You take a VW beetle, shorten its chassis, mount some fat tyres, add a fibreglass body without doors, roof or side windows, beef up the flat four engine in the rear a bit, and voilà, here’s your Buggy. This simple recipe goes back to Bruce Meyers, Californian boat builder, whose “Meyers Manx” is the archetype of all dune (or beach) buggies. As early as 1964, he offered conversion kits for the beetle – and was copied by countless companies around the world. In the US, there was the Empi Imp, in Germany, it was Karmann that offered kits (and later, fully assembled Buggies) which were marketed using official VW sales channels. Other manufacturers included Albar and Swiss Buggy in Switzerland, Ledl in Austria, Bruvo in the Netherlands, Pan-Car in Greece and Bugre in Brazil. Usually painted in lively colours, often with a bit of glitter, the buggies were a very zeitgeisty, 1970s affair. After its peak in the early to mid-70s, the buggy boom subsided and most companies had phased them out before 1980. Its prominent shape lived on in many toy cars, by Mattel (“Barbie”) or the Darda car racing sets. After the turn of the millennium, the popularity of the Buggy started to rise again and today, these charming little cars have become coveted classics.