2. Less Weight – The removed section however small, is an advantage in weight reduction. The shorter car not having to carry it up the hill, and as a bonus, has less detrimental inertia when rounding curves on or off the road. 3. Turning Radius – The Volkswagen turns short, but a shortened buggy turns a circle several feet smaller, complementing its already unbelievable (until you try it) driving manners!
4. Ground Clearance – Driving over dirt mounds, ledges, large boulders, or whatever, can be the difference when trying to make it through the rough stuff. The shorter, smaller, invisible radius that traces an arc from the front wheels to the under-side of the chassis, past the rear wheels, is yet another bonus feature of the shortened floorpan.
5. Strength This can be an element of some variables…depending on how well the shortening job is performed. One must keep the original integrity, especially in the area of the floorpan’s centre tunnel. Following David Helland’s excellent chassis shortening instructions (www.manxclub.com/shorten.html) if you decide to do-it-yourself will give you an even stronger floorpan than the original stock unshortened floorpan, Here’s why : let us picture a see-saw consisting of a long bendy wooden plank of wood, providing a sturdy place for two attractive ladies to sit near each end. Moving the girls further apart would only make the board bend downwards. Unable to support the weight until, finally the board bends, breaking in the middle from the weight of the sitters. This is a simple but graphic demonstration of the longer stock floorpan with its greater span between front to rear wheels, having less beam strength and stiffness than the shortened floorpan, equating to greater overall stiffness and strength. Remember, removing the beetle body also removes the trusslike structure that the body had when combined with the floorpan. These then, are the five advantages of the shortened VW floorpan. Maybe there is a sixth good reason for the shortened floorpan… the car looks better. After all, the Manx has been called “the car that makes people smile”. That underlying perky, “cute” look is heightened by the short wheelbase.
Why around 14.25” shorter? If this sounds high tech, it’s not. The first twelve monocoque Meyers Manxes in 1964 were built without VW floorpans. The front and rear axles were mounted on substructures moulded into the fibreglass body tub. They were great years but were unprofitable and design redundant. The customer usually built his Manx from a wrecked but whole donor VW Beetle. He had to buy my chassis when he already had a perfectly good one. By redesigning the Manx to fit on a shortened floorpan I brought the price down from $985 to $635, saving him money and making me some. The earlier monocoque Manx had a 78″ wheelbase. Since the stock VW has a 94.5″ wheelbase, it would mean I would have to shorten the pan 16.5″ to match the monocoque wheelbase. Staring down at an unshortened pan, I looked for a simple way for the guy at home to get started. I noticed that the seat tracks are all in a row across the pan. The rear-ends of these tracks were a perfect starting point. A straight edge could be placed against these, and a line could be drawn across the pan. A piece of cardboard or heavy paper could be wrapped over the top of the tunnel to connect the lines on both sides of the tunnel. Now, measuring rearwards 16.5” meant cutting the tunnel where it is much wider, as the tunnel swells outwards to a much greater width. This wouldn’t work so, projecting a reduced 14.25″ rearwards enables the tunnel halves to mate together neatly (almost). A small amount of persuasion with a hammer makes an easy job of it. So it was to keep the job simple that I chose to shorten the pan by 14.25”. Of course I stretched the body by 2″ to fit the new 80.5″ wheelbase of the first floorpan Manxes. I have been trying to remember why I have been telling people to remove 14.25″ from the floorpan. That measly .25”…it’s been over thirty years! But I first wanted to shorten it by 16.5″ and maybe I begrudgingly had to concede to all I could get, which was 14.25″. Shucks, front and rear toe-in adjustments or caster shims could change wheelbase measurements that much. An even 14″, 14.24” or even 14.5” works just fine. Like a shriveled walnut rattling loose in its shell, I think my brain is shrinking, or maybe too much Californian sun.
By Bruce Meyers
