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Someone paid US$456,000 for Steve McQueens Dune Buggy

Surely a world record price for a Meyers Manx dune buggy

Headlines were made at the start of 2020 as the Forest Green 1968 Ford Mustang driven by Steve McQueen in the movie Bullitt, sold for AU$4.9 million.

A few weeks ago, at Bonham’s Amelia Island auction, another vehicle attached to the famous Hollywood actor and car nut similarly sold for unheard of amounts of money.

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The vehicle in question was a modified Meyers Manx Dune Buggy, and sold for a staggering US$456,000. That’s a ludicrous AU$744,500 at the currently weak exchange rate – but a relative bargain to the more famous movie car.

The Dune Buggy is also a bonafide McQueen movie car, appearing in the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair.

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The Meyers Manx buggy was originally a fibreglass kit car, meant to be fitted atop a shortened VW Beetle chassis and engine. McQueen oversaw the extensive modifications of this buggy for the film, with the centrepiece being a 2.7lt flat-six from a Chevrolet Corvair, as well as custom a quilted interior and recessed headlights.

After filming the movie, the car was sold to a car dealer in Hawaii, who replaced the Corvair engine with a racing VW engine. Its latest owner owned the car for nigh on two decades before treating the buggy to a complete restoration, with high levels of sympathy towards existing original components, but returning to the Corvair flat-six that Mcqueen requested in period.

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Bonhams state that this may be the last vehicle linked to the King of Cool for the immediate future, as most other of his cars are currently held in long-term collections.

 

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