On the future prospects of the buggy (50 years ago)
It was in the summer of 1968, exactly 50 years ago, that Auto Motor und Sport magazine first reported in detail on "fun with VW parts" and thus on the VW Buggy. The VW Buggy actually dated back to 1960, when Scott McKenzie first appeared with a VW-based beach car. However, this vehicle was not yet for the masses, for which it needed Bruce Meyers, who then presented his Manx in October 1964. The VW-based "Dune Buggy" was born. Hundreds of copycat products were created, and by 1968 there was already talk of 10,000 to 20,000 kits being produced.
The press supported the development, with "Car and Driver" writing: "As far as road holding and braking are concerned, the buggies outperform every sports car we have ever tested".
The buggy boom reminded Karl Ludvigsen of the go-kart fever at the end of the fifties and he was not entirely wrong, except that the buggies were probably even more popular. In 1968, they were predicted to have a golden future. And the local manufacturers hadn't even really started to commercialize the subject at that time. This happened mainly at the beginning of the seventies. And with success, as we know, even though Volkswagen banned the production of the Beetle from Europe all too soon ....
