Also known as beach buggies and sand rails, they became wildly popular with the launch of the Meyers Manx, produced by California surfer and entrepreneur Bruce Meyers. Debuting in 1964, Meyers came up with the idea of lifting the body off the original Volkswagen Beetle and replacing it with a fiberglass, open-topped shell, making a few other modifications that would let it operate on sand dunes, as well as public roads.
Volkswagen estimates that as many as 250,000 of the original Beetles were modified into dune buggies and other unique models by the 1980s. Meyers himself relaunched his company in 2000, still relying on the first-generation Beetles that continue to ply U.S. highways.
Volkswagen isn’t offering many details about the new e-buggy, but the teaser pics reveal that it picks up on the classic design first pioneered by the Manx, with a long nose, a stubby tail, a shortened windshield, roll bar and high side sills rather than doors. Knobby, oversized tires suggest that, like the original sand rails, the VW e-buggy concept is designed to operate both on and off-road.
from Update News Zone http://bit.ly/2SkPAOS
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