Bruce Meyers, a Californian engineer who died at the age of 94 after selling his famous company to Texas-based Trousdale Ventures, had thought of it.
A surfer, mechanic and boat builder, Bruce designed this small car on a Beetle chassis, which became a fashion phenomenon in the 1970s, not only in the United States but also in old Europe. The car, produced from 1964 to 1971 under the curious nickname Manx, is a small open-top, fibreglass-bodied off-roader intended for driving on sand. It must have been thrilling to jump over the gibbous dunes of the coast bordering the Pacific Ocean.

The Manx dune buggy was an extraordinary success, particularly among film and rock stars. In 1969, the film 'The Thomas Crown Affair' was made, starring Steve McQeen and Fay Dunaway, who perform a crazy race on the beach in a dune buggy. 
In the wake of this happy result, in Italy in 1968 it was produced by Adriano Gatto's Roman company Puma, which even supplied the car in the form of a kit called "Puma Gatto Spider tipo Spiaggia". Subsequently, other Italian companies joined the Puma, with variations in the bodywork. The popularity of the dune buggy reached its peak when it was used in the highly animated Italian film with Bud Spencer and Terence Hill ".....Altrimenti ci arrabbiamo" in 1974, directed by Marcello Fondato.