For stopping power, Alvin installed Wilwood 12-inch, cross-drilled disc brakes on all four corners, choosing four-piston calipers up front and single-piston units in the rear. The team settled on Forgeline SC3C wheels sized 18 x 7.5 up front and 20 x 9.5 in the rear, wrapped in 30- and 35-series rubber, respectively. An Air Lift AutoPilot controller allows for multiple programmed ride heights. The system is activated by a pair of VIAIR 380 compressors, a pair of 3-gallon reserve tanks and 1/4-inch lines. To achieve an adjustable ride height, the front end was fitted with air shocks from Airkewld and a set of 2,500-pound Air Lift bags in the rear. A 10-gallon stainless fuel tank was then squeezed in above the transmission. Next up were new trailing arms for the rear, along with strengthened transmission mounts. The new frame is 18 inches shorter than stock, and a full roll cage was incorporated to ensure rigidity for the surprising power plant, but more on that shortly.įurther upgrades to the chassis included Airkewld’s Ultimate Pro Adjustable Beam front suspension with chromed details and 1.5-inch drop spindles. Nothing happens without a firm foundation, so Alvin created a full 2-by-2-inch, square-tube chassis rather than using the traditional Volkswagen floor pan. The challenge was to squeeze 10 pounds of fun into a 5-pound bucket, a version of the legendary Meyers Manx in this case, but reimagined in every way. They didn’t stop there, however, and before long the spec list was overflowing with extra features. Naturally, a high-performance engine and a quality sound system were top priorities. The two sat down to discuss the details and came up with a plan. Alvin owns Auto Fanatik and has been building magazine-worthy custom vehicles in Sanford, Florida, since 1995. Virgin Islands, and sharing a passion for fast cars and booming sound systems. Terence and Alvin Lawrence have been friends for 35 years, growing up on the island of St. Finding someone to bring his buggy to life was the next task. He was looking for an exciting addition to his garage, and it needed to be fast - really fast.Ī motorcycle was his first consideration, but as the father of five, he decided that a dune buggy might be a safer alternative. That didn’t deter Terence Burtin, though, who owns a facility maintenance business in Atlanta and is a longtime auto enthusiast. Especially a ride bristling with more hot stuff than most folks would believe any buggy could ever hold. The imitators went on, though, and today-although you've surely seen plenty of Manx-like cars in movies or in cartoons, bouncing along beaches, or maybe even tucked under tarps in your neighborhood-you might have never seen a real one.Building the ultimate buggy takes time, careful planning and a talented team. auctioned off the leftovers and was out of the buggy business. In 1970, tired of lawsuits and bills, Meyers left the company, and in 1971, Meyers and Co. Of the close-to 250,000 buggies that hit the road, maybe 5,000 are real Manxes. There were court cases and attempts to waylay the Manx-forgers through increasingly complex moldmaking designs like the all-off-road Tow'd and the radical, scissor-doored Manx SR, but the court cases went against Meyers, and the Tow'd and the SR did not have the mass appeal, nor ease of assembly, that made the original Manx so appealing. Meyers was cranking them out and had dealers all over the country, but his process was labor intensive, and several companies, some with less stringent quality control, began marketing their own version of the fiberglass dune buggy, often straight-up copies of Meyers' design. Costing about $600 plus a wrecked VW, the Meyers Manx was a good deal, maybe too good.
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