Legendary innovator
Pioneering racer and automotive industry figure WF ‘Bill’ Buckle OAM passed away on May 9, 2023, aged 96.
Above: Buckle and two of his coupes, Bathurst NSW. (Pic courtesy of bucklecoupe.com.au)
Buckle was perhaps best known for the Buckle Coupe and local adaptation of the Goggomobil microcar series. He was also a successful car retailer.
Above: Buckle Coupes under construction in the 1950s.
While the innovative Buckle sports car was not a great commercial success, it proved to be spectacularly good on the track, often beating far more established marques.
The inspiration for the Buckle Coupe came from his international travels. According to our David Berthon feature: “Spending the best part of 1952-53 overseas gave Buckle plenty of time to look at emerging trends in the automotive industry. ‘I saw some new fibreglass-bodied sports cars at the Earl’s Court Motor Show in 1953. They were a bit crude and I thought: Hell, I can do better than that,’ he recalls.“
Above: The Buckle Coupe prototype on the cover of Wheels magazine, October 1955.
Ford Zephyr-powered and launched to great fanfare in 1955-56, the car in the end sold only 20 units of which 16 ended up on the track. Many years later, Buckle was to recover and restore two examples.
Above: The Goggomobil Dart became ultra-famous years after production ceased, through a Shannons Insurance ad campaign. (Pic courtesy of Shannons)
The locally-produced Goggomobil was more of a success, selling 5000 units. However it soon saw its market taken over by the BMC Mini. According to Buckle, the little Brit “killed off the Goggo project overnight”.
Buckle was awarded the OAM in 2014. He was also prominent in the world of yachting, for which in 2015 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award through Sailing Australia.
No doubt he’ll be sorely missed…
See our Buckle Coupe feature, which raises some great anecdotes.