S ay “beach buggy” and thoughts of fun in the sun might spring to mind. But the inclement weather that arrived just in time for the 2024 Goodwood Revival earlier this month (September 6–8) didn’t stop more than 80 Meyers Manx fans from parading on the track to celebrate both the marque’s recent revival and its 60th anniversary. A vehicle that’s as intrinsic to the notion of the Californian lifestyle as the songs of the Beach Boys, the Meyers Manx buggy was created in 1964 by the local inventor, artist, surfer and war veteran Bruce Meyers after seeing a group of crudely-built “sand rails” being hooned around on Pismo Beach the previous year.
The aesthete Meyers couldn’t countenance driving something that looked so obviously home-made, so he drew on his skills as a fibreglass boat fabricator and fashioned a cute, bug-eyed tub with fat tyres at the back, skinny ones at the front, an engine from a scrap VW Beetle and no chassis..