Forgotten cars of Australia: The Buckle GT

One man with a passion for motorsport overcame the odds to create one of Australia's first ever sports cars during the austere post-war period of the 1950s.

A revhead with a massive love for motorsport – especially F1 – Bill Buckle was the man behind this largely unknown two-seat coupe.

Buckle Motors was established back in 1927 by Bill's father, William "Bill" Buckle Senior, who sold Triumph and Talbot cars through his dealership in Sydney. When he passed away in 1947, Bill Junior took over the business while he was in the process of drawing up plans for his sports car.

What sparked Bill's desire to build such a vehicle was seeing contemporary English-built Fibreglass specials, which he thought were a bit rubbish. He returned to Australia from one trip to the UK thinking that he could do better.

With the help of an unknown mechanic and designer (at the time) Ron Tauranac, who later became the man behind Sir Jack Brabham's Formula 1 racers, the company had a prototype roadster completed in 1955.

Two years later in June of 1957 the first Buckle GT had been produced – and it was a thing of beauty. The production model featured a hardtop roof over the prototype; the fibreglass body was a real work of art and its lightweight construction resulted in a slender kerb mass of 864kg. Styling of the front end seemed to have been inspired by the AC Ace, which would later become the V8 Cobra, but with a narrower oval grille flanked by the two circular headlights.

Under the skin most of the Buckle's components were sourced from Ford as they were willing to sell them parts, unlike Holden. This included the brakes, steering, rear axle, three speed gearbox and 2.5 litre straight six engine, all which were shared with the Ford Zephyr.

The engine underwent slight modifications to help add to the performance. A high-compression cylinder head and triple carburettors improved power figures, for a quarter-mile (400m) time of 17 seconds and a top speed of 160km/h, both of which were very respectable for that era.

Bill Buckle went further to prove the sporting credentials of his car by racing one for three years in the early 1960's. The lightweight coupe performed well, claiming Bill a number of victories. The race car excelled at hill climb events where the Buckle held every lap record for the GT class at the East Coast circuits. Dick Newell piloting a Buckle GT also took out top honours in the 63 NSW GT Championship.

Production lasted until 1959, with only 25 cars being built. Of those 16 were raced. After production wrapped up, Bill Buckle looked for a new business venture and settled on the Goggomobil Dart.

Pictures courtesy of Wikimedia Commons