Porsche specialist Tuthill, builders of the mental 11,000-RPM 911K, absolutely cannot catch a break at airports when it comes to Monterey Car Week. The British firm is set to unveil what is most likely a Porsche-powered Meyers Manx dune buggy, but it seems that an eagle-eyed air traveller has spoiled the surprise a touch.
See, the great thing about air-freighting cars is that although the costs are astronomical, it’s a safe and extremely timely method of transport. For teams working toward a deadline, time is money, and the hours of air freight sure beat the weeks it takes for a car to cross an ocean by ship. Unfortunately, while ports are fairly secluded, international airports aren’t.
Last week, Instagram user horsepower_hunters spied an orange modern Meyers Manx being loaded into a Los Angeles-bound plane at Heathrow, and a quick search of the number plate returned some curious results. Indeed, plugging ‘KT05 YPG’ into the British government’s MOT history tool reveals that it belongs to a 987 Porsche Boxster.
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Then, on Tuesday, Tuthill posted a teaser to Instagram of an orange Meyers Manx absolutely shredding it, throwing up grass and making all sorts of naughty noises. A Manx that looks a whole lot like the one spied being loaded onto that plane. Same color, same wheels, the works.
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Unsurprisingly, this is because it’s the same car, confirmed by Tuthill in a hilarious Instagram reel that overlays the “Nothing beats a JET2 holiday” audio over the “stay calm” scene from “The Office.” The caption? “FFS… It’s happening… Again! ????”. Hats off to the Porsche wizards for having a brilliant sense of humor, especially since this isn’t the company’s first run-in with airport car paparazzi.
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Last year, a Reddit user spotted a distinctive yet then-mysterious car at LAX ahead of Monterey Car Week, one that encompassed cues from the 911 GT1 of the ’90s. Well, that car turned out to be the Tuthill GT One, a sensational flat-six mid-engined supercar that weighs nearly 200 pounds less than a Subaru BRZ and offers the pleasure of rowing your own gears. Sure, the leak may have reduced the element of surprise, but the resulting car is nothing short of gorgeous.
Still, if I had a nickel for every time a big Tuthill project was spied at an airport, I’d have two nickels. Not a lot of money, but it sure is weird that it happened twice. Regardless, a Porsche-powered dune buggy sounds like an absolute riot, and I spy some serious suspension hardware underneath that retro skin. Check out those two long coilovers on each rear corner. I bet this thing flies and lands beautifully.
In a way, it seems like a more stylish, more aurally sensational alternative to something like an Ariel Nomad, taking the dune buggy idea to its logical ultimate conclusion. We can expect to know a whole lot more this week, especially with The Quail going down this Friday. If past creations are any indication, Tuthill’s Meyers Manx won’t disappoint.
Top graphic images: Instagram/horsepower_hunters
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Smells rather too much of a well directed, low-budget pr strategy
You guys are surely aware people have been putting Porsche engines in dune buggies forever?
Dear media, First does not equal Best.
There are like three websites that people who care about cars can check these days. I’ll wait for an actual story versus reading some garbage article full of speculation about a heavily camoflaged test mule photographed in traffic.
With my experience with both Virgin and Heathrow, I believe having just your front wheels on the plane counts as “missing your flight” but maybe the nice people at Delta or KLM can take the car in a couple hours 😉
This uncanny level of social media happenstance almost makes me think it’s a little rigged because why not?
Also, can anyone look up the owner of a car with a UK numberplate? Seems like an invasion of privacy to give the entire public access to everyone, but I guess it’s not much different than looking up your name by property taxes address (common).
All you get is the inspection history of the vehicle if it’s age is three years or older. There is zero personal information attached to it – no names, no addresses.
It allows potential buyers to see if the owner is fixing any potential problems that might be close to a test fail, rather than an outright fail, or issues with corrosion, emissions etc. It can save you a trip to look at a car if it’s already a basket-case on paper.
A fair few dealers in the UK advertise their cars with company logo plates instead of license plates to prevent people from doing this search. It boggles me that they are still in business…
Used to be able to do that in USA.
It was changed for the convenience of rich drivers, under the false guise of stopping stalkers.
Obviously, this actually shields criminals and stalkers as they know neighborhoods can’t easily identify prowlers now.
You still can still pull up the VIN for a vehicle if you plug in the license plate on certain vehicle history sites.
The Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994 is what limits public access to certain information and it was introduced because anti-abortion activists were abusing public databases to get info on those who weren’t aligned with their beliefs.
There have always been ways to deal with special cases, and still are.
I don’t buy the excuses.
Property information is the more difficult one to maintain privacy on, and that can be done too.
Personal discipline is still required to maintain this.
One way to not do this is having an interesting license plate frame, like the BONNEVILLE 200 MPH CLUB I followed to talk to last week.
The girl kept saying you can’t be on this property, but I’d bet she thinks she is someone interesting, but is not.
The driver told me it wasn’t actually his plate frame on the spotless jeep in a bougie apartment complex.
I was disappointed, and they realized I didn’t care who they are, at that point.
Could have been worse… paparazzi could have gotten video of them letting it off the trailer without setting the parking brake and it crashing rear-first into a tree. Not that something like that would ever happen.
We are a special breed…
You know what would be worse? If Tuthill filmed that themselves, then still decided to post it 😀
It’s easy to get bored of all the high-6 nd 7-figure Porsche restomods, but I appreciate what Tuthill does, making the most insane analogue experiences possible, for drivers more than anything. Singers are cool and all, but it seems like most rarely ever get driven.
Is this an ‘on purpose’ accident? Drum up interest early.