• Meyers Manx unveiled the Manx 2.0 Electrical as a reimagining of the unique dune buggy that captured hearts within the Sixties.
• The electrical buggy is the primary car produced below the brand new management, which took management of the corporate shortly earlier than unique designer Bruce Meyers’s passing.
• The 40.0-kWh battery, the biggest of two choices, has a claimed 300-mile vary and guarantees 202 horsepower and as much as 240 pound-feet of torque.

UPDATE 8/22/23: Meyers Manx has introduced preliminary pricing for the Manx 2.0 EV, which is able to begin at $74,000. The not too long ago revealed Resorter NEV, which has a 25-mph high pace, has a base value of $49K. The corporate is presently accepting $500 deposits for each fashions on the Meyers Manx web site.

In Automotive and Driver’s April 1967 concern, we featured the unique Meyers Manx on the duvet, entrance and middle. Our street check proclaimed it “all issues to all males.” The one factor they may all agree on, we stated, was that the Meyers Manx was “extra soul-freeing, leaping, bounding, uninhibited enjoyable than the rest they’ve ever pushed—on or off the street.”

Fifty-five years later, the beloved dune buggy aspires to be all that and extra because it will get reimagined for 2023. Introduced Monday night, the Manx 2.0 Electrical brings all of the adventurous, off-road enjoyable of the unique, simply powered by a battery.

The design of the Manx 2.0 carefully follows within the unique’s footsteps with its rugged but voluptuous silhouette, however the latest incarnation is a little more refined than its predecessor, because of the enclosed rear to chill the electrical motors. No air-cooled Volkswagen Beetle engine hanging out the again right here.

Nonetheless, the Manx 2.0 stays true to the monocoque chassis legacy of the unique, making it gentle—the heaviest 2.0 is claimed to weigh 1650 kilos—and robust on tough terrain. It additionally options impartial rear suspension and regenerative braking, which ought to shoulder a lot of the braking load.

Inside, the Manx 2.0 could have two battery choices: a 20.0-kWh battery with a claimed 150 miles of vary or a a 40.0-kWh battery with 300 miles of vary. These are very bold claims given {that a} Chevy Bolt EV wants a 66.0 kWh battery to attain a 259-mile EPA vary ranking. That may additionally equate to effectivity of roughly 225 MPGe for the Manx, or practically 100 MPGe greater than essentially the most environment friendly EV available on the market immediately, the 132 MPGe rear-drive Tesla Mannequin 3. Positive, the Manx is considerably lighter, but it surely additionally wears knobby tires and its aerodynamics are certain to be hindered by the open cabin. Whereas the corporate has but to launch energy specs for the smaller battery, the larger choice sends 202 horsepower and as much as 240 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels via two motors, which ought to get you to 60 miles per hour in an estimated 4.5 seconds. The motor, inverter, gear prepare, and brakes will probably be housed in a single unit.

The Manx 2.0’s motor unit connected to a battery pack.

The primary batch, totaling simply 50 buggies, will ship in 2023 as a part of a beta program, however as soon as the Manx 2.0 reaches a wider viewers, it’ll include a set of choices like A/C and warmth, in addition to a sensible display, in response to Meyers Manx CEO Freeman Thomas.

Thomas, designer of the New Beetle in addition to others like the unique Audi TT idea, joined Meyers Manx as CEO in 2020 following the manufacturers acquisition by enterprise capitalist and Manx fanatic Phillip Sarofim. Sarofim acquired Meyers Manx from Bruce and Winnie Meyers shortly earlier than Bruce Meyers died at age 94 in 2021, and now the duo, in response to Freeman, wish to “carry his legacy into the longer term.”

It is a highly effective legacy. Bruce Meyers virtually singlehandedly began the package dune buggy craze when he determined, regardless of being extra acquainted with constructing sailboats and surfboards, to construct a dune buggy out of a Beetle in his Newport Seashore, California, storage in 1964. It shortly turned a sensation after it broke the timed file for a run from Tijuana, Mexico, to La Paz over rocky, desert terrain. When the route was organized into the primary ever Baja 1000, often known as the Mexican 1000 in 1967, the Meyers Manx was topped the victor.

Nonetheless, an electrical Manx additionally has a historical past. Bruce Meyers revived the Meyers Manx model in 2000, and in 2014 he partnered with Las Vegas-based battery firm Rev-TEC to create an electrical idea often known as the Manx V. The V had 86.3 horsepower and a high pace of 64 miles per hour. Volkswagen, too, received in on the enjoyable with a 2019 idea impressed by the unique Manx known as the I.D. Buggy.

Actually, the Meyers Manx has had fairly the journey since we put it on our cowl all these years in the past. Nonetheless, with the reveal of the Manx 2.0 it is clear that, regardless of the place the auto business has gone, seemingly nothing enamors fanatics fairly just like the Manx.

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Editorial Intern

Sasha Richie is an area of the Detroit space, so automobiles have at all times been a giant a part of her life. A few of her fondest recollections embody driving her dad’s 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am within the Woodward Dream Cruise the summer time after she received her license and going to tug races along with her grandpa. At present ending a Bachelor’s in Russian at Duke College, the place she is the Sports activities Managing Editor of the Duke Chronicle, Sasha is worked up to hitch the Automotive and Driver workforce for the summer time.