Question: what do The Beatles, Madonna, George Russell, Jennifer Lopez, The Beach Boys, Cher, Hunter S Thompson, Brigitte Bardot and Kate Moss all have in common? The answer, obviously, is that they have all been pictured in a Moke. First launched in 1964, the Moke simultaneously stuck two fingers up to fashion while being embraced by the beautiful people. After appearances in four James Bond films and cult TV series, The Prisoner , it has become a common sight at luxurious hotels and resorts: a car synonymous with sunshine and good times.
Today, the original Moke has been reinvented as a fully road-legal electric car , built in the UK and priced at £35,995. And because the beautiful people were all busy, yours truly was invited along to drive it. The Moke was initially conceived as a military vehicle, known as the ‘Buckboard’.
Designed by Sir Alec Issigonis and based on the then-new Mini, it was presented to the British Army in 1959, ostensibly as a vehicle to be parachuted into combat zones. Military top brass were unconvinced by the Buckboard’s limited ground clearance, front-wheel-drive layout and feeble 848cc engine, though. So British Motor Corporation (BMC) duly went back to the drawing board reengineering the vehicle – now known as the Mini Moke – with longer-travel suspension and four-wheel drive.
Sadly, it was too little, too late for officers already accustomed to larger Land Rovers . The Moke story might have ended there, but it started a new chapter in.