{"id":2142,"date":"2026-10-19T06:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T06:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/?p=2142"},"modified":"2026-10-19T06:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T06:19:10","slug":"a-rare-1970s-meyers-manx-certified-karma-coachworks-sr2-street-roadster-surfaces-on-bring-a-trailer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/?p=2142","title":{"rendered":"A Rare 1970s Meyers Manx-Certified Karma Coachworks SR2 Street Roadster Surfaces on Bring a Trailer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The original Meyers Manx dune buggy, endlessly copied, modified, and re-created over the decades, remains an indisputable icon of automotive history. One glance at its fiberglass silhouette is enough to trigger a mental soundtrack of the Beach Boys singing about California sun, warm summer evenings, and cruising along the Pacific coastline. Yet, automotive visionary Bruce Meyers did not limit his creativity to the sandy dunes and beach trails that initially made his name famous. <\/p>\n

\"This<\/figure>\n

A wild, highly unconventional piece of that storied Meyers Manx history has now emerged on the enthusiast auction platform Bring a Trailer, which operates under the same Hearst Autos umbrella as Car and Driver<\/em>. The vehicle in question is a Karma Coachworks SR2, a machine that bends traditional categorization and bridges the gap between backyard ingenuity and low-volume coachbuilding. Exactly what year it hails from is open to interesting interpretation, as the chassis underpinning the sleek fiberglass body is a 1970 Volkswagen Beetle, though the specialized conversion work was completed shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n

When a Meyers Manx SR first graced the cover of Car and Driver<\/em> in May 1970, editors noted that it pushed the fun-to-drive meter to its absolute limits while remaining remarkably affordable\u2014a direct continuation of the philosophy that made the original dune buggy a cultural phenomenon. The letters "SR" stood for Street Roadster, reflecting Bruce Meyers\u2019 deliberate shift away from pure off-road utility toward a nimble, tarmac-oriented machine designed for pure driving enjoyment on paved roads. <\/p>\n

\"This<\/figure>\n

First-generation SR models are exceptionally rare today, with only about 200 examples ever produced by the factory. In a fascinating footnote to 1970s automotive lore, one of those original factory-built cars eventually found its way into the hands of serial entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin. That encounter is widely believed to have served as a partial design inspiration for his subsequent gull-winged, fiberglass-bodied sports car, the Bricklin SV-1.<\/p>\n

This brings the narrative directly to Karma Coachworks. After Bruce Meyers folded his original business operations in 1971 amid patent infringement challenges and corporate pressures, a small outfit based in Costa Mesa, California, known as Karma Coachworks, believed there was still a viable market for the concept. Operating with direct input and blessing from Meyers himself, the company developed the SR2. Much like its predecessor, it relied on the brilliantly simple, tried-and-true recipe of a custom fiberglass body mounted atop a shortened Volkswagen floorpan.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/figure>\n

Finished in a striking coat of gloss black, the aesthetic vibe emitted by this particular SR2 leans heavily toward a miniaturized, home-built Batmobile. It manages to pack an astonishing array of dramatic styling elements into its remarkably compact 80-inch wheelbase. These design choices include an integrated rear spoiler, functional scissor doors that swing upward, and extra-chunky rear tires that fill the wheel wells. To complete the open-air motoring experience, the car comes equipped with a removable roof panel and removable side windows, allowing the driver to easily transition from a snug coupe configuration to full-air roadster freedom.<\/p>\n

At the rear, exposed to the open air, sits a 1.6-liter Volkswagen flat-four engine of indeterminate power output, though automotive historians and air-cooled enthusiasts generally estimate it produces around 70 horsepower. Fuel and air are fed into the horizontally opposed engine through a Holley "Bugspray" 2110 carburetor perched proudly on top. For a vehicle that weighs roughly as much as a child\u2019s plastic swimming pool, 70 horsepower is more than adequate to provide a genuinely thrilling ride. Power is transferred to the rear wheels via a traditional four-speed manual transaxle operated through a distinct Hurst floor shifter.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/figure>\n

Beyond its undeniable potential to provide endless entertainment\u2014and perhaps a few moments of sheer adrenaline\u2014the primary appeal of this specific SR2 lies in its official, genuine Manx certification. While it represents a frequently overlooked chapter in the overarching Bruce Meyers story, it holds a secure and fascinating place in kit-car lore. It may lean a little closer to the moody aesthetic of Black Sabbath than the sun-drenched harmonies of the Beach Boys, but it remains a quintessential machine built for maximum fun in the sun.<\/p>\n

The online auction for this rare piece of coachbuilt history is scheduled to conclude on October 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The original Meyers Manx dune buggy, endlessly copied, modified, and re-created over the decades, remains an indisputable icon of automotive history. One glance at its fiberglass silhouette is enough to trigger a mental soundtrack of the Beach Boys singing about California sun, warm summer evenings, and cruising along the Pacific coastline. Yet, automotive visionary Bruce […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[411],"tags":[414,412,506,413,2754,2756,2755,2753,2752,1788,2472,182,2757,2778,415],"class_list":["post-2142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-automotive-industry-and-financing","tag-auto-loans","tag-automotive","tag-bring","tag-cars","tag-certified","tag-coachworks","tag-karma","tag-manx","tag-meyers","tag-rare","tag-roadster","tag-street","tag-surfaces","tag-trailer","tag-vehicles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amercanfirstfinance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}