When he built a candy-colored car mounted on four big wheels to surf the sand on California beaches in 1963, Bruce Meyers imagined that his “Dunne Buggy” would become the iconic car of the summer.
Meyers, who first named his invention as Meyers Manx, Died at his home After building thousands of light-weight fiberglass cars earlier this month in San Diego that had enough space in the back for surfboards and beers.
Meyers, a commercial artist, lifeguard and passionate surfer, also designed boats and surfboards. He built a trading post in Tahiti and survived a Japanese attack on his naval aircraft carrier during World War II, killing 400 of his fellow sailors.
But Meyers, who was 94, died when he first saw surfers race under the cars in California’s sand dunes under dunes in the 1960s, first to himself and to his friends was made.
“They had a life that no one else has ever lived,” His wife Winnie Meyers said
In an interview with AP. He was still driving his original dune buggy, named Old Red.
“I wanted to do it while I was surfing in Baja when I was talking about danger,” he said. Later models included chassis, and Meyers sold the kits, which allowed amateurs to build them for about $ 1000.
Meyers and his friends entered Old Red in a 1,000-mile Mexican road race in 1967, when the roof went on sale. Meyers’ dune buggy won in record time, and the order went through the roof.
A year later, Elvis Presley drove the dune buggy in the film’s opening scenes, “Live a Little, Love a Little”.
His company manufactured more than 6,000 Meyers Manx dune buggies before trademarking the design. The Historic Vehicle Association called the dune buggy the most mimic in history, with more than 250,000 editions.
Born in Los Angeles, he was a high school drop-out who served in the post-war Merchant Marine and attended the Chouinard Art Institute of the University of California.
In 1976, Road & Track magazine called the dune buggy “an actual sculpture, a piece of art”.
Leave a Reply