The Manx SR was produced by 4 different company's as far as I know. It was originally designed by Stewart Reed and Bruce Meyers. Bruce's company was called BF Meyers Inc. and was the creator of the Manx SR. BF Meyers produced the SR in 1970.
In chronological order of company's that produced the Manx SR were,
1st - BF Meyers Inc., 2nd - Karma Coachworks, 3rd - Heartland Glassworks and
4th - Manx Motors.
Probably one of the most confusing things is trying to decide who the
manufacturer of a particular kit was. Of course, if it has a manufacturer's ID tag
on the body, that's a pretty good clue. I believe there were many kits produced with
out any type of ID tag on them at all, especially from Heartland or Manx Motors. I
have literature from each of the 3 company's following BF Meyers and sometimes they even
show the same car in their literature as the previous company did. So using the
pictures from the literature still may not give you a solid answer.
Of the three company's (post BF Meyers) the only one that used the name
SR2 on their ads and literature was Karma Coachworks. Both Heartland Glassworks and
Manx Motors still referred to the car as an SR. Yet in the some of the literature
from Heartland for instance, one of the cars shown has SR2 badges on the side of the targa
top. I'm assuming this is a left over picture from the previous company Karma
Coachworks. If you have any literature or ads for an SR that I don't show below,
please let me know. Also if you have any information that would help to distinguish
one manufacturer from another let me know that too.
Read below about BF Meyers and the other
company's that made the SR. This picture quality of some of these are not the best,
but you can still make them out.
BF Meyers Inc.
Click here - To read more about
the BF Meyers Manx SR
BF Meyers Inc, located in Fountain Valley, California was started and owned by Bruce Meyers. He started business producing the Manx Dunebuggy and Meyers Tow'd. After deciding they needed a street only car he teamed up with a then new designer named Stewart Reed. And the Manx SR was born. Its hard to imagine this was designed in 1969~70. The styling seemed to be ahead of its time. No one is really sure exactly how many cars (kits) were produced. I have heard there were from 400~600, while some believe there were actually less than 200 kits produced by BF Meyers. Maybe as this website goes along we can get a better idea. BF Meyers was good about putting ID tags on their bodys. Their serial numbering system was usually like "SR83H0" The first two letters "SR" means it is an SR. The "83" would indicate the production number of the body, and "H0" would be a date. "H" being the 8th month and "0" meaning 1970. There are also a few BF Meyers SR that have a ID tag with just a 4 digit number, ie.. "1270". I don't yet know how to decipher this one. I'm sure they did not build 1270 SR's. If you have any knowledge of the mysterious 4 digit number system, let me know. As far as I can tell BF Meyers produced the kits from 3/1970 ~ 12/1970
Karma Coachworks Ltd.
Karma Coachworks was located in Westminster, California. They produced the car around 1974. Karma changed the name from "Manx SR" to "Manx SR2" I'm not sure how long or how many were produced by Karma. Karma seemed to be pretty good about having ID tags on their kits. Their ID system used a 4 digit numbering system. It usually went something like "KC-0109". I feel they started numbering their cars with #100 as I have not heard of any Karma Cars with a serial number under 100. They did make other changes in addition to the SR2 name. For instance they used external door hinges and a gas strut to hold the door open. The door hinge actually sat on top of the door & fender. It also served as a place to mount the mirrors. I believe they also started making the hard side windows. The badges on the sides of the targa top also said SR2. External door handles were also added.
Heartland Glassworks
Heartland Glassworks was located in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. They formed a company in 1981 and started selling the SR in August of 1982. I'm not sure how long Heartland was in business, or how many cars they made. I also don't know very much about their ID numbering system. Maybe someone that has one of these cars can clue me in. All of the Heartland literature refers to the car as a Manx SR, and not an SR2 like Karma did. They did offer the round headlights as standard and square headlights were optional at an extra charge of $125. They went back to the hidden door hinge that was spring assisted like the original SR. Another option was electric door latches for $150. They came standard with side windows with Plexiglas inserts. The cost of their kit was $3495 plus any options.
Manx Motors or Manx Motorsports Intl.
Manx Motors were out of Columbia, Maryland. They started building the car again sometime in the early 1990's. I have literature from them dated 1993. With this company, again I don't know how long or how many cars were produced. I don't know much about Manx Motors ID numbering system. Someone help me out here. This is where things get really confusing. If you look at the first two pictures of Manx Motors literature above, then look at the first two pictures of literature from Heartland Glassworks, they both say the exact same thing, verbatim. Although, the pages are different. Even some of the pictures of the cars are the same. I think Manx Motors built pretty much exactly the same car as Heartland, except they did offer a few more things. You could order the kit as a Targa coupe (like all previous SR's) or you could order it as the Monterey Roadster, which it then came with out a top but rather a small "Monterey" tower above and behind the seating area (see yellow pict above). As a 3rd option, you could order the kit as a "Sport Roadster" with no top at all. Their prices for a complete kit was $5495. Manx Motorsports also offered complete "Roller" cars. The price for these were $10,995 and you supplied the engine and transmission.