When I was a kid, growing up in a medium-sized Southeastern city in America, there were, at any given time, at least one to three people in any given decent-sized neighborhood working on a Volkswagen Beetle-based kit car. This figure, of course, is pulled deeply ex recto, because I sure as hell didn’t do any formal studies or anything like that. But what I did see were a steady number of Meyers Manxes (well, let’s be honest: Meyers Manx knockoffs and bootlegs), fake MG TDs, Beetles with Rolls-Royce grilles and Continental rears, the whole dazzling spectrum of kit car and Beetle-based specials.
The Petersen Museum is one of the few automotive museums to give these (usually) backyard-built machines some respect and recognition, and they are currently showing two of the most iconic Beetle-based kit and custom cars: the Meyers Manx and the Brubaker Box.
The museum also put out this great walk-around video of the two cars, featuring my favorite Associate Curator, Jonee Eisen:
Jonee gives a really great and detailed rundown of both cars and goes into their histories a bit, both of which are fascinating.
Jonee brings up some of the victories the early Meyers Manxes achived, like winning the very first Baja 1000 – that’s a huge deal! The Manx wasn’t just a cosmetic kit to make a little open roadster out of an old Beetle, it was a transformative re-casting of the little ubiquitous economy car into a fierce and effective off-road racer.
Sadly, real Manx kits weren’t cheap, and knockoffs came quickly and relentlessly, even from mainstream companies like Sears getting in on the action:
Eventually, all the knockoffs and copies put Meyers Manx out of business. It’s deeply unfair, but it doesn’t tarnish the legacy of this amazing car.
The other car shown in the video, the Brubaker Box, is a bit different, in that while it was also built on a VW Beetle chassis, it wasn’t exactly a kit car, being built by Brubaker’s own company. Well, at least for the first dozen or so – then the company was sold and another 25 or so were made.
The Box was designed to be a sort of cooler VW Bus, a surfer’s van with a more sporty style and flair. Oh, and to answer Jonee’s question, those taillights are from a 1971 or 1972 Datsun 521 pickup truck.
We actually had Curtis Brubaker, designer of the Brubaker Box, on our podcast, and he’s a genuinely fascinating guy, and tells the whole story of the box here:
The box, I think, is a legitimate design icon, sleek and strange and useful, with one sliding door and an L-shaped, lounge-like rear seat, and a semi-exposed air-cooled flat four. There’s really nothing quite like it, and I’m delighted to see a museum with the reputation of the Petersen is giving these iconic vehicles the attention they deserve.
Ark II was my go-to show back in 1976. the Brubaker Roamer was my dream car. I wish I can find one now.
It’s interesting that no one mentions that the Box is considered a pioneer of the modern minivan. So, yes, minivans were cool. 1970s shagalistically cool!
One thing that needs to be discussed was the white kit car that was unloaded, unboxed and assembled. That car was the EMPI Sportster. That kit was actually a DIY jeep-like utility vehicle with a metal body and a small truck-like bed, and could actually be driven off-road or on-road. A Motor Trend cover from 1960 shows drivers testing two Sportsters on a hillside alongside a Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40. Think of it as a Mahindra Roxor predecessor. There’s your next odd car to test, Jason!
I have no doubt the gentleman in the video has a encyclopedia level of knowledge on kit cars. I couldn’t watch the whole thing because boring. But I watched enough to start my brain thinking. Why didn’t he design a kit to attach to the $50 Jeep that was available in the back of every comic book? I’m not sure what those retired military jeeps were like but $50;and DIY people buying kits I think the Manx kit being designed as a bolt on to a generation expansion of 4wd would be a better idea.
VW Bugs actually existed, which was an advantage.
You’re too hard on Jason’s favorite Associate Curator, Jonee Eisen.
Thanks for posting this! I’m liking these new Autopian-Petersen collabs. I realized that I was a little misleading when it came to the first, monocoque Meyers Manxes. They only used Beetle suspension and drivetrain bits, not the cutdown pan like the later ones.
The Brubaker Box was so incredible to my young eyes. It truly looked like a Moon Buggy straight out of Space 1999. I can almost feel Martin Landau looking constipated every time I see it.
And for some insane reason, the Manx always makes me think of The Monkees.
Me too!
The Box also makes a great post-apocalyptic Earth roamer.
https://blog.consumerguide.com/kids-show-cars/
And the Manx always reminds me of Speed Buggy and the live-action Wonderbug.
https://www.70slivekidvid.com/wbug.htm
Speed Buggy, and its Hanna-Barbera counterparts (Goober and the Ghost Chasers, Funky Phantom and Clue Club) were Manx-inspired images. Wonderbug was an actual Manx clone, a Dune Runner, built by Dune Buggy Enterprises, a company I’ve never heard of. I need to look them up.
What’s interesting is that these shows were all created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, the creators of Scooby Doo and worked closely with Sid and Marty Kroftt with the Banana Splits.at Hanna-Barbera.
Not sure where to post this… I tried watching the Torch Drives a Tank video but many Autopian videos are (still) riddled with commercials, with 2 commercials every 30 seconds of video. Not sure if that’s how it’s supposed to be but I can’t watch a video that gets interrupted every 30 seconds for a commercial break.
Keep up the great content. Love it!
A Brubaker Box was featured briefly in the film Soylent Green. Outside of the photo montage in the intro of the film, it was the only functional passenger vehicle shown in this movie’s world(presumably functional at least, since you never actually see it driven), presumably owned by governor Santini. You’d have to count the scoop trucks to claim otherwise. The rest of the cars in this film were inoperable, usually in a state of abandonment or used as a dwelling space.
Just the conveyance to take to the last living park in the city…
Love how the video shows shots of it, but doesn’t actually address it:
As in, Ark II!
Amazing the subject matter and quality of kids’ shows back then. All the episodes are on YouTube if anyone’s interested.
I’ve been trying to find that show for years. I’ll look it up! Thanks!.
When I was younger, I never even questioned the age-appropriateness of a kids show about a dying post-catastrophe world, but I can imagine the howls of outage that would arise if someone tried to do one now.
Especially in our neo-religious environment. The show was loosely based on the Hebrew Bible, but with its main characters being completely different from their biblical counterparts. Jonah, the Ark’s captain, was a prophet unlike Noah, the original Ark’s pilot. The Ark’s Ruth, who was Asian, is different from the biblical Ruth, who was likely from Lebanon. Samuel, who was Latino, was different from the Bible’s Samuel, who was a prophet/judge.
The real hot button was Adam, the talking chimpanzee. Adam is regarded as the first human, and some religious leaders of the 1970s accused Filmation boss and show runner Lou Schiemer of pandering to evolutionists by casting Adam as a monkey. That’s not surprising, as Schiemer was great at causing controversy in the cartoon industry. By the time He-Man reached TV in 1983, no network wanted to deal with him or his company.
So much fun to watch this. Tough to imagine another such ubiquitous platform emerging for home builders. But then, I think about that faux Corvette body on the I3 platform and I wonder if a cottage industry comparable to the Manx and Brubaker Box kits will spring up around these new backbones and if they’ll enjoy the same cult following. I hope so.
This will probably get easier as “skateboard” EVs become a thing. The original Bug’s frame was pretty much just that, but with a big engine box at the back.
I was friends for a while with a guy who not only had a Brubaker, but he possessed the body molds. Unfortunately they were lost in a divorce and a move. And by lost I mean destroyed. At least that’s the last I heard about it a decade or two ago.
Ah yes, the Governor of New York’s official limousine in the far-off future year of 2022.