You will be able to have as much fun in the new Manx as you did in the original. “Anytime you have something that is an icon like that, you want to protect it, you want to preserve it.” All the components will be hidden, but you’ll still know it’s a Manx.

Thomas says you won’t be able to tell by looking at it that it’s an EV. Dimensionally it's still the same car, but it's evolved. 'It's kind of like taking the original 911, and it goes through all of its generations of evolution from let's say, 901 to 964. And one of the goals that I wanted was not to change the size of the Meyers Manx at all,' Thomas said. 'We started off looking at the challenge of packaging, and electrification, as well as the size. Then they looked at the electrification components (the battery, battery systems, and EV drivetrain) and where they would all fit. How close will the new car be to the Manx we know and love? Thomas and the design team started by digitizing the original Manx, then loaded it onto a computer and looked at it from every angle: its wheelbase, its width, even how they sat in it. I always called it a ‘vessel of freedom.’ But it was so much more than that.” It's something that gives you a Zen (moment), that makes you smile. They recognize it, they know what it is, and at the same time, visually, it's something that's not aggressive. 'Bruce's masterpiece, he created something really special, and everybody identifies with it. 'When people actually see it, I'm hoping there'll be an ‘aha’ moment,' Thomas said by phone from the company’s headquarters in Orange County. fires).īruce Meyers and two original Meyers Manxes. That company is called Coreshell and it makes a coating that protects the cathode and anode of lithium-ion batteries to give them what Coreshell says will be longer life and more useable capacity while reducing the threat of runaway thermal incidents (i.e. The only thing we know for sure is that it will be an EV, powered by an innovative battery pack system designed by a tech firm in which Sarofim invested. He has also owned many VW vans, Porsche 911s and other cool cars over his long and creative life.Īll that is a roundabout way of introducing a car we can’t even show you yet, the newest, latest iteration of the modern Meyers Manx. Thomas is a designer who had worked at VW, Audi, and Porsche and designed such icons as the New Beetle and the Audi TT. Sarofim is a venture capitalist, car collector, and racer with a passion for cool cars.

You couldn’t have asked for a better pair of heirs. Instead, before he passed away Bruce and his wife Winnie sold the company to tech entrepreneur Phillip Sarofim and designer Freeman Thomas. When Bruce passed away last year at age 94, you could be forgiven if you’d assumed that with him would go the Meyers Manx, because, even until the end Bruce was still running the company that made the kits that launched summertime beach buggy dreams all over the world. One even set the record for running from La Paz to Tijuana. They went on to be wildly popular, both defining and exporting the whole Southern California surf culture to the world. The real Manxes were made by Bruce himself in California, the first one in a garage in Newport Beach in 1964. You may know it by its generic name, the dune buggy, but that was the term used for the thousands of fake Manxes, dune buggies, for which the real Meyers never got a dime. When the great Bruce Meyers passed away last year, there was a question of his legacy and what would happen to his greatest creation, the Meyers Manx. It'll have 240 hp and 200 miles of range.The new Manx will be instantly recognizable, designer Freeman Thomas promises.58 years after the birth of the original, a new Meyers Manx is coming and it will be all-electric.

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