Motorlux Had Some Fantastic Stuff But This Meyers Manx’s Surprise Engine May Be My Favorite: Cold Start

I’m writing this Cold Start far too late at night because we were out at the Motorlux event, which has a good amount of cars, aircraft, people, and, yes, booze, and then when I finally got back to my hotel room I made the mistake of lying down, just for a second, which is your brain’s way of tricking you into falling asleep, fully clothed and in awkward, uncomfortable positions, until you wake up with a start and realize, shit, I gotta do Cold Start! So that’s where I am. Happily, I have something I want to show you.

The main car I wanted to see at the event was a Meyers Manx that featured not the expected VW-type flat-four air-cooled engine or even an electric motor like Manx showed a couple Pebbles ago, but rather a surprising three-cylinder radial engine, from the Australian company Radial Motion, who sells them as engines for, among other things, helicopters.

We actually wrote about this engine last year, and I somehow forgot about that, even though I added an editor’s note which pointed out that one of the Volkswagen Beetle’s (remember, the Beetle is the car upon which Meyers Manx dune buggies have always been based) prototypes, built for Zündapp, used a strange five-cylinder radial engine:

So, there is some precedent to cramming radial engines into the back of Beetles and Beetle-derived cars.

The setup in the Manx is interesting; even though the engine appears air-cooled with those fins, it’s actually a liquid-cooled engine, with the radiator tucked away in the rear wall of the Manx’ cabin. The 2-liter engine – which uses GM LS1 V8 engine parts for the internals, like pistons – makes between 130 and 160 horsepower in the Manx application, but it can get up to 200 hp.

I’m very curious about this engine, especially because it appears to bolt right onto a normal air-cooled VW transaxle. I think we’ll see this in more detail later this week, so hopefully I’ll get more information.

Of course, there was all sorts of other great stuff at Motorlux, like this Lancia Flamina Superleggera:

Man, what a handsome car this is! Plus, fantastic taillights:

Why is it better that these are made of separate shaped pieces instead of one solid molded lens? I’m not sure, but they are better, and that’s just some sort of arcane taillight magic, best accepted and appreciated, and not explained.

Okay, I’m not entirely certain what car this one was; it reminded me a lot of a more refined Bill Thomas Cheetah, but it’s not. It was in a section of custom cars and one-offs, so it may be that, and I should know this, so forgive me. If anyone can clue me in, feel free to tell me in the comments.

Of course, I do know a Tucker when I see one, and there was a lovely wine-colored one right at the entrance, one of the 51 made. This one seems to have been director George Lucas’ Tucker, the man perhaps best known for kickstarting the career of Sy Snootles.

I got to peer inside the Tucker a bit, which made me realize two things:

The luggage area behind the back seat and over the flat-six engine is actually pretty huge, and also:

I always forget how strange the very open passenger side of the Tucker’s dashboard looked. For safety reasons, the Tucker dash and instruments were all in that binnacle in front of the driver, and the rest of the area was left open, below a padded bar. This setup strangely reminds me of a far, far less safe dashboard setup:

…an old VW Microbus! It also has all instruments in a little binnacle and openness to the passenger side, but instead of padded bars and carpet, you get sharp metal bits and a rubber mat and the realization that there is nothing in front of your legs beyond a thin sheet of steel. Still, I love these, and was reminded of that when we saw this incredible 1952 Type 2 bus in the parking lot of Motorlux:

It seems to have been an old dry cleaner’s van, based on the markings:

We saw this thing leaving with a driver and about eight or so women inside. It’s pretty incredible. I wonder if the people inside were “particular people” as the van’s rear barn door states?

There was also a fantastic lowrider featuring an ornate painting on the doorjamb, something I’m not sure I’ve seen done before, which also describes this wall of bacon:

It was delicious, but I can’t see this and not extrapolate out to a whole bacon curtain, or set of bacon drapes, which may be kind of hideous.

Okay, I’m getting some sleep now. There’s a ton going on tomorrow!