Slow Baja - Jim Chamberlain Master Of The Manx

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

Jim Chamberlain met Bruce Meyers in 1963 and began assisting in the design of the iconic Old Red, the first fiberglass dune buggy. By 1966, he was working full-time with Meyers, contributing to the creation of the Meyers Manx buggy and designing the first Sidewinder exhaust system.Encouraged by Meyers, Chamberlain opened his own shop, OC Buggies in 1967, and became a pivitol figure in the growing dune buggy craze. He built the #10 Meyers Manx for Vic Wilson, which won the 1967 NORRA Mexican 1000 race. In 1968, he gained recognition at the first Bug-In and supported several teams in the NORRA Mexican 1000 by entering and racing his wife’s stock 1965 VW bus.In 1969, he built a VW convertible for actor Paul Newman and began racing dune buggies at Ascot Park. Throughout the 1970s, he continued to innovate in off-road vehicles and participated in the Pikes Peak Hillclimb and SCORE Riverside Grand Prix.In 2022, he drove the #10 Replica Meyers Manx in the Slow Baja Safari Class of the NORRA Mexican 1000 Rally and showcased it at the 2023 Mint 400 Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame exhibit. Now 82, Jim remains an active participant in Meyers Manx Club events, serving as an ambassador for off-road racing.Follow Jim Chamberlain on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/jim.chamberlain.583Follow Meyers Manx on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/meyersmanx/?hl=enMentioned in this episode: Slow Baja Vintage Expeditionhttps://www.slowbaja.com/adventuresBenchmark Maps Baja Road and Recreation Atlashttps://longitudemaps.com/products/ba...Support the Slow Baja Podcasthttps://www.slowbaja.com/supportBuy Baja Bound Insurancehttps://www.bajabound.com/quote/?r=fl...

Hey, this is Michael Emery. Thanks for tuning into the Slow Baja. This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches, and hands down, my favorite tequila. Well, if you've been listening to me for a while, you know I'm an absolute minimalist when it comes to Baja travel. But the one thing I never leave home without is a good old paper map. And my favorite is the beautiful, and I mean beautiful, Baja Road and Recreation

Atlas by benchmark maps. It's an oversized 72-page book, jam-packed with details, and now you can get it from me at slowbaha.com. That's right. You can get it in the Slowbaha shop, and in fact, you better get two, one for your trip planning at home, and one for your Baja rig. And if you love maps and you can't get enough of them like me, let me tell you about two sites I am absolutely obsessed with. Eastview MapLink and LongitudeMaps.com, whatever you're looking for in Maps, it's there.

From the entire benchmark collection to Baja Wall Maps, to Custom Maps, you'll find it all at longitudemaps.com or EVMapLink.com. You know I've long said it. Ask your doctor if Baja's right for you. Well, if you've been hankering to get down to Slow Baja with me, you've got to check out the Adventures tab at Slowbaha.com.

All my trips are there, from my famed fall vintage extravaganza to my winter and summer expeditions, which are open to trucks of any age. You know, on a Slow Baja expedition, your meals are always included, which really does take the sting out of camping. And when we get off the trail, let me tell you, we have the happiest of happy hours. If good dirt roads, private campsites, ranch stays, great food, and great people sounds like you're kind of fun, well, you've got to check out the Adventures tab at slowbaha.com. But don't delay.

These trips are small, they're highly immersive, and they will sell out. And folks, just so you know, I am always here for you for your Baja trip planning questions. One question, 100 questions. The easy way to get me is Slowbaha.com slash contact. And if you'd like to go to Baja and you don't want to go by yourself, you don't have a vintage vehicle, my winter trip doesn't work out for you. I am happy to talk to you about organizing and leading a private guided tour. I've done it. I've loved it. The pictures are over there at Slowbaha.com slash adventures. And you can check them out. And if you've got some questions,

let's talk. From the Shieldman recording booth at Slow Baja Studios, thanks for tuning in to today's Slow Baja. My heaping dose of gratitude goes out to Johnny Feld and his dad, Allenfeld, they run field vans, probably, in my opinion, the best tool for going to Baja. Style, comfort, capability, big four-by-four Ford vans with pop tops, four-wheel drive conversions, sprinter van, same, same. Amazing, truly amazing. I reached out to Johnny begging for a van for Sal Fish to sleep in during the slow Baja viz. expedition coming up in October. You know, Sal said, don't make a fuss over me. I've slept in the dirt for years. I used to sleep in the front seat of the Volkswagen thing. I don't need anything

special. But, you know, he's 85 and he can't let Sal sleep in the dirt with scorpions crawling all over him. So I reached out to Johnny. He said, absolutely, no problem. I can get a van for you. but I think my dad would like to come on this trip. Any chance the two of us can come and then I can, you know, climbing into my dad's van at night and sleep there and Sal can sleep in mine. Absolutely amazing solution. A father-son trip for them. I love that.

Sal's going to get a great place to sleep at night. Comfortable, quiet, safe, bathroom, all that stuff. And Johnny and Alan have stepped up to be the taco sponsors for the trip, which is not an insignificant amount when we've got this huge group eating tacos every day. So thanks, guys. Can't wait to see it in Slow Baja on the Slow Baja Vintage Expedition. Field van, Johnny and Allen. I am so stoked you guys are coming.

And thank you for your support. All right. Today's show is with Jim Chamberlain. Jim is just the coolest cat. You know, I met him when he was just a youngster at 78 years old, driving in my slow Baja safari class in Nora and I stopped by recently I was

driving down to San Diego and I stopped by with my daughter. She had a little project she was interested in Myers Manx's and I reached out to Jim and he just couldn't have been nicer to tell her all about Manx to give her a ride in his Goldie and I thought we would

record another interview talking about Jim's history which is just so amazing and his history with Bruce Myers and the Myers-Mex. And again, Bruce was an amazing, amazing human being. And Jim knew him really well. They were, you know, Jim was just a young kid, got hired by Bruce to go to work for the company. And all these years later, over 80 years old, now Jim is the living legacy, the depository of all original information about Myers-Max. He's an amazing dude, and I'm so

happy to bring you another interview with him today on Slow Baja. Jim Chamberlain, Jesus. Good to see you, man. You too, Michael. We haven't been out here in the front yard in a long time. No, we haven't. Now we're sitting in your manks, all reclined back. I'm just delighted to be here. It's a Slow Baja kind of day. It's gorgeous. It's February 20th, and the birds are chirping, blue skies. Man alive, you're living the dream. You're living the dream. We moved here in 1981, and this is the only place we've been since. Wow, I can see why. Well, you were kind enough on some short notice to agree to see me, to record another conversation.

And you took my daughter Estelle here, who's on her first Baja trip with me since she was two years old. You were kind enough to take my daughter Estelle out and Goldie. Hang on here. What do you call your... This is Goldie. Okay. I thought that's what you told me. When John Kieslitz built a replica of Bruce's number one manx that he raised in 67, he says,

can I call it Goldie one? I said, yep. Gotcha. I said, you can call it Goldie. She would appreciate it. Well, you were kind enough to take my daughter Estelle out. for a ride in Goldie this morning. She's doing some research on

buggies for a project, and I'm just so delighted to be able to see you and talk to you again about your life, your dear, dear friend Bruce Myers. I'd like to cover a little bit more of Bruce Myers, your memories of him,

and just catch up on what the hell you've been doing since I saw you last, because you're kind of a celebrity now. You've been out racing in Nora and leading trips. You're doing all... just old. Just old. The older you get, the more of a celebrity you become.

Well, all right. Because you're the only one that remembers anything that's important or at least what you tell them. Well, I'm glad you're still remembering some of this stuff. So tell me a little bit about how you got to know Bruce and how where you came into the early history of Manx. Well, the early history starts out in. in 1963.

And I was putting cabinets in a house in Newport Beach and I met Bruce's brother, Dick. And Dick and I hung out for a while and we went to one of the

first televised versions of the Indianapolis 500 and not too long after that. I was over at Roger Smith at Pepper Tree Automotive in Costa Mesa and Roger says what are you doing this afternoon and I says

nothing I'm here he says let's go for a ride where we going Newport Beach oh okay sounds like fun what are we going to do you'll see you'll see so we took a ride down Newport Boulevard down to Newport Beach down in the 30th Street area right across from Mamico Engineering

and into a little shop and there's this guy who's got wood cut parts everywhere and the smell of fiberglass in the air and two or three other guys there Ed Martindale across the street and Dale Velze Roger myself and I'm introduced to Bruce Myers

and I tell him you know a guy named Dick? And he says, that's my brother. He said, we went to the movies the other day. I went and saw the Indianapolis 500. And I says, I didn't have a clue who you were. He mentioned you, but I didn't know you from Adam. And he says, well, maybe you'd like to be a part of what we're building here.

And it was just all wood pieces, parts that were being shaped with foam on them. and there's a front fender area and a box in front of us and a seat mounted to a piece of plywood off the floor at the height the car would be. And he says, climb in there. So I climbed in and positioned myself in the seat and next to me is a piece of wood that's laying down on the floor. He says, I want you to raise this up

to where you think the height of this side ought to be. And I said, okay, so I lifted this piece of wood up and came up and I said, shoot, right about there. And he reaches forward and he marks a little line, puts a clamp on it, and says, okay, now get out. And so I stepped up and out and got on the ground and went, okay, yeah, I like that. That's good. You can see over it really well. what is it? And he said, this is

going to be a doom buggy. But it's going to be out of fiberglass. I said, okay, right. I knew what I was looking at, sort of. I'd worked in a couple of fiberglass shops when I was in high school down there at the beach and just one block away at the layman boat company. And so working fiberglass I knew how to do,

but at first this thing had no shape to it. We were adding shape that day, and it was neat. Everybody climbed in, sat on a lowered stock Volkswagen seat, which is quite a bit higher than my seats in my manks right now because I set them down a little lower. And it made the rail seem just the right height. Now it's a little high. I'm a little older, and my foot's a little harder,

to get over that edge. But we all sat in the car and we all marked the stick. And that stick still exists today. And it's at Bruce and Winnie's house. And we tucked it upstairs. And we're going to get it out and present it to Myers-Manks LLC. One of these days when they get their Bruce Myers Museum set up. Awesome.

That's got all our initials on it. all the guys that were a part of their first original buggy people in southern Orange County. So, 1963, how old were you? 20. 20. So that's an amazing thing now. 20-year-old kids are not getting opportunities to build things from scratch from the beginning, things that go on to become icons.

You know, just those sort of things don't really happen these days, seemingly the way they happened. When you were 20 in the early 60s, you walk into a shop, You're hanging some cabinets in a guy's brother's place and you end up in his shop and you're sitting down doing some seat of the pants engineering, figuring out where the thing should be and how it should go together. And then it went together. Well, it's not something we planned. And back then, you were just doing things. We built funny buggies, tunnel buggies, a little bit of metal, roll bar, something to hold the steering. wheel up, two seats mounted, played in the sand dunes.

What was Bruce doing before he got into building the buggies? Because he was a super creative guy and an artistic guy. I know that he had a history. He was Merchant Marine in World War II. You know, the Merchant Marine, I think, always had some unique thinkers. Well, right around the corner from where he was building Old Red, Old Red didn't have a name at that time. He was building a catamaran that was probably one of the biggest catamaranes in Newport Beach at that time.

And he built it all from scratch himself. Wow. He started it in 1961 and he had finished it. And there's a story of it that goes with that, but you'll have to buy Bruce Meyer. book on the sea and me and find out what happened with that cattle ran. I look forward to buying Bruce Byer's book. But he knew how to build parts and pieces for boats out of foam, skim them with a hard layer coat so you can smooth them out, fiberglass over them, make the image you want,

and then be able to pull a mold off of that. The things he used to tell me when I worked at the shop for him was draft angle. You got to have a draft angle of anything you build that's going to be reproduced. And draft angle is the top edge of the door frame here. Going down, it doesn't go straight down. It goes at a slight angle and turns in. and the outer edge goes out over and shades out so that when you pull it out of the mold, it releases at the bottom and the rest of it will slide out.

If it's too tight, it's going to be a part of your mold forever. So doing what we did back then was just for fun. Somebody was building something. They wanted us to be a part of it. of it. All of us got in it and did it. We only had sort of a clue what Bruce was doing. Didn't have the concept, except he had a nice little model there that he had built. And he said, this is what it's going to look like. And we went, you got a lot of work to do. So I knew, I know he had a background as an artist and taught art and had done portraiture and

whatnot. Did he have a perfect drawing and illustration, a rendering of what this was going to be, and then he built a model of it out of clay or out of wood or something? Was there an actual thing that looked like this beautiful buggy of yours that we're sitting in that's as old as I am? I'm 1966, vintage. This is 67. Exactly. I'm giving it some leeway. But was there a thing that you could look at and say, well, that's kind of fun. That's kind of neat. I want to be part of that. Or was it just...

It was a set of black line sketches that he did and later used as part of the patent he tried to file on the design of the Myers-Mex. And through ignorance of a judge who didn't know what it was and didn't know art and didn't think there should be a design on a concept, of something that it didn't hold. But I have a couple of those sketches in the house

that are really nice. Shows a good top view of what it looks like and a side view. And that's what we were looking at. And the little model looked just like that because it was scaled out. And Bruce had done a lot of parts and pieces in model work when he worked for Islander yachts.

and did a lot of the interior parts and pieces out of fiberglass, and the parts that he was doing for old red were going to be way more complicated. So that sets the scene for me. He worked for Islander. So he had a history inside yachting, building pieces, putting things together. That he did. And he was an artist. He had an artistic mind.

And did he have, excuse my ignorant, that I even have to ask this because he must have had personal charisma to draw folks together, creative people around him. Was he a guy you wanted to hang around with? The way he talked, the descriptions, his verbal descriptions made you realize exactly what it was and how it would flow and why things did what they did. He talked a lot with his hands. And he could sketch something so fast so that you would know what he was talking about.

And the concept was coming out of the ground a lot faster than everybody thought it would because he knew the finished product in his mind. And that and matching side to sides with templates and measurements and putting old red together. and part of that was it fit him perfectly. A lot of us, I'm not much taller, but a little bit. And taller people fit a little different in the car. Gotcha. So everything that he did, he tried to make people worthy

and make things simple. And one of his sayings was, Keep it simple, stupid. Keep it simple, stupid. So let's jump into you're a 20-year-old guy. You've jumped right in, it sounds like, on feeling out with your backside where this should be and where that should be. How long did it take for you to become a quote-unquote employee of Myers-Manks? Was there a Myers-Manks company even at the time?

Nope. there wasn't a Myers-Manks company for a couple of years down the road. In 1966, just after the first of the year, Roger Smith called me again. I was down his shop. His son, Steve, and Billy helped in the shop. And I went to school with Steve. He was in my sister's class a year ahead of me. And I went up there and I bought my parts and pieces that I built my first tube

frame buggy out of. So Roger says, hey, come to dinner tonight. I got somebody I want you to see who's done something fantastic. And Roger had forgotten, because he was older at the time, he had forgotten that Bruce and I had met at the beach. And I got over to the house for dinner that night. And he introduced me to Bruce. And Bruce goes, you came down and, uh, sat in the car when we were laying it out. And I said, yeah. And I says, it's really turned into something neat. I says, one's over at Rogers.

I says, it's fantastic. This was in 1966. And we went through dinner and talking afterward. And Bruce asked me, he says, what are you doing for the next couple weeks? and I said, well, I've just quit the job I had working for my father-in-law at the cabinet shop, and I've got nothing going on. And he says, well, could you take the demo car, which he had driven over to Rogers that night? That's a real nice deep blue, royal blue, solid color manks with a black hard top, side curtains,

chrome cragar wheels dual carbureated motor and he said this car has to get delivered this was on Tuesday this car has to get delivered to Tampa Florida on Saturday

driving driving towing he says you got something you can tow with I said yeah I got my Volkswagen bus I said, it's a year old, but it goes well. He says, okay, would you like to do it?

I said, sure, how much? He said, 600 bucks. Sold. So I got home that night, and I called my dad. I said, Pappy, can you take 10 days, two weeks off right now? And he says, well, yeah, things are slow. And this time of year in my maintenance business. So what do you need?

I says, we're going for a trip to Tampa, Florida, and delivering a car for Bruce Myers. What in? My Volkswagen bus. Are you sure? Sure. So went over the next morning, picked up the car, brought it home,

finished packing all our gear, and hung it on the tow bar, and that's the same tow bar that I used today. Hooked on behind my bus. And away we went down to Tampa, Florida. In those days, you didn't have to have lights on your car you were towing, and if you could see the taillights. They could see my bus.

They could see the tail lights, breaks, everything. And at nighttime, if we were running, we'd just pull the running lights on and go. And we took off, and we made it to Tampa, Florida, on Saturday morning and delivered the car. Wow. and dad and I had a couple of fun days came back and went back to Bruce and gave him the paperwork I needed to bring him and Bill Cheesberg who used to race Indy cars and had a dealership in Tucson and one down there in Tampa sent some stuff back to Bruce and Bruce says now what are you going to do I says I don't know he says you come to work tomorrow morning, R&D shop in the back.

I got some stuff for you to do. So that's how I went to work for Bruce. That's amazing. 1966. So how did the, how did the, the year you were born. That's right, June of 66, exactly, June of 66. How did it come about?

Was it, you know, beers over bowling? How did it come about that all of a sudden you've got this new vehicle and there's a speed record that's been set by some guys on motorcycles, Eakins, and I'm blanking on the other guy's name, and sorry, I shouldn't say it. Motorcycle speed record is... Bud Ekins? Bud Ekins and... On the motorcycle and...

Junior. I'm hearing Mary McGee tell me in my head. Yeah. Junior. Bill Johnson, Jr. Anyways. So the speed record's been set by Dave. Eakins as a stunt for Honda Moto.

And how did it come about that Bruce said, we're going to take the buggy down? We're going to set a record. Do you remember how that came about? Here at Little Baja, we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser south of the border. When we go, we'll be going with Baja Bound Insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at BajaBound.com. That's Baja Bound.com, serving Mexico Traveler,

since 1994. Hey, big thanks to those of you who've contributed to our Baja baseball project. You know, we launched our gear deliveries on my winter expedition. Michael and Matthew from Barbers for Baja. We're along for the ride, and we got to deliver that critically needed baseball gear up and down the peninsula. It was really, truly amazing. And on my last trip, I got to go to the state baseball championships and see some of our

alums playing some recipients of the Baja baseball gear deliveries. And congratulations to Guerrera Negro and Mulejah, the Austenaros and the Cardinalitos won silver and bronze at the state championships. Big stuff. It's really fun to be there and fun to see them. All right, well, please help us continue this vital work. Make your tax deductible donation at the Barbers for Baja. Click Barbers for Baja.org. Click the Baseball in Baja link. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I really do.

It is so amazingly gratifying to be able to give these kids this chance to keep playing this sport. Keep them on the field. Keep them out of trouble. Please check it out. Baseball in Baja link at barbers for Baja.org. Thank you. I want to tell you about these new rocky, talky radios that I absolutely love. heavy duty, beautifully made, easy to program, easy to use.

We had 28 people, 15 trucks on the Slow Baja Winter Expedition. You can hand these radios to anybody from a 14-year-old kid to an 80-year-old, and they'll know how to use it. They are that well-designed. One charge lasted the entire week. We are never out of range. I happen to upgrade to the accessory whip antenna for my radio and for my sweeps radio, the Donovan brothers, we were never out of contact.

I can't say it strongly enough. Rocky Talki Radio's, RockyTocky.com. Check them out. Slow Baja approved. So the speed record's been set by Dave Eakins as a stunt for Honda Moto. And how did it come about that Bruce said, we're going to take the buggy down. We're going to set a record.

Do you remember how that came about? I can remember what I was told about it. Okay. Because I wasn't there. All right. I worked for Bruce for a year. Here's the honesty of this man right here. He can tell me anything.

Worked for Bruce for a year. Started just in February of 66 until February of 67. And Bruce says, Chamberlain, you've got to start your own shop. You've got to put cars together. We don't have enough people who know what they're doing. doing and you have to go. So I had started my own shop in early 67. So back up a little bit because I think, I'm not sure that everybody understands this.

So building a Manx buggy like this. Myers Banks. Yep. Requires some, some steps. And to have a guy like you who knows how it's done quote unquote at the factory, a capable guy outside of the factory can really help build that business and probably be more lucrative for you as a person. Well, George Haddock, who had a shop in Santa Ana,

was building all the cars for Bruce and had built the blue car that I delivered to Florida. And he had a neat shop set up. He had a jig for shortening the chassis because the Volkswagen chassis had to have 14 and a quarter inches cut out of it to fit the body template that they wanted in order to have an 80-inch wheelbase. And the 80-inch wheel base came from 356 Porsche. It had an 80-inch wheel base.

Low to the ground weight, good handling. The 80 inches would work good, made for great ground clearance, and an easy maneuvered car off road. The whole bottom line for the Manx putting together was trying to build cars like George and I got together to try and tie in the layout on the dash and where we put things, how we put them together, so that even though we were 15 miles apart,

we were putting cars together so they were a factory car. And the only time that we would change from that was if we built one for a customer individually and they wanted things different on the car. I mean, we could do almost anything. George's crew that he had were very inventive. And Vic Orvis, my partner, in my shop

who one of the last days working for Bruce we were out playing in the sand dunes and Vic had his brand new red buggy with a Corvair in it and he was following around

his first time to the sand dunes period and it was getting to be dark and I told him I said Vic just follow us back because We're going through an area that has sand dips and holes in it, and we know how to go, follow us.

Sure, no problem. Well, the moon was straight up and down, and the sand looked dead flat. Even the holes looked dead flat. He cut inside to shorten the route we were going and went into a five-foot deep hole, poked his buggy into the other side. We weren't going very fast.

so luckily he wasn't going very fast. But the heavy core rear motor, and when he hit, it came down on its back end, broke the nose cone on the transmission, which was one of the things that we tried to fix later on, and fixed it in the campground, and we got to be good friends because I climbed underneath there with him, and we got it all tied in place so we could finish playing. for the next a couple of days. And when Bruce said, go start a shop, I got a hold of Vic and said,

what do you think? And we did. And it led to building the number 10 car and things that Bruce sent us from dealers, dealerships, individual people. I'm all over the world, really, at that time. How many cars do you think you built? I never kept track of them.

I was wondering. One of those things that you, You can go over in your mind going backwards. There's no paperwork. My wife was my secretary at the time. And she took care of all the paperwork. I just had to build stuff. Yeah, okay.

All right. Have you ever been on a long airplane flight and try to figure it out while you're sitting there? Yeah. Basically, I built about 30, 35 cars. And some of those were four and five. at a time. Most of the time, they were one off, one of a time. And it was keeping score. You start adding the ones that you worked on before I ever went to my own shop. And there's Steve McQueen's Thomas Crown Affair car. And Cowboy in Africa, Africa, USA with Chuck Connors. And

George blanked out and based the car. We got out of the shop, put a few things that they wanted on it, like a rifle mount holster on the roll bar and a few other things. And I got to be a part of that, taking the car for Bruce up to Africa, USA, in Saugas Newhall area, and shot a commercial with it. And my wife and I went out and delivered Chuck's car to him out in, Palm Springs Desert, and he was happy as heck to get a hold of it. So there was a lot of things that we did working with Bruce and afterward that all tied together,

and it was like working for Bruce up in Fullerton, and he was in Santa Ana. Gotcha. Gotcha. Today, if you're at a Manx Club meet, can you immediately pick out a car and say, oh, I worked on that one, and I did this and I did that and I did that one? There's a few of them there that have, over the last 25 years that have come up and around. And people ask me and I say, okay, I can tell you in a few minutes, if indeed I built it, I don't remember right now.

Yeah, exactly. And we'd go look underneath at how we used to build things. And we did things just a little bit different than George. So that's what I was getting at. Was there a signature here or a signature there that could tell, you that it was you? Yep. Okay. All right. And part of that signature is

what the original 10 car has on it. And it's the only one. I won't tell you what it is. But I'm the only one over did that under a Manx. And to stiffen it up, make it handle,

and not twist. Gotcha. Because the Volkswagen chassis is the center tunnel with pans, which the body is bolted to. And those two separate in their movement occasionally because there's flexibility

in the fiberglass, in the metal outside. You're tied into the back pretty solid, but the front end can float a bit. So we took care of that. Gotcha. Tell me about that number 10 car. It's a famous car.

Yep. So number 10, I know it. It's right here. The sticker on the back of your phone. Of course, I saw the number 10 in action in the Slow Baja Safari class in Nora back in 2022, which was an amazing, an amazing experience to have Big Oli and all the Manxes and the old Broncos with Andrew Norton and Todd Zirker and Rod Hall, Larry Miner's old truck. So many Strop Broncos in the Big Oli, which was a straw built machine. And your buggies is really an extraordinary time.

and you had a smile on your face the entire, you know, and it's grueling, frankly, to be in a car like this for a thousand miles over five days. Oh, no, no, no. It might be in a Jeep, but not in a buggy. That's why you keep smiling. That's why you keep smiling. What they don't know won't hurt them. And it must be, yeah, and it must be a little bit of the fountain of youth for you.

Because, you know, I mean, 2022, you were 80 years old already, I think, by then, right? Close enough? 78. All right. You're the better part of 80 at that point. You weren't quite 80 yet. And you're all go. I'll go. I'll smile and all the time. You had Steve with you some of the time your son. So that number 10 car, tell me about what made that car famous because a lot of people, a lot of the Slow Baja audience won't know the history of number 10 and how significant it is in the entire history of, of Baja and off-road racing? Well, the number 10 car has a backstory that goes with it through Vic Wilson, who was the sales manager for Bruce Myers at the time. And I had my shop in Fullerton.

Bruce was in Santa Ana. Vic was traveling around and selling dealerships for the Myers banks. and I was not a part of anything setting up that timed event except that just before I'd left Myers, I did a break job on Old Red and put a new master cylinder in it, all new brake shoes, and adjusted it all up so it was ready to go. I figured when I left it'd be good for quite a long time.

group got together Ted Mangles who drove with Vic Wilson and Bruce John Crine Dale Velzy and Tiny from Burrow Company made a trip

south and picked roots to come back on did distances times how they get back from La Paz to Tijuana in a nice quick route. And Old Red had a 1,500-cc Volkswagen Motor stock,

and they got down there. They guesstimated their gas mileage and looked around, and there was very few places that you could buy fuel even in La Paz at that time. But they managed to fill up the buggy with 60,000, five gallons of fuel. The green side pods that are on old red and the nose bumper, those are oxygen bottles that held eight and a half gallons each. The gas tank held 12 gallons and it's underneath the rear seat area. The rest of the fuel that they had was in a few five

gallon cans, a lot of one gallon jugs, and they managed to put 65 gallons of fuel in that car before they left La Paz on their time to run. They had to get back up to Tijuana. In those days, the only fuel you could find would be at a rancho, or if you went to a bay where they had boats, you might find gasoline and a 55-gallon drum, questionable. And, you're a 55-gallon drum, questionable. and that would take time out of their trip. When the motorcycles had made their time to run down, they had airplanes flying ahead of them and dropping fuel off and setting up fuel stops because the bike carries very little fuel.

They got back, they'd used up all that fuel, had broken the transmission, and still got into Tijuana, in 34 hours and some minutes. And when I heard about that, I thought that was really great. And the race hadn't even been thought about yet. Bruce, Ed Pearlman, Vic Wilson, Joe McPherson, McPherson Chevrolet,

and a couple of others got together. And they went, you know, we could have a race down there. And that came and around, and Ed Pearlman took that by the horns, pronounced himself head of Nora, National Off-road Racing Association, short name, long title. And they figured out a race, which was only going to be two more months down the road from the time that they got it planned. and they notified all the people they could and the magazine article that came out in

Rodent Track and in magazines in Europe announcing that there was going to be a rally in Baja. Bruce and Vic and Ted got together and wrote up a little article on it and they're waiting to see what's going to come of who's going to enter this race. Vic says, well, I got one of my jeeps, and Bruce says, no, I drive him banks. And he said, tell you what, I got a guy that will build a car for you. Gave Vic my address. He said, go up there and talk to this guy.

And Bruce evidently didn't say my name. Vic got to my shop, him in the door. Bruce had told me, called me and said, this guy's coming up to talk to you about building a race car. Okay, great. He walks in the shop. I'm huddled over a chassis in the back end that we're welding back together. And he hollers out and he says, hey, anybody here?

I turned around and I went, what are you doing here? He says, what do you mean? What are you doing here? Where's this guy that's building cars? That's me. He goes, no, can't be. I worked for Vic for a couple of years in Costa Mesa at his gas station. Wow.

Philip 66. Wow. And he raced jeeps. I helped him with the jeeps. All kinds of little things on that end. And he says, can you bill me a car? I said, sure. When you have it done, where's the pieces?

He says, I'll have them here tomorrow. Okay, the next day he delivered a body, a chassis transmission. The motor was coming. All the other pieces we'd need off of a Volkswagen sedan for the Dietz headlights on it, the full kit from Myers, and he said, okay, get after it. So the first thing we had to do was shorten the chassis, and I'd made a jig for cutting that. we cut it, put it together, and Vic came up, and he says, okay, he says, I need this thing to be really stiff.

And I've been driving around in the demo cars and out there in the back bay and in the hills. And there's a torsion that's got to be taken out of the front end. I said, I got something that'll do that. And he says, you ever done it before? I said, nope. I described to him what I was going to do and he says, that sounds like it would work great. The rest of the car was put together totally stock,

except we put a transmission strap in the middle of the transmission that stabilized it no matter which motor mount went away, that would hold it in place. And put the car completely together, delivered it to Myers-Manks a month ahead of the race, and they put stickers on it and did all kinds of little things. Vic built it added onto the roll bar and attached that end to the back. And the car was ready to go.

And in that period of time when it left the shop, we started building another race car. So we didn't have a clue at the time why we were doing or what we were doing. And I didn't have a clue of what thousand miles of Baja would look like. Like this. Yeah, well, now I do. Now I do. But if I understand that correctly, you were supposed to be the last entry. You had an entry to that first event.

And what the heck happened? I don't quite remember the story, but you told me once before. Well, we finished the number 10 car, and it had no stickers on it. And it was, you could sit in it and drive it. No problem. problem and it went away and so we had 30 days before the race and a guy comes in and he's from a buggy dealer down the street who built oscillots and it was a far different look than a Manx although it retained the inner sides and the rear humps

and tire clearances in the back because it was copied off of Manx. It's the only other car at that time that I had built and worked on that wasn't a Manx. Gotcha. And it was the number 69 Oslo. We had the entry and everything else. We got the car done a day ahead of schedule

to leave for the race. Hadn't been fired, but everything was there. and perfect. We started it up, ran it for a couple minutes, shut it off, checked everything, and started it back up again and are going to check out the lights, and we turned the headlights on. That's all kind of funny. They're a little bit funny looking, and turned them off, and we could smell smoke. Oh, crap. Underneath the dash, smoke's coming up. I reached throwing the back end, disconnected the battery, and went, uh-oh. Went to the back, smoking back there out of the regulator and the wiring to the generator,

and the main hot lead that went through the body up to the dash was smoked. We couldn't figure out what had gone wrong, what had grounded our system. there weren't too many 12-volt cars in 1967, but Lessa's auto parts in Long Beach had put the motor together, and it was a variant motor that was dual carbureated, was changed over to an upright motor so that it had a generator on it,

and he delivered it to us, ready to run. No, he hadn't run it. ready to run. We hadn't run it until that day. And the generator was a big diameter generator. Should have been a 12-volt because all the new 12-volt generators were big diameter. Also, the generator that was in my Volkswagen bus that was six-fold was a big generator. And the generator that he had put in the car had not been checked, and it was six-fold.

And our system was 12-volt. And the combination of bad voltages going in the wrong directions through the regulator and out of the generator, shortened the system up and burnt the wire. You fried it all. And I went, okay, where can we get a 12-volt generator? I said, Vic, jump on it, pull the wire, clean all of that stuff up. And I got on the phone, called around, and Paul Hadley at Hadley Chassis Engineering in Costa Mesa. He built buggies, Corvair-powered buggies.

He did rear suspensions to put a whole Corvair rear rear in the back end, but he had just finished building a brand-new Myers-Manks with a 1600-c-C motor and 12-volt. And I caught him at his house, and he says, I'm just leaving. but the Manx is out front and if you want the generator come down and take it out of my car. Help yourself. So I hustled down,

unbolted it, took it out of his car, left him a note, thank you, went back to my shop, we reinstalled that in the car. The next morning is race morning. And

the race starts at six in Tijuana, and it goes from 6 to 730 from Tijuana to Ensonata. We hadn't been to sleep all night. We got it all running. Everything's good. Put it on the tow bar behind my bus. And John Togony, who owned the car, we climbed in, his girlfriend, and him, me, and my wife, Sue. And away we went, headed for Ensenada.

Well, up in Fullerton, that's a few-hour drive to get to the border and then to get to Ensonata. And I'd been down there quite a few times with Bruce and knew how to do it. So we got down there and when you only have 68 cars in a race, starting at one a minute, that's an hour and eight minutes. We're two hours behind that schedule by the time we get down there. There's no officials anywhere. Nobody to time us. Nobody to set us off. We were going to go anyway.

And then I said, John, we can't. We'd be running this thing for nothing. Nobody will give us a time or give us anything. We tried with the police, with anybody. wasn't going to happen. So we went back and went to Weillow Anderson's, and Wheelow was Bruce's co-driver in 67, and he had a cabin at the sand dunes at the beach at kilometer 57.

And he said, anytime you're down there, the keys underneath the mat, the house is yours, put it back like you found it when you leave. So we spent a couple of days and drove the oscill. all around the sand dunes and tested it out and did and were just by the time that weekend was over went we could have spent a day going down and made that race but wasn't set to be it was number 69 Osloat and we ran it in the Star Dust 7-11 and Firecracker 250 but it it never did that well I never got to drive it in the race.

John drove the whole 711 miles, and I rode passenger. Well, that's a hard job being the passenger with somebody racing. Well, Jim, you've been awfully generous and making some time for me today. I really appreciate doing that. You're pretty active on Facebook, yeah, if people want to see you? Is that where you are? Yep. All right.

I'll get to that in the show notes. It's been a real, real delight getting to know you over the last few years. getting to see you in these buggies. Can't wait to have another adventure with you soon. I hope it's in Baja, and I look forward to seeing you in the number 10 or something fun. Well, next year, this year, I may go down and follow my son. He may go down in safari and follow him,

make sure he gets to the other end carrying parts. I've been on a whole lot of trips ever since the first Nora race started. out again in 2010. And love Baja, love all the people down there, the ones that live there, and the ones that race. It's the happiest, neatest group, and you never worked so hard to try and keep a smile on your face ever. Well, I look forward to seeing you.

I'll have a little Fortaleza, I'm sure, and I know if I know you, if I know anything about you, you'll have your slow Baja shot glasses at the ready. That we will, and we'll be driving. the 10.4 car. The fountain of youth. The fountain of youth, a buggy, Baja, and a sip of fortaleys at the end of the day.

And a smile. To go with all of it. Thanks, Jim. It's really fun. Thank you, Mike. All right. See you soon. We did it.

Say goodbye right there. Well, I hope you like that show with Jim Chamberlain. Such a cool cat. Can't believe he's still doing all the fun stuff in Myers-Manks' all these years later. Can't wait to get him on a slow Baja vintage. Well, you know, my slow Baja vintage with Sal Fish, Kurt Leduc, Chris Collard, three motorsports, off-road motorsports Hall of Famers. Yeah, that trip is sold out.

If you're thinking about jumping into my winter trip, March 1st through 7th, that's open to trucks of any age. That trip is almost sold out too. So get your deposit in quick. If you're thinking about it, you can do that at slowbaha.com slash shop. Click on the boarding pass link hit the 2026 winter hit that deposit and you are good to go um if you like what i'm doing if you like me going and meeting these people where they are 160 plus episodes i listened to the interview i did with jim chamberlain just today 22 is when i did that interview with him if you like this stuff if you like the video if you like watching you got to drop a taco in the tank There's no government funding.

There's no independent source of funding. It is all coming out of my pocket. So you've got to support the show if you are listening now and you still enjoy it. Buy some merch, drop a taco in the tank. You can do that at slowbaha.com slash donation or slowbaha.com slash shop. Get some stuff. Rep. Have a good conversation because you're wearing a Slow Baja hat or a Slow Baja tea or you've got that fabulous deluxe

canvas bag with a huge Slow Baja logo on it. That is a conversation starter and you will have good vibes and good convos by getting out some Slow Baja merch. Okay, well, I gotta tell you Mary McGee, you know,

she was so cool. So many great things happened to her at the end of her life. Got on the Slow Baja podcast. Got into the Nora, became the Grand Marshal for the 500, got fast-tracked into the Off Road Motorsports Hall of Fame. Andrea Hanks donated her Dotson jacket back to her that she had just bought at Mary's

garage sale for 50 bucks and Mary got to wear it on stage as she was giving her induction speech into the Off Road Motorsports Hall of Fame. So many cool things. Haley Watson did that fabulous, fabulous motorcycle Mary documentary on her. And you know, Mary, she had a friend, Steve McQueen who got her out racing dirt bikes in Baja and Mary's the first person to solo a Baja 500. You know, she loved a pal around with Steve and Steve loved Baja and Steve would say, you know, Mary, Baja is life. Everything else is just waiting. You know, people always ask me, what's the best modification that I've ever made to slow Baja?

Without a doubt, it's my shield man seats. You know, Toby at Sheelman, USA could not be easier to work with. He recommended a Vario F for me and a Vero F XXL for my navigator, Ted. His Ted's kind of a big guy. And Toby was absolutely right. The seats are great and they fit both of us perfectly. And let me tell you, after driving around Baja for over a year on these seats, I could not be happier. Shieldman, slow Baja approved, learn more and get yours at shielman.com.

You know, I'm all about keeping things. simple, travel in light, and finding the really good stuff. And that's why I've been wearing iron and resin for years. It's not just clothes. It's gear that holds up in the dust, the salt, the spilled tacos, and still looks good when you roll into town. Made in small batches by folks who care, no flash, no fast fashion, just the kind of stuff that gets better, the more you wear it.

Check them out at iron and resin.com and pick up something that'll last the next. thousand miles.