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 Buggy
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Buggy B-4,1.493 cm3, 83 mm * 69 mm, OHV, radial blower, 33 kW (44 hp) 4000 rpm, rear engine, four-speed, crank handlebar, swing axle, drums, 3,31/2.13/1,69/1,42 m, approx. 640 kg + driver, 125
km/h, complete, 8,800 DM, 1971 - 1974.
In 1961, America had gotten over the worst and (especially in California) were crazy enough to want to build a car (almost) exclusively for the beach.
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Incidentally, this had a long tradition in the USA. And not just with a relatively harmless Beetle chassis and engine, but also with much more bedizened cars. But even here, 25-32 kW turned into a pretty good power-to-weight
ratio to start with, if you took into account the empty weight of around 600 kg in the simplest case.
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Basically, they just used the Beetle's ability to be fairly stable even without a roof. And the fact that the central tube frame was also bolted made things a lot easier for vehicles that weren't too scruffy. Once the body was off, all
you had to do was to fix the tank and steering column and you could drive off straight away.
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But the rear-end skidding effect was considerable. That's why the sensible buggies had unreasonably wide wheels at the back, which required a lot of organisational talent from some hobbyists at the time. The rest was
glass fibre reinforced plastic and a mostly straight windscreen. The hood was often nothing more than a hanging rag. The focus was on fun, not comfort.
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The first and therefore most famous US buggy was that of Bruce Meyers (Meyers Manx buggy, pictures 1 and 2), who actually was busy on boats made of this material. The basic idea was to already own the Beetle and only
buy the new accessories. The new top part was sold everywhere relatively cheaply, in the USA even from 500 dollars and in the Netherlands, for example, for less than 2000 guilders.
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Only the German TÜV was a problem. The manufacturer had to issue a certificate confirming that the properly shortened frame could withstand it. Luckily VW was at least willing to do this, because the mutilation of the world-
famous Beetle was not something they liked to see. In any case, it took quite a long time before a TÜV-compliant solution was found. However, it was not quite as sleek (see video below).
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Besondere Verdienste erwerben sich die VW-Zeitschrift 'Gute Fahrt' und der Fahrzeughersteller Karmann. Immerhin ist der Bausatz dann einschließlich Verdeck für knapp 3000 DM zu erwerben und Mitkonkurrenten gibt es
auch. In den Jahren danach werden die Aufbauten auf Käfer-Basis allerdings unzählbar (Bild 5). Sportliche Schnauzen und Bugatti-Replicas runden das Bild ab.
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