 1000 and ended by crashing and breaking both legs.

The next product of the company was the Meyers Manx S.R. (Street Roadster). This car was designed for the street only and possessed a sleek aerodynamic shape. It was built to fit on the same shortened VW floorpan as the original Manx to keep the great handing characteristics. The car had thirteen fiberglass and many metal pieces . There were 400 to 600 of these kits sold. The Resorter/Turista was also produced by the company to provide a 4 seat version of the Manx. The Resorter had lower sides for easier entrance and exit.

The car was originally produced for hotel chains to carry tourists. Bruce was not fond of the shape and claimed the sight of it gave him the "touristas" ("Montezuma Revenge"). A few Utility cars were produced that included vehicles for the Lifeguards of Los Angeles County and the rangers of the Forest Service. The cars were equipped with flat rear bed for hauling gear which required the use of a VW "pancake" engine. The last vehicle in the Manx fleet is the Kublewagon . This car is designed to be a replica of the German Desert Staff car of WWII and is built on a full length floorpan. This car was featured in an issue for Hot VW's last year. Sadly, there was only one of these cars built. The total number of kits of all types and completed cars was about 7,000. The Meyers Manx company went out of business in 1971.

The UK Scene

While the youth of LA cruised around in Beach Buggies in the early sixties, we were busy carefully manicuring multicoloured speed stripes onto the side of our Ford Escort Mark 1`s. The VW scene slowly began to realise their was a hole in the market. The first Buggies to be seen in Britain were Manx imports. One of the first people to catch on an actually start building their own buggy was GP Mouldings, who soon ran into a design copyright battle with Mr Manx himself and won. The GP remained the staple diet of buggy heads throughout the Sixties and Seventies.

The introduction of a long wheelbase version and a MK 2 was the beginning of the UK`s own input into design and development, with moulded windscreen frames and integrated side panels. Once a few kits got into the hands of Perfectionist Show Car builders in the early seventies the scene exploded with buggies featuring regularly in VW shows and events.

Over 13 different kits were in production in the UK by the mid seventies with varying designs, buggy kits even found their way onto other makes of donor vehicles such as Mini`s, 2cv`s and small Fiats.

The decline in interest in the early eighties forced GP Speedshop to sell the original mould, since then the GP kit has been handed down from person to person. The original MK2 mould is still in production but has more than seen it`s day.

With the re-lighting of buggy interest of Buggies amongst the VW enthusiasts in the late 90`s, John from JAS Speed Kits who still worked for GP Speedshop noticed that there was a shortage of quality kits available in the UK and set about redesigning and sculpturing from scratch, a brand new buggy. The aim was to keep the original 60`s style as much as possible but to improve on overall strength, legroom and appearance. John the owner of Jas Speed Kits was one of the original team that designed and developed the original GP kit in the 60`s and does all the chassis work for the famous GP Spyder kit which is still very much in demand.

The First Demonstrator Jas Buggy came off the line February 1998, and still remains the highest quality buggy mould in the country. The Jas Kit is very much an classic 60`s styled design, dropping many of the additions and style changes from 80`s. The JAS Buggy is the ONLY kit in the UK that has been re-designed from scratch, using brand new moulds. Taking the best features from the MANX and the GP mk I, II and III, the JAS Buggy gives more leg room in the back (making a more practical 2+2), smoother lines at the rear (giving more attractive engine coverage), and an extra thick moulding, making the JAS Buggy the strongest, practical and most attractive buggy available. Do not be fooled by young start-up companies who have bought old moulds.

With over 30 years buggy building experience, JAS Speedkits is very much a family run business geared around ever changing customer needs and concerns. As buggy building tends to be an ever evolving task, owners, John & Sharon, aim to keep in close contact with all their customers with impartial advice on anything from engine problems to chassis work and modifications, helping you tailor your buggy to your own needs.