60 years ago a clever small sports car arrived on the local scene  – the Goggomobil Dart the brain child of Bill Buckle, a race driver and car dealer who had gone to the German company’s Hans Glas factory in Dingolfing, Germany in 1958 with a rather ingenious deal. Having earlier built the good-looking Ford Zephyr powered Buckle Coupe Buckle had become proficient in fiberglass production. With Australia’s stiff tariffs on complete cars he arranged with Goggomobil  to supply their cars in ckd or completely knocked down form. He then replicated the steel bodies locally in fiberglass. The sedan and coupes came first then the sports Dart from 1959 – a doorless monocoque design weighing just 380Kg. Power came from a rear-mounted 2-cylinder 300cc. You may remember the Yellow Pages and Shannon’s commercials with actor Tommy Dysart with his broad accent charactersing the name Goggo. Still alive today as is Bill Buckle, a personal friend who today at 94 is still as innovative as ever – an early electric car adopter with a large Model 80 Tesla customer, recently adding the small Tesla 3

I’m David Berthon.

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