Meyers Manx Returns With An All-Electrical Dune Buggy

The VW-based Meyers Manx largely created off-road racing and outlined beach-bum residing for a strong chunk of the Nineteen Sixties and ’70s. Now, the title is returning with the Meyers Manx 2.0 Electrical, a newly unveiled EV dune buggy that appears to hold on the spirit of the unique.

The EV dune buggy will provide two totally different drivetrain packages: a 20 kWh, 150-mile vary base mannequin, and a 40 kWh, 300-mile vary model. The 40 kWh model will likely be rated at 202 horsepower and 240 pounds-feet of torque, with a 0-60 time estimated at 4.5 seconds. Regardless of which powertrain consumers go for, nonetheless, energy will likely be delivered the identical approach the unique was: rear-wheel-drive solely by way of a pair of electrical motors, one for every wheel. The drive models, inverter, and even the brakes will likely be self-contained in a single unit, seemingly to assist weatherproof it so it may be used like, effectively, a dune buggy.

Not like the unique, which was fiberglass, the fashionable buggy is made out of an aluminum monocoque. The entire bundle will nonetheless solely weigh 1,650 kilos in its heaviest type (the VW-based Nineteen Sixties model was 1,200 kilos), and its wheelbase is just two inches longer than the unique, at 82 inches; the styling displays it as a result of other than some nicer lights and a way more modernized, LED-emblazoned sprint, it seems almost an identical to the unique package vehicles. As nameplate revivals go, it is about as near the unique as humanly attainable.

The modernized Manx isn’t any knock-off undertaking, both. It is made by the corporate shaped with the title offered off by Bruce Manx himself shortly earlier than his demise in 2021. Pricing wasn’t introduced, however pre-orders will start after the automotive is formally unveiled at The Quail throughout Monterey Automotive Week on August 19. Fifty extraordinarily excited consumers can apply to take part in a beta-testing program and supply suggestions to the corporate on pre-production vehicles. The buggy is meant to hit the streets in manufacturing type someday in 2024.