The Roaring Season

Oldfart wrote:Well, there was a suggestion of a Buckler thread, so here goes.
It is necessary that readers remember that while I owned one “in the day” I did not actively compete, and all of what I submit is second hand.
I am very much indebted to Kelvin Brown and Bruce Sutcliffe who have been instrumental in perpetuating the appeal of the marque. Without their efforts Bucklers would have faded into oblivion in New Zealand as just “funny old cars which the old guys played with”. In the UK there is an equally prolific researcher Brian Malin and I will be pinching plenty of his stuff (with approval)

Buckler is actually very specific. It has nothing whatever to do with body styles, although the archetypal NZ Buckler 90 is clad most times with a de Joux fibreglass body. These bodies also appear on a number of other cars which are not Bucklers. In the day it was very desirable to call your Ford 10 special a Buckler, possibly like calling your Falcon GT an HO.

Buckler was a chassis and front suspension system. It’s pretty much as simple as that. They were one of the first, if not the first, manufacturers of production multi-tube frames for the masses. They were a sort of kit car manufacturer in the 50s, although of course their first chassis were produced in reasonable numbers prior to 1950.

The name comes from Derek Buckler. His base was in the area around Reading in the UK, indeed many publications refer to "Bucklers of Reading". His vision of producing a sports car began in 1945. He had well established criteria that never changed. It must be universal (be able to be used in all events from mud plug trials through to circuit racing” cheap, reliable, have excellent road holding, good acceleration and be fuel efficient. Later on he realised as did almost everyone else, that designs needed to be more specialised.

He was not happy with conventional, for the time, ladder chassis. His background in the aircraft industry led him to what he called “Multi tube frames”. Whilst not a true space frame, they are close. The English produced frames were manufactured from Chrome Moly tube of 1” and 1 5/8”tube, these sizes stayed from the first until the last cars! The use of this tube has contributed to the high survival rate, and professional restorers almost inevitably comment on the high quality of construction

Oldfart wrote:Boydie had the other (first Mark 5) not what is now known as the Blue Brick. He may have driven the brick, but owned the other. When he did the South Island tour he had the tent in the hatch in front of the screen, and wife and son with him in the car. Originally there were 2 Mk 5/6 in NZ, another brought in by Graham Brayshaw more recently. The white one is now with Mike Endean, the brick with Kelvin Brown

Roger Dowding wrote:Rhys, when are you going to write a book about Bucklers, thanks for all your, as Ken H puts it, " inputs " - he has been living in the USA for too long.
You may have seen a couple of photo's posted by Bart Jonkers who has the Green /Yellow NZ Car of another Buckler at Dunedin in 1962.. Graham Woods followed up the photo's with entry lists for the car in 1962, seems to have done all the South Island meetings.

Will post them here soon ..

khyndart in CA wrote:Rhys,
Besides your connections to Matamata and Morrinsville, I see you mentioned being at Dunsandel, where my cousin Jack Mackie lives, did you know him ? He is one of my favorite relatives.

(Ken Hyndman )

Roger Dowding wrote:Car Registration papers for a Buckler .. seems to be a name we all know !! Cheers

No doubt "someone "can tell us more about the car ??

[ATTACH=CONFIG]51862[/ATTACH]

A South Island car through the period -

Oldfart wrote:Well, as you can see from this I do know a bit about the car! It is now superbly restored, back to the red colour it was in it's early days. Known as 90/3 (NZ id numbers arbitrarily assigned).With the Garmey family.
From my own knowledge this proves to me that NZ "official" records are not always right as there is at least one missing owner, if not more

Roger Dowding wrote:Car Registration papers for a Buckler .. seems to be a name we all know !! Cheers

No doubt "someone "can tell us more about the car ??

[ATTACH=CONFIG]51862[/ATTACH]

A South Island car through the period -

Roger Dowding wrote:Interesting stuff, thanks BMC BOY for the photos, question, who is in the Car - dark body white stripe and Roundel for the race number, the Gent has a beard, from a 1982 TACCOC sprint, ??, From memory he was quite an authority on Bucklers like Bruce Sutcliffe, and a member of the Waitemata branch of the Vintage Car Club, that ran Chelsea and other sprints / hillclimbs. ( Lyle Chambers, who had a 1930's BSA front wheel drive [ 4 wheel ] special - with a side valve Ford 10 engine in place of the four cylinder BSA, new him well. the said BSA was run at a Pukekohe sprint with owner Lyle driving and myself been given time to do a few laps too The BSA could hit about 80 mph on the back straight at Pukekohe [ pre-chicanes ] ). Also remember the Glendene Sprints, [ as pictured earlier ] where the Bucklers were and Peter Bruin's, beautiful Lotus 11 sports [ where is that car now ??].

Oldfart wrote:Wait until you hear what events he really bought it to take part in!

Bruce Sutcliffe, "Mr Buckler NZ" is not too flash in the health department right now.