Bill Buckle winning in the Buckle Coupe at Gnoo Blas near Orange in 1959. Image: Bucklecoupe.com.au
The automotive world has been saddened by the passing of Bill Buckle on May 9 at the age of 96. He was a manufacturer, racer and automotive figure in Australia. Buckle was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australian in 2014.
Buckle started in the family’s growing automotive dealership after the death of his father in 1947. The dealership thrived with the new post-war brands such as Armstrong-Siddeley, Borgward, Goliath, DeSoto and Citroën.
With a spare parts department, Buckle moved into service and then sales. That led to an interest in motor sport, and he had many successes at Mount Druitt and Bathurst.
His interest and attendances at overseas Grand Prix and club events led to the creation of the Buckle Coupe and local adaptation of the Goggomobil.
The Zephyr-powered Buckle Coupe, which the then 29-year-old launched in the mid-50s, was not a great commercial success. The engine was bored to 3.0 litres and fitted a Raymond Mays head. Overdrive was fitted to the standard three-speed gearbox. It was a great lightweight race car and often beat the better-known brands.
Bill Buckle in Bathurst, New South Wales, where he’d delivered a Buckle Coupe to customer Frank Bloomfield circa 1958. Image: Bucklecoupe.com.au
The Buckle Coupe proved enormously successful with him and several other drivers. It had GT Class hillclimb records and many circuit lap records including Bathurst, Gnoo Blas, Catalina Park, Sandown and Lowood.
The Goggomobil variants were more successful, but the make ultimately lost its marketplace to the BMC Mini which then prompted Buckle to produce a fastback version of the British car which was called the Mini Monaco.
Buckle raced four times in the endurance race at Bathurst, firstly with Brian Foley in a Citroen for a tenth outright in 1964. He returned for the next three years in Toyota Corollas with Neil McKay, Alan Mottram and Dick Thurston respectively.
Retiring from racing, Buckle backed future Bathurst winner Bob Morris on his debut in 1968. Morris went on to win the Great Race in 1976 with Englishman John Fitzpatrick and won the 1979 Australian Touring Car Championship as a privateer, fending of Peter Brock and the Holden Dealer Team.
Buckle was also prominent in the world of yachting, for which in 2015 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award through Sailing Australia.