1959 Goggomobil Dart Roadster

The Goggomobil-Buckle Dart was the creation of Australian Bill Buckle. When Bill's father (Bill Buckle Sr.) passed away in the late 1940s, he took over the family business of operating a successful group of automobile dealerships in the Sydney area. He soon decided that his country needed a small, economical delivery van and a small, economical sports car. Since Protectionist tax laws of the era precluded importing anything complete of that sort from Europe, Buckle worked with a Bavarian micro-car and mini-truck maker Hans Glas to purchase a quantity of Glas' Goggomobil chassis. They were delivered without bodies, thus complying with the law. Buckle designed a fiberglass-shelled van, which was met with little success, and an open two-seater which was. The roadster had an upper and lower shell joined at the beltline. Inside, there was just a single round instrument containing a speedometer and warning lamps. Power was from Goggomobil's rear-mounted air-cooled 400cc twin. The 20-horsepower engine was capable of carrying the small car to 60 mph, nearly 10 mph faster than a standard Goggomobile coupe.

Buckle named this microcar the 'Dart' and approximately 700 examples were built between June of 1969 and September of 1961.

This example was purchased by its current caretaker in late 2009 from Alan Baitcher at the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum in Madison, Georgia. It is one of just 30 known survivors of the 700 constructed. It has just 35,462 miles recorded.

By Daniel Vaughan | Apr 2017