In 1964, Bruce Meyers took the desert racing world by storm with his Meyers Manx dune buggy, based on a shortened Volkswagen Beetle chassis.
Fifty years later, to celebrate the anniversary, the Manxter 2+2 you see here was assembled over a weekend at the Volksworld show – under the watchful eye of Meyers himself, who even signed the dashboard.
Fast forward to the evening of Monday, July 18, 2022, and Volkswagen enthusiast Adam Hardingham has two of 999 tickets – bought for £29.97 each – in a Rev Comps online draw.
“I entered because it’s a VW, based on a 1972 Beetle chassis with a Beetle engine, but tuned quite a lot,” he says, “and we’re into the VW scene, so I thought I’d have a go.
“I never thought I’d win, so when they rang me I was quite shocked.”
One-off Meyers Manxter
Shocked, and delighted, because this Manxter is truly a one-off, with a laser-cut 50 years badge on the dash alongside Meyers’ signature.
It also carries serial number 1 – the very first Manxter 2+2 kit that came to the UK in 2008.
Built by King’s Lynn-based Flatlands Engineering, it was perhaps fate that Adam, who hails from the west Norfolk town, should win the Manxter, a long wheelbase car based on the full Beetle chassis.
Since taking delivery of the buggy last summer, Adam has covered just over 1,000 miles, mostly fairly short trips through local villages and around the north west Norfolk coast near his home.
“It’s a head turner – especially with the noise it makes, which is pretty good,” he says. “Most times we’ve been to the coast it’s been quite cool, so there haven’t been too many people around, but when we went to Hunstanton the other day it was a warm day and it was packed.
“There were head turns everywhere, loads of kids smiling, putting their thumbs up or telling you to rev it. It’s a lot of fun.
“I’ve never been one to draw attention to myself and neither has my wife, Sarah, but when you get that kind of attention it’s actually quite nice, with little kids coming running over to it.
Manxter crowd-puller
“At shows, you probably spend all weekend talking, because everyone comes over and has a chat. I’m normally not much of a talker, so when you’re forced to talk about it, it’s kind of nice.”
We’re chatting to Adam at the Whitenoise VW festival, where he is enjoying a welcome sunny weekend with Sarah and their daughter Isabella.
The couple got into the VW scene about 15 years ago when they started attending BugJam.
“We were just in tents and we were at some point hoping to get a classic VW splitscreen, but then a child came along so that kind of put a stop to that,” he says.
“After little ‘un turned five we thought we might as well go and get a van, so we bought a more modern T6 camper van, although since then it’s been fairly heavily modified, and it’s now on air-ride and all sorts – but it’s still my daily driver.
“I originally fitted coilovers to get the look I wanted, and it was fairly low, but I ripped the front bumper off at SkegVegas and Sarah said ‘if you want air suspension, go and get it’. I didn’t need much of an excuse after that.
“Now we go camping to nearly every show in East Anglia – I think we’re doing 10 shows this year, with the odd one further afield.”
Unfortunately, with costly additions like the air-ride suspension, plus one-off split rim Navis wheels, Sarah doesn’t want to drive the van… “which I’m fine with,” laughs Adam.
“We’re looking at a Caravelle in silver too so she can drive as well,” he says, “and turn it into the complete opposite of the T6, a swamper off-road style with big chunky wheels and a roof rack.
“The idea is to take both to shows, so the Caravelle is our camp base if the T6 goes into show and shine, and it also gives us a different dynamic being able to put our electric Super 73 bikes in the back and keep the T6 as our camper.”
The Manxter is likely to be towed to the more distant shows behind one of the campers but, this weekend, Sarah was behind the wheel for the 40-mile trip to the Norfolk Showground.
Manxter first drive
“Today was her first proper drive in it,” says Adam, who runs a digital marketing company. “I drove to Hunstanton recently, and I said to her ‘right, come on, you’re going to have to drive it, because if I’m not confident you can do it, you’re not taking it!
“It was sketchy to start with as the old gearbox takes some getting used to, but she’s got it now. I was doing 50mph in the T6 all the way here – so I could hold all the traffic back towing a trailer. “I held everyone up so it didn’t look like she was holding everyone up…
“We’ve had some experiences going to these shows, but that was nerve wracking letting someone else drive my now pride and joy.”
The Manxter 2+2, a genuine four seater, was launched in California 2002 after Meyers had revived his company two years earlier.
Meyers had been sitting on sketches of the long wheelbase version since the 1970s, and the 2+2 and Manxter DualSport were modernisations of the original design, but scaled up and beefed out.
The idea behind building a buggy in a weekend (albeit with everything checked, painted and polished), was not only to commemorate the anniversary, but also to show people how these machines are put together.
More complex Manxter 2+2
The 2+2 is more complex than the original, shortened Manx buggies, with its opening bonnet, hinged engine panel and four-piece dashboard, as well as an integral roll cage structure that sandwiches the body to the floorpan.
According to Volksworld, this gives it more rigidity and “a hitherto unheard of level of occupant safety for a Beach Buggy, including proper mounting points for inertia reel seatbelts front and rear.”
“So comprehensive is the roll cage structure, you could drive the Manxter without the body fitted at all,” the magazine wrote.
There is also some weather protection in the form of a tilting hardtop roof.
“It took me ages to realise that the reason you can flip it up is so that you can get in and out easily – I’d just been compressing myself and getting in through the window gap,” laughs Adam, 40.
Under the flip-up rear bonnet lies a bored out 1914cc Beetle engine with CB performance heads, fed by twin Weber 44IDF carbs, and Ram-Flo air filters.
The wheels are Rocket Racing alloys shod with BF Goodrich radials, and a Manx Sidewinder exhaust system sets off the rear end.
Brakes are standard VW, discs up front and drums at the rear, with Chevy stud pattern hubs.
So what’s this eye-catching car like to drive?
Fun, but not comfortable
“It’s nippy up to 60mph and will do more,” says Adam, “and really fun, but not comfortable. A lot of US-spec ones have upgraded suspension from what I’ve seen, but this is basically a Beetle, and it’s a pretty harsh ride if you hit a bump.
“The only let down really is that it’s still a 4-speed gearbox, so you don’t really want to go any faster than about 60mph. Its happy place is around 50mph otherwise it starts screaming, but that’s fine – it’s a cruiser not a race car.
“I keep thinking about getting the roof wrapped black to see what it looks like – I think it would set it off with the black bars, and if I don’t like it I can take it off. Part of me wants to do different things to it, but at the same time I want to keep it original.”
Long wheelbase buggies are pretty rare in the UK, and Adam prefers the look to the original Manx, named after the tailless Manx cat.
“When you put it next to a shorter one it’s quite a lot different, and finished slightly differently,” he says “and this one has a lot of little touches that you won’t see on other ones.
“I don’t know if there’ll be any more UK licensed ones, so they’re going to be few and far between now.”
The buggy’s four seats make it the perfect family fun car for summer.
“The little ‘un loves it”
“The little ‘un loves it,” says Adam. “Every time I go out in it, she’s like ‘can I come?’”
While it may have cost him the princely sum of £59.94 in competition tickets, he says the Manxter “costs me a fortune”.
“It costs me a small fortune to keep and maintain,” he says. “I had been paying a classic car storage company in Norwich, but if it stays there I’m never going to use it, and when I took it out of storage for summer I realised it wasn’t practical without having it dry stored and local, so I’ve now got a large modern unit in King’s Lynn.
“I could probably fit a few campers, some classic cars, and the buggy, so I’m sure the collection will grow over time. It’s secure and dry, and that’s all that matters.”
Despite the expense, he has no plans to cash in on his competition win, and all that space could soon be put to good use.
“I definitely won’t sell it,” he says. “I just love it – every time I get in it, I just love going out for a drive.
“And I’d like to add to the collection. I keep looking at Mk1 Golfs and Porsche 356 Speedsters as cool additions – I’ve seen a nice show-worthy, but modified, classic Mk1 Golf I’d really like.
“I’ve just got to convince Sarah it’s a good idea…”
