it appears that in March 1970 the Meyers Manx SR was the first car that offered consumers the scissor doors
...this style of door operation(upward hinging doors) was first seen(October 3rd~13th 1968, Porte de Versailles in Paris) in a design by Bertone's Marcello Gandini(who also later designed the early first Countach using these doors)

the Alfa Romeo Carabo:


Manx SR 'scissor doors'




if Stewart Reed and Bruce Meyers had known of this door design, by my calculations they would of had 16 months to figure out how these doors worked(I'm guessing with never actually using them, or possibly only seeing still photos of the Alfa Romeo Carabo at most), pen the design(along with the rest of the complete car), create a model, form a mold, cast body parts, and release completed cars and kits ... one year ahead of the first concept Countach, which still didn't go into production so that consumers could use this door style until much later in 1974

the first "trade mark" Lamborghini doors on the  LP 500 Countach prototype as shown March 1971 Geneva Auto Show

(note that this concept car wasn't seen until after Bruce Meyers had ended production of his Manx SR and others had started to copy it)

the scissor doors were only one of the dramatic stylings of the Manx SR, looking at other production and concept cars at and before this time(1969~1970, and later then onto 1972~1976) we see how forward thinking this car design was/is

1969 Porsche 914



1969 American Motors AMX/2


1969 Chevrolet Manta Ray


1969 Holden Hurricane


1969 Mercedes-Benz C111-I


1969 Opel CD


1969 Toyota EX-III


1970 Pantera


1970  AMX/3


1970 Vauxhall SRV


1970 Nissan 126X


1970 Mercedes-Benz C111-II


1970 Mazda RX-500


1970 Holden Torana GTR-X


1970 Chevrolet XP-882


1971 Ford GT-70 (Ghia)


1972 Fiat X1/9


1972 Lancia Stratos HF

  (Lancia Stratos 0 show car in 1970)


1975 TR7


1976 Lotus Esprit


(concept car photos from here http://www.carstyling.ru/en/concept.html?year=1968 )

I was wondering if anyone would like to try to define the Manx SR's styling/design in comparison to other cars(at or before its time), or if the Manx SR is completely an 'original design' ?...which car(s) would you pick that come closest to having the same elements ?

I'm not sure that trying to compare the SR to other concept cars in styling is a viable discussion. By their very definition, concept cars are built to explore new directions in design and function. Reed's design may have been a simple fluke of timing when other scissor and gull-wing door concepts were being made. As such, I think the SR is it's own design idea, since it was basically "designed" to be a dune buggy.

And I always wanted one of those AMX 2's
and I've got some great links for the Concept Zero car....

Yep. SR were nothing more than Reed's initials, from what I can interpret from reading various articles. I think it was Road & Track that gave it the name of 'Street Roadster', as it fit the initials. And dune buggy, yes, as it's on the shortened pan. My thought is if it were designed solely for street use, a full length version might have been penned. Might be interesting if the Meyers could fill in the gaps here...

Everything I have read about the "puzzle buggy" says the idea was to create a dune buggy that no splash mold makin buggy builder could ever duplicate. It worked no one did.