There’s something great about seeing something like a Meyers Manx completely out of context. They might look right at home cruising the Californian coastline, yet gloriously out of place on the roof of a multi-story car park in Brentford, London. This is of course the striking new venue for Duke of London’s Classics & Cake meeting, which took place on Sunday 15 September.
Goodwood recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Meyers Manx at the Revival with an 80-strong parade of various beach buggies, and a small selection of these from Philip Sarofim’s collection were also in attendance at the Brentford meet, along with the usual wide variety of classic cars – from a Fiat Ballila to Lotus Exige.
Enjoy the gallery of these eight buggies on show:
Old Red
The first-ever Meyers Manx, hand-built by Bruce Meyers in 1964 using a glassfibre monocoque. With extra fuel tanks it set the 1967 Baja speed record, sowing the seeds for the Baja 1000. This was the creator of an entire genre of cars.
The McQueen Buggy
Custom-built for the King of Cool, this is the very buggy that featured in The Thomas Crown Affair with its Corvair engine. See also issue 243 of Octane when Mark Dixon drove this very buggy on the sand-dunes of California.
The Radial Buggy
Who doesn’t love a radial engine? This prototype melds aviation and motoring.
The fuscia Buggy
An original Meyers Manx built by Bruce Meyer’s friend George Haddock, one of Southern California’s premier buggy builders, and later to move to the sun-drenched Mediterranean isle of Sardina.
Resorter
The Meyers Manx Remastered Resorter is a ‘reimagining’ of a classic buggy, blending a bit of European sophistication with Baja grit.
Student
Built by students and hobbyists, more than any other modern variant, this keeps alive the vision of Bruce Meyers for a simple, self-built fun car.
St. Moritz Gold
Designed for road use, the St Moritz Gold was built by DIY European enthusiasts at the turn of the millennium in the early 2000s.
The Carrera GT
Last but not least, the most bonkers Beach Buggy ever. Created after Phillip Sarofim and Freeman Thomas approached the Road Scholars Team about building a period-correct 1960s style Meyers Manx with a four cam engine. The inspiration was imagining what Vasek Polak would have built in period from his bin of rare Porsche 356 GT and Spyder competition parts and the result is fearsomely powerful thanks to its Porsche Carrera 2 (2 litre) Type 587/2 engine and has traces of Porsche 550 Spyder all over, from the pedals to gearshifter.
