AutoCult Buckle Dart (1947) (Australia)

About the Original

Goggo Down Under

The Dart was developed in 1957 in Sidney, and was based on the “Goggomobil” micro car that was sold by the famous Australian car dealer, Buckle Motors Pty Ltd. After seeing the surprising success of the Goggomobil in Australia, Bill Buckle, President of Buckle Motors, wanted to offer a sports-oriented and faster version of this mobile for the Australian market. For this purpose, Bill Buckle travelled to Dingolfing and convinced Hans Glas, the senior director, of his idea and got the license to build the Goggomobil as well as the Dart.

The Dart was based on a serial floor assembly with corresponding mechanical components which included the drive unit and gear unit. Everything was imported from Germany to Australia.

The Dart had no doors, had a windshield of acrylic glass, covered headlamps and a soft top, as well as a significant rear fin. It was also equipped with a roll bar and a small luggage compartment in the front of the nose. Because of the left-hand-traffic in Australia, the car was always running as a right-hand-drive.

Just like the sedan version, the small roadster was powered by a rear mounted twin cylinder two stroke motor available in both 300cc and 400cc variants and produced 15hp and 20hp respectively. With its fiberglass car body, a fully assembled Dart weighed only 345kg, and actually offered a much better driving performance than original Goggomobil. The Dart had much better acceleration than the Goggo as well, and it could achieve a maximum speed of 100 or 110 km/h.

The special feature was that there were no visible marks of the Dart’s actual Australian manufacturer. All vehicles like the Dart, the Goggomobil which was produced under license in foreign countries or the most original and independent modified Goggomobil-derivatives, were bearing the manufacturer´s brand – the letter “G”, which stood for the company Glas.

Production lasted until 1961, and there were about 700 Darts produced.