This car, Lot 9, sold for $87,360, including buyer’s premium, at Bonhams Cars’ Miami, FL, sale, on May 4, 2024.
“What’s in a name?” asked Juliet, and then answered herself with, “That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” It’s much the same way with the Meyers Manx dune buggy.
The original buggy
Honestly, there’s not a lot of difference between any of the dozens of knock-off buggy bodies that copied Bruce Meyers’ famous design. In fact, Kellison Cars, most famous for its rebodied Corvette sports cars, sold more buggy bodies than Meyers did back in the day. But the Meyers Manx was the original design that sparked the revolution — and won the Baja 1000 to boot. Today, the first question anyone asks about a dune buggy is, “Is it a real Meyers?” About 99 times out of 100, the true answer is no, whatever the Craigslist ad may claim.
There is a good YouTube tutorial on authenticity by Randy Carlson of Carchaeology. If it passes those inspections, you can take some photos and send them (along with $20) to Bruce’s widow, Winnie Meyers, and she’ll render a final verdict. (Visit www.manxclub.com for a reference, and also make sure a kit car is legal to title in your state.)
The price difference between a real Meyers and a knock-off is usually about fivefold. A running, driving knock-off can be had for about $5k–$10k, but they were half that price a decade ago. A real, verified Meyers Manx can still be bought for around $20k–$40k, though many have traded far higher. The legendary high-water mark for the breed was, of course, Steve McQueen’s personal Corvair-powered Manx, immortalized in “The Thomas Crown Affair.” That one sold in 2020 for $456,000 after a full restoration (SCM# 6928666).
Reprised and remastered
That brings us to our subject. What exactly is this buggy, really? It’s a Meyers Manx “Remastered” body. Essentially that means it’s a continuation car in the vein of the new C-type and D-type Jags that you can buy direct from Jaguar. In this case, shortly before he passed away in 2022, Bruce Meyers sold the intellectual property of the Meyers Manx brand to Freeman Thomas, designer of the Audi TT and VW New Beetle, and his partner, venture capitalist Phillip Sarofim. The new company set about making two products: an all-electric take on a traditional Manx-styled dune buggy, and a Remastered body to produce a traditional VW-powered buggy. This is one of the latter.
It is an extremely good example of a Manx. The buggy is built on a shortened VW Type 1 Beetle floor pan, with a hot-rod VW engine, independent rear suspension, four-wheel disc brakes (ignore the catalog that says drums), and a compelling metal-flake gel-coat finish. The seats are gorgeous in their Mexican-blanket upholstery, a nod towards the buggy’s Southern California hot-rod roots. The new Manx bodies are greatly improved from the original. Not only do they have a locking battery compartment and storage area, but with modern manufacturing, they’re consistent in fit and finish.
Manx math
A new Manx Remastered body in metal-flake gel coat costs $7,350, plus shipping. Then a builder has to purchase an appropriate donor car and perform a complete body-off chassis restoration (likely with rust repair), shorten the pan, and reassemble with all-new parts. Hobbyists can save some money by doing the work themselves, but if they are more skilled at writing checks, it’s probably a minimum of $25,000 to get close to these results. Based on this sale price, that would be a smart investment. But before we get too entrepreneurial, it’s fair to ask whether the next Manx Remastered will command the same price.
There’s good reason to be skeptical about that. The reason is that the specialness of the Manx was not only that it was the original dune buggy, but also that it was rare. Before stopping production in 1971, Bruce Meyers produced about 6,000 Manx bodies. He produced a few more styles from 2000 to 2010, but not enough to dilute the market for originals. Now that Manx Remastered buggy bodies are being manufactured, the numbers are still small, but the jury’s out on whether collectors will discriminate between the originals and the continuation cars. I tend to think they will. The answer to the question, “Is it a Manx?” may be yes, but the second question will be, “Is it original or one of the new ones?” That’s a problem.
The bottom line with buggies is that original Manx provenance will likely continue to matter. As I said before, there’s not a lot of difference between Manx-shaped buggy bodies, and the driving experience of any VW-powered buggy is charitably described as primitive fun regardless of the badge on your fiberglass. What you’re paying for with a Manx is originality. Does the Manx Remastered have that? What’s in a name? ♦
