2020 Bonhams Amelia Island Sale (Steve McQueen Meyers Manx Buggy)

The 1967 Con-Ferr Buggy Meyers Manx driven by Steve McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair is offered at the Bonhams Amelia Island 2020 classic car auction.

1967 Con-Ferr Buggy Meyers Manx on offer at Bonhams Amelia Island 2020 — © Bonhams

The 1967 Con-Ferr Buggy Meyers Manx in which Steve McQueen took Faye Dunaway on a ride in the movie The Thomas Crown Affair is on offer at the Bonhams Amelia Island 2020 sale in March 2020. The sale will also include a 1967 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow with coachwork by Mulliner Park Ward used in the same movie. No estimates have been released but model records are likely.

Bonhams Amelia Island 2020 Classic Car Sale

Bonhams scheduled its sixth Amelia Island sale for March 5, 2020, at the Fernandina Beach Golf Club in Florida, USA.

1937 Bugatti Type 57 SC Sports Tourer – © Bonhams

In 2019, Bonhams earned $16 million with a respectable sell-through rate of 84%. Highlights of this sale were two dozen American antique Brass Era cars from the Don Boulton Collection.

In 2018, Bonhams earned $13.4 million and in 2017 the gains were around $10.2 million. Bonhams’ best Amelia Island auction was in 2016 when it earned $27.5 million in a sale that included a $9,735,000 result for a 1937 Bugatti Type 57 SC Sports Tourer – one of the highest Bugatti results ever.

1967 Con-Ferr Buggy Meyers Manx

The 1967 Con-Ferr Buggy Meyers Manx in which Steve McQueen took Faye Dunaway on a ride in the movie The Thomas Crown Affair is on offer at the Bonhams Amelia Island 2020. A 1967 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow driven in the same movie was also announced for the same auction.

Like the car chase on the streets of San Francisco in Bullitt, the ride on the beach of Massachusetts in Thomas Crown is the stuff of legend. The Hollywood film captivated global audiences and brought the Meyers Manx – the first true “dune buggy” – to the attention of the world. Not only that, but the movie reaffirmed McQueen’s affinity for and capability in motoring, as well as helped catapult the talented and beautiful Dunaway to A-list stardom.

The Meyers Manx, developed by SoCal native Bruce Meyers, was the embodiment of the California lifestyle – sun, sand, sea and free livin’ – all in a compact, open-air, go-anywhere funmobile. McQueen’s love for cars and bikes was already well established and it was his influence that brought this distinctly American vehicle into the film directed by Norman Jewison.

Unlike any other Manx, however, McQueen enlisted the help of motor legend Pete Condos of Con-Ferr fame to build a completely customized and totally unique vehicle. In a period documentary about the movie, McQueen said, “Crown lives at the beach and he has a dune buggy. I helped them design it, so I’m kinda proud of that. It’s set on a Volkswagen chassis with big ol’ wide weenies – big wide tires on mag wheels, Corvair engine stuffed in the back…It’s very light, you know (because of the fiberglass body). It’s pulling about 230 horses and weighs about a thousand pounds.”

No estimate has been released but model and marque records are quite likely. A standard 1966 Meyers Manx Dune Buggy – in orange as well – sold for $30,800 at the Bonhams Amelia Island 2019.

Steve McQueen Cars and Memorabilia at Public Auction

1970 Porsche 917K at Auction — 1970 Porsche 917K Setting a New Marque Record – © Gooding

Bonhams has experience with Steve McQueen The Thomas Crown Affair memorabilia at auction. Bonhams sold the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow driven in the movie and the Persol sunglasses worn by McQueen in the movie for world record prices.

The 1967 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow with coachwork by Mulliner Park Ward was sold for $70,200 at the Bonhams Steve McQueen Sale in San Francisco in 2006. RM Auctions sold the same Rolls-Royce for only $36,300 in 2013. The same car is a preview lot for Bonhams Amelia Island 2020 but no details have been released yet.

Steve McQueen is a magic name for high results for any model at car auctions. The 1968 Ford Mustang GT “Bullitt” driven by Steve McQueen in the 1968 movie “Bullitt” set a new model record when it sold for $3,740,000 at the Mecum Kissimmee 2020 collector car auction.

A 1970 Porsche 917K used on the Steve McQueen movie Le Mans, similarly sold for a marque-record $14,080,000 – almost $4 million more than the second-most-expensive Porsche, the Le-Mans-winning 1982 Porsche 956. The Ford marque record of $11,000,000 is for a 1968 Ford GT40 Lightweight used as a camera car for the same McQueen Le Mans movie, although the Ford had some racing history too.