Bruce Meyers: Meet the beach boy who invented the dune buggy

[MUSIC] I am Bruce Meyers. I'm the southern Californian that created this little car behind me called the Meyers Manx. It's the world's first fiberglass dune buggy. Made for the street, street legal, And it caught on, and seems to catch the cord of the human. And it went around the world. It was, became a phenomena. It was copied by everybody in the world over a period of 50 years. There's been some 300 or so, or more companies all over [INAUDIBLE] World in Europe. England, France, so forth. But I'm not angry as I used to be. I was really angry once. I I was invited on the 25th anniversary and a man told me sir you've got to change your focus. [NOISE] You're focusing on all those bad people, when you've got to focus on the positives. What are they? Well, the, the, the smiling faces, the people that you make smile by driving the car. And that's what the car's message is. It's fun. The business of the car as a useful tool in the family. Has been proven over and over for many years. The kids love to ride in it to the store when mom goes to buy the groceries. It's not just a toy, but it's really quite useful. In fact, this car as well as several others, we drove up from Los Angeles 450 miles. You can go anywhere in the car so. The point is is that the car somehow touched the the niv, the nerve of the human that says that's fun. I think the message of the car is fun. It's, it's all about looking for something pleasant in life. Were I to go back and remember how I started this, I wouldn't remember where I was going. I, I don't know why I did what I did. I, I have a, a certain background. I'm a beach boy, or was. I'm an ex-art student. I spent many, many years in school. You know, sculpture is something that has to have a sense of movement. And maybe the car has that. As, as a piece of sculpture it has a sense of wanting to go and move. It was more of a spoof, I think, because I'm, a crazy guy. Especially when I was 38 years old. The drive is just a delight. Oh, they ride so well because the Volkswagen has trailing arm suspension and the trailing arm suspension is what aircraft liners have when they come down and touch the earth. It's very subtle, very soft riding, the car behind me started road racing by the fact that it can go down a dirt road without too much trouble, it has great mileage. We went to [UNKNOWN] there was only the motorcycle records that were [UNKNOWN] records [UNKNOWN] records. Said by two guys that raced those two guys over there. Somebody publicized it in a magazine, so there was a record. It had to be authenticated by the Mexican Tourism Department, and so I went down there with that car and another friend. And we had. A bottle of oxygen. A oxygen bottle on the front and across the sides. And fill them full of gas and er carried in our. Between our knees jugs of gas. I had to beat the bikes. And that was what we did. We beat the bike over five hours. I was married to Shirley then and Shirley worked for Road and Track magazine. They put a press kit around the world that said that this little car has beaten this long-standing motorcycle record which was thought to be unbeaten. The phones rang off the hook and the next thing you know, we've got off-road racing. So this car started off road racing. I've been selling these things for a long time and we've sold thousands of them. And I, and I know what they are. They're, they're a pleasure. And they're, they're also a salvation to a family. So many, many men have walked up to me to shake my hand. Because the boy was errant, he looked as though he was gonna be in trouble soon. Dad took him, they bought a kit and they bought an old Volkswagen and they, they went to work. And became bonded again with Something that salvaged the boy from worse things. So today Dad is gone, the boy is now 55 years old, and he walks up and says that's the car, I'm the boy, shakes my hand for saving his life, changing his life, and I've had a lot of people say these things. The car made such an impression on their world. World that they lived in because it brought to them some sort of a sense of creativity. You know, you can go buy yourself a Porsche or a Jeep or a Corvette, but all those cars are made in factories. These were all made in the family garage so there's something different there. Deserve it. [MUSIC]