POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Notes

Bill Buckle, a Sydney car dealer, designed and built the fibreglass body of this Goggomobil. The German Goggomobil company offered an attractive combination of chassis and mechanical components for Buckle's project, and these were imported. From the end of the Second World War until about 1960 there were a number of motor vehicle manufacturers operating in Australia. Most of them built sports cars, or other vehicles ranging from amphibious to four-wheel drive vehicles, which did not have a major share of the market. Few produced more than 100 vehicles and even fewer were profitable. One exception was the Sydney motor vehicle dealer, Bill Buckle. Buckle went into the automotive business at the age of 19 when he joined the service department of his late father's firm, Buckle Motors, in William Street, Sydney. He was a fitter and turner apprentice at the time. After a trip to England, where Buckle saw what the British were doing with fibreglass cars, he returned to Australia with the idea that he could do better. In 1955 Buckle designed and built a luxuriously appointed, 2.6-litre, six-cylinder GT Sports Coupe on a Ford Zephyr chassis with a body shell formed from fibreglass. About twenty-four of these vehicles were made. It was said they went faster than Austin Healeys, Bristols, Jaguars and Aston Martins. Buckle Motors sold expensive car makes at that time so there was a need for more cost effective vehicles in the range. In 1959, Buckle began selling a range of motor cars made under licence from Goggomobil in Germany. He secured the rights from Hans Glas in Bavaria and using the imported chassis, engine and running gear from Germany (to reduce import duty taxes which protected the local Australian car industry) Buckle added his own fibreglass body shells to his Goggomobils. The Australian "Modern Motor" magazine in its December 1958 road test concluded "A combination of several factors gives the Goggo its amazing manoeuvrability in local traffic - its tiny size, tight turning circle afforded by small wheels and more direct steering ratio, snappy gearbox and nippy acceleration". The sedan's initial success encouraged Buckle to produce a coupe version of the Goggo with a more fashionable body. A range of Goggomobils unique in Australia was subsequently produced. These comprised a sedan, a coupe cabriolet, a "Carryall" van and the "Dart" convertible. The Dart, a two seater design without doors, was the most stylistically advanced of the range. The fibreglass bodies were lightweight and fairly resistant to dents. The "Dart" was introduced in June 1959. The Dart body shape was low to the ground and streamlined. It showed the influence of such cars a Pininfarina's Cisitalia 202 GT coupe of 1947 from Italy and the Jaguar XK 120, a two seater of 1950 from the United Kingdom. Both of these cars influenced the styling of racing coupes of the 1950s. Of the 5000 Goggomobils built, 700 were fitted with the Dart two-seater body. Of the 700 only about 50 Darts are thought to have survived.