The Myers Manx was a beach buggy produced from modified VW Beetle chassis in the late 1960's. The 58024
Sand Rover was released by Tamiya in 1981 and, while it says nothing
about the Myers Manx on the packaging, was clearly intended to be
one. It was 30 years later in 2011 that this kit was re-issued as 58500
with a totally new chassis. I am not usually a fan of complete
chassis changes, but the original chassis was very limited so in this
case I think the DT-02 was a much better choice.The original used a simple bathtub chassis, trailing arm front suspension, swing arm rear suspension, no dampers, a 380 sized motor, and most importantly an exposed gear set. These gears would immediately get debris in them and destroy themselves. The modern DT-02 chassis has nothing in common with the original except the motor. It uses four wheel double wishbone suspension and a fully enclosed gearbox with open differential. It also uses friction dampers but I replaced those with oil filled CVA shocks. Those notches you see in the hood for the shocks were not present in the original are the only immediately obvious difference in the body which was probably made from the original molds.
You can tell this is a relatively modern chassis because it drives very well. I'm not even afraid to jump it. The body is fragile of course, so some caution is needed but mostly you can bash this like any other Tamiya buggy. It is much wider than the original which offers better stability but less scale looks.
Update: This model was destroyed in the 2022 fire. It has not been replaced.
 Page 1: Assembly |
 Page 2: Upgrades! |
 Page 3: Final Photos |