In a sign of the times the Meyers Manx – the world’s first beach buggy– is now available in EV form. The all-electric Meyers Manx 2.0, near identical in appearance to the original designed and built by legendary Californian surfer and artist Bruce Meyers back in 1964, was launched at this year’s Goodwood Revival over 6-8 September.
Words: Graeme Hurst
Images: Graeme Hurst and @goodwood.com
Meyers’ creation, famously cobbled together from parts from an old Chevrolet truck and a Volkswagen Beetle, featured an open, one-piece body that was cheap to produce out of fibreglass. It quickly shot to fame among the surfer community as the ‘dune or beach buggy’ when the Manx’s dune-conquering abilities were demonstrated in the 1968 cult movie, The Thomas Crown Affair - at the hands of ‘king of cool’, Steve McQueen no less!
The car’s silver screen debut came on the back of Meyers’ record for an 830-mile run along Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula the year before – an achievement that sired the famous Baja 1000 race.
Old Red (as that first Manx became known) took centre stage at Goodwood’s Earls Court Motor Show (which showcases cars of the future) along with the EV version, while some 80 examples of both the original – and the many worldwide beach- or dune-buggy variants it inspired – took to the track daily in a parade to mark the playful VW Beetle-engined icon’s epic anniversary.
The beach buggy’s anniversary, at the famous step-back-in-time celebration of motorsport and related culture, wasn’t the only 60th to be recognised: Goodwood also marked six decades since the late John Surtees – the only racer to win world a world championship on both two and four wheels – won the F1 Driver’s Championship for Ferrari.
His achievement – which came just four years after the motorcycle ace first took to the track on four wheels – and his subsequent role in F1 as a constructor was celebrated with a daily parade of motorcycles and grand prix cars, including the Ferrari 1512 he campaigned in the 1965 German GP and the Surtees-Cosworth TS9B which raced in the 1971 South African GP at the hands of John Love.
Other anniversary parades included 75 years of production of the legendary Jaguar XK engine, which powered the marque to five Le Mans 24 Hours victories – the results of which led to such brand awareness of Jaguar’s D-type that it inspired both the technology and name for the iconic E-type sports car.
The 60-plus car line-up included XKD 505, the D-type which won the fateful 1955 Le Mans at the hands of Mike Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb, and the XK120 that was famously driven at over 100mph continuously for seven days and nights at Montlhéry to prove Jaguar’s reliability in 1952.
But the event’s most memorable celebration on the anniversary front was arguably the 200-strong track parade of D-Day landing craft to mark 80 years since Operation Overlord. That famous campaign to liberate Europe from the Nazis centred around the landing of more than 150,000 troops onto five Normandy beaches on ‘D-Day’ the 6th of June 1944 – a day that changed the course of both the second World War and history.
The track formation, which included several Sherman tanks and Jeeps, was headed by two GMC DUKW amphibious craft – one of which recently crossed the channel un-aided to take part in the 80th commemorations in Normandy – as well Field Marshal Montgomery's own Rolls-Royce Wraith Staff Car.
The Rolls was the first civilian-made vehicle to disembark onto the beaches as part of D-Day and – quite movingly – took part at Goodwood with two veterans from the landings as passengers. The parade was also a fitting tribute to the circuit which took part by providing air support, thanks to its role as the fighter base, RAF Westhampnett.
Of course, it was Goodwood’s wartime use that led to the establishment of a race circuit (which follows the outer ring road on which fighter pilots raced each other to kill time between sorties) back in 1948. And, as ever, this year’s Revival had plenty of action on the racing front with a 16-strong race programme that thrilled the crowds thanks to some stellar celebrity drivers and frequent bouts of heavy rain.
The action kicked off on the Friday, the practice day, with the wet conditions leading to some astonishing displays of car control as everything from mighty pre-war cars in the Goodwood Trophy to a trio of Ford Galaxie 500s in the St Mary’s Trophy and an Austin-Healey 3000 in the Stirling Moss Memorial Trophy – ended up fishtailing through the corners to the delight of the crowds.
The Galaxies thrilled crowds in the race too, as they out-paced the more nimble Mini Coopers and Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTAs to clinch 1st and 2nd place in the two-race fixture, which featured former Kyalami Nine Hour racer Jochen Mass in another GTA and F1 Redbull boss Christian Horner at the ’wheel of a BMW 1800 TiSA. And Horner wasn’t the only member of his family to take to the circuit: he and wife Geri Halliwell were on hand to support son Monty in the Settrington Cup, a two-part race (featuring a Le Mans-style start) for Austin J40 pedal cars.
Also providing plenty of thrills was the Revival’s Blue Riband event: the mighty RAC Tourist Trophy – the one-hour, two-driver race for closed-cockpit cars which raced between 1963 and ’64.
Kicking off in the wet post-lunch on the Sunday, it featured some spectacular driving as Ollie Bryant’s AC Cobra picked its way to the lead after a disqualification in practice saw Bryant start from the back of the grid. But it wasn’t to be a slam-dunk as Mike Whitaker and Tom Ingram’s TVR Griffith – which raced at the circuit at the hands of a WW2 fighter pilot back in 1965 – chased them down to snatch the chequered flag in a surprise but long-awaited victory. As ever, the race had its fair share of celebrity content, including F1 designer Adrian Newey (freshly installed at Aston Martin Aramco) who took his Jaguar E-type Lightweight to 9th place in a co-drive with son Harrison.
There was more track entertainment immediately afterwards in the Glover Trophy – a 25-minute race for 1.5-litre Grand Prix cars from1961 and ’65 – which saw Alex Morton in the ex-Neville Lederle, South African 1962 Grand Prix Lotus-Climax 21 move up from 13th to 5th place before oil on the track led to the race being red-flagged.
The restart 20 mins later put the former Lederle car next to the eventual race winner, the ex-Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 25 on the grid – something that the commentators noted was the first time to have happened since Lederle shared the grid with the late, great Jim Clark in East London back in December ’62!