I have a deep, lasting love affair with the old VW-based fiberglass dune buggies.

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Let me be clear - I don't just enjoy driving them, dig seeing them at car shows, and think they're adorbs. I do, but that's not where my love ends. They're possibly the most fun vehicle you'll ever drive. They turn heads wherever they go. They are, to me, one of the finest engineering marvels the human brain has ever devised, equal in greatness to the Golden Gate Bridge, the Space Shuttle, robotic brain surgery, or leashes for toddlers.

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They began life as the idea of a WWII veteran, engineer, sailboat builder, and avid surfer named Bruce Myers, who in 1966, came up with the idea of his "Meyers Manx" buggy kit, which would fit on the shortened chassis of the plentiful and cheap VW Beetle. He pantented the idea and went to work producing his kit.

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Soon after, literally hundreds of companies have followed and started churning out thousands of copies and variants. Even Sears got in on the game, where you could order a kit right from their catalog.

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Sears catalog supplement, 1971

There were variants of all kinds, from long 4-seaters, to little pickups, to miniature versions of T-bucket hot rods.

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ad from Hot VWs magazine, June 1970

There were even funky little C-cab vans that served as tiny delivery vehicles.

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They've even been immortalized in cartoons like The Funky Phantom and Speed Buggy

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Hanna-Barbera, 1970

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My wife @msvee and I rented one on vacation in Mexico a few years back, and after spending the day blasting around the shoreline with our friends, I don't think you could've pried the huge smile off my face with a crowbar!
I am currently building a buggy myself. It's almost done, and we are looking forward to bouncing around our neighborhood in it!

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Hope you enjoyed my little buggy rant. Pics of our finished buggy coming soon!

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