This is the new unisex “Old Red” Buggy sweater from the team at Meyers Manx – the original designers of the now-iconic VW-based dune buggy that debuted in the early 1960s and took the world by storm.
This knit sweater is made from 100% cotton, it has a ribbed collar, cuffs, and hem, as well as a side profile of “Old Red” – the first Meyers Manx dune buggy – a vehicle that would cause a global revolution in dune buggy design.
Here we see Bruce Meyers at a major Meyers Manx dune buggy meet up – year unknown. Image courtesy of Meyers Manx.
History Speedrun: Meyers Manx “Old Red”
In many respects, Old Red is the origin of species for the wider fiberglass dune buggy story. It was a wildly advanced design for its time, using a monocoque composite body decades before Formula 1 engineers would realize it was the best solution for low weight and excellent rigidity.
Bruce F. Meyers began work on Old Red in 1963 – he was motivated by a simple idea – existing off-road vehicles were heavy, overbuilt, and poorly suited to fast travel on sand and uneven surfaces. Drawing on his background in fiberglass boat construction and surfboard shaping, Meyers approached the project with an engineer’s mindset – reduce mass, simplify the structure, and let the low curb weight speak for itself.
Rather than modifying a pre-existing production car, Meyers began with scale models and sketches, shaping a fiberglass plug that would become a thick, one-piece molded body. Unlike later kit-based Manxes, Old Red did not sit on a shortened Volkswagen floorpan. Instead, it used a fiberglass composite monocoque which was reinforced with steel tubing to provide structural stiffness and mounting points for the suspension and drivetrain.
This construction method kept weight low while avoiding corrosion issues and metal fatigue problems that were common in bumpy, off-road beach and desert environments.
Mechanically, Old Red relied on many Volkswagen parts for reliability and parts availability, but it was far from a stock Beetle underneath. The front suspension consisted of an independent Volkswagen layout with transverse torsion bars and conventional dampers.
This is Bruce Meyers later in life standing next to Old Red, his most famous creation. Image courtesy of Meyers Manx.
The rear suspension was fully independent as well, using radius arms combined with air springs and coil-over shocks rather than standard Volkswagen swing axles. Power was provided by an air-cooled Volkswagen flat-four – a 1,585 cc Type 181 engine – driving through a 4-speed Volkswagen transaxle with CV joints. The wheelbase measured approximately 6 feet 8 inches, and the curb weight was around 1,420 lbs, remarkably light even by modern off-road standards.
Old Red’s success on the dunes and in early Baja desert runs demonstrated that lightweight composite construction and modular mechanicals could outperform heavier, purpose-built off-road vehicles. That proof of concept led directly to the production Meyers Manx, redesigned to use a shortened Beetle floorpan as its chassis rather than a full fiberglass monocoque for reasons of affordability and ease of construction.
Meyers had unintentionally created an entirely new automotive market segment. The basic architecture pioneered by Old Red, fiberglass bodies, rear-engine layouts, independent suspension, and adaptable donor components, became the foundation for countless thousands of dune buggies and it influenced kit car and recreational off-road vehicle design worldwide.
Perhaps most importantly, the Meyers Manx is the only car from a small, independent company to reach icon status alongside other 20th century automotive luminaries like the Willys Jeep, Austin Mini, Porsche 911, Jaguar E-Type, Series Land Rover, Fiat 500, and of course, the VW Beetle.
The Meyers Manx Knitted “Old Red” Buggy Sweater
This is the new “Old Red” Buggy sweater from Meyers Manx, it features a side profile of the classic Old Red buggy on the front – arguably the most important dune buggy design of all time.
This is the new unisex “Old Red” Buggy sweater from Meyers Manx, it features a side profile of the classic Old Red buggy on the front – arguably the most important dune buggy design of all time.
The sweater is made from 100% knitted cotton, and it has a ribbed collar, cuffs, and hem. Sizing ranges from XS through to 2XL, and it’s designed to work as either a mid layer or top layer depending on the weather.
The “Old Red” Buggy sweater is now available to buy directly from the online Meyers Manx store here, and the sizing is said to fit true to size.
Images courtesy of Meyers Manx
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
