The sun does strange things to our gearhead brains. If you live in a country or region where you only manage to break out a pair of shorts for a handful of weeks each year, a few golden rays peeking out from behind the clouds will have you instantly convinced you need to buy something that your rational brain knows is going to be unusable for 11-month stretches.
Most of us won’t actually take those daft ideas any further. But suppose you had to go out and buy something silly that didn’t need to cut it on the freeway, or keep out the rain, and only had to be look cool and be fun to drive, without necessarily being fast, what would you choose?
Related: VW ID Buggy Concept Is A Modern Day Meyers Manx
Probably the first summer car that springs to mind is the original VW Beetle-based Myers Manx beach buggy. Bruce Meyers, who used knowledge of fiberglass gained from working with boats and surfboards to create the Manx, sadly died last year, but the company lives on in the hands of new team led by former Porsche and Audi designer Freeman Thomas, and there are no shortage of original cars (and their imitators) available to buy on the used market.
Or maybe you’d go for the Mini Moke, which is now being built in the UK again, but this time fitted with an electric motor instead of the old pushrod A-series, or the zany Smart Crossblade.
And let’s not forget the Fiat 500 Jolly with its weird wicker seats, the Citroen Mehari, and the Volkswagen Type 181, a vehicle so ugly it was known simply as the Thing in the U.S.
If you want to spend a huge amount of money on an impractical summer car to turn heads, Aston, Ferrari and McLaren have all recently turned their supercars into sunny weather toys.
But we’re sure you’ll get just as many admiring looks driving the Little Car Company’s full-size tribute to the legendary Tamiya Wild One R/C car.
Also battery-powered, and every bit as fun to look at is the Citroën My Ami Buggy. The 50-unit run sold out instantly so we’d start with a regular Ami and modify it to make it look like the even-funkier Buggy concept from 2021 (pictured at the top of this post). Drop a comment down below and tell us which silly summer beach car would you buy (and then spend 11 months not using).