[4] The Manx immediately began dominating dune racing and breaking records and was eventually also released in on-road models.

[2]: 118 Drawing on his experience in sailboat construction, Meyers modeled and built his first dune buggy, "Old Red", a shortened VW Beetle with a monocoque fiberglass shell and Chevrolet pickup truck (trailing arm style) suspension, in late 1963 to May 1964 in his garage in Newport Beach, California.

The first known street-legal fiberglass dune buggy, it featured a unibody shell that fused body, fenders and frame, retaining just the engine, transmission and other mechanicals of the VW, and with no top and no hood.

[2] Although this early design was critically acclaimed, even featured on the April 1967 cover of Car & Driver magazine, and drew much attention, it proved too expensive to be profitable; ultimately only 12 kits of the monocoque Manx were produced.

[2] The commercially manufactured Meyers Manx Mk I featured an open-wheeled fiberglass bodyshell, to be coupled by its purchaser with the Volkswagen Type 1 flat-four engine (1.2 L, 1.3 L, 1.5 L and 1.6 L, in different models) and a modified[how?]

The usually street-legal car redefined and filled a recreational and competitive niche that had been essentially invented by the first civilian Jeep in 1945, and which was later to be overtaken by straddle-ridden, motorcycle-based all-terrain vehicles (introduced in 1970) and newer, small and sporty (but usually four-wheel-drive), off-road automobiles.

The commercial Meyers Manx received widespread recognition when it defeated motorcycles, trucks and other cars to win the inaugural 1967 Mexican 1000 race (the predecessor of the Baja 1000).

Approximately 6,000 original Manxe kits were manufactured, but when the design became popular, many copies (estimated at a quarter of a million worldwide) were made by other companies.

Kick-Out S.S. Manx) version is much more modern, with headlights flared into the hood, curved windshield, sculpted rear deck cover and twin roll hoops.

[citation needed] Aftermarket frames are available, designed to duplicate VW chassis dimensions but provide improvements such as more modern or more rugged components.