The story
The company was founded by Arie Ruska after World War Two and initially focused on car restoration. A friend of Ruska's approached him in the late 1960s and asked him to make him a beach buggy. This resulted in Ruska being approached to make more and his manufacturing business commenced with the beach buggy, the Ruska B1 Buggy. By the 1970s, production had reached 250–300 units per annum. Ruska Buggies were among the most successful buggy builders in the Netherlands. Ruska initially offered the buggies for about 4500 guilders, just over 2000 euros), which made them relatively cheap.
Over time the buggies were redesigned but the Beetle chassis and the polyester body remained key components. Ruska designed a number of models himself. As soon as a design was ready and produced, a wooden mold was made in which polyester was cast. The casting itself was outsourced to a location outside the city due to toxic emissions. Ruska was also the only independent automaker in the Netherlands once DAF was acquired by Volvo. Replicas such as the Ruska Buggati and Ruska Regina (loosely based on the Morgan) were also made, along with a kit car version of the buggy.
The commercial brains behind Ruska was the wife of Arie, Christina, who through her enthusiasm and sales instinct acquired the nickname "Christien de Buggyqueen". She died in 1994. Ruska died in 2000.
From Wikipedia’s article on Ruska (car), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3