I submit the following to the list from Maclolm Buckler, which came to me
through the Vintage Race web pages. - if any of you have, of know of any of
these cars you may want to get in touoch with hem at the address below.
Roger
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
From: "MALCOLM BUCKLER"
<MALCOLMBUCKLER@manxland.freeserve.co.uk>
Subject: More on Bucklers
Date sent: Sat, 27 Feb 1999 17:29:00 -0000
Greetings again from my home in The Isle of Man, British Isles. ( a
country independent from the U.K.)
As I said in my last note, my late father designed and built the Buckler
range of mostly road going competition cars during the 1950's. His main
speciality was the design of multi-tubular space frame chassis and he was
marketing these before the big names in motor sport started to use them.
They were produced in Reading and Crowthorne, Berkshire, England. In
keeping with British austerity and the high taxation of British fuel,
these cars were generally of very small engine capacity but were also very
light and had good roadholding.
I may have told you that there was reputed to be an agent in N.Y. but I
have not been able to confirm this from my archive search today. Certainly
there were 2 agents in Canada : Autosport Equipment Co. Cooksville, Ont.
and Dublin Service, New Westminster, B.C. Maybe the one or two Bucklers in
the U.S. came over the border.
I never seen to be able to maintain contact by post with folks Stateside.
Maybe someone on route collects Manx stamps! Anyway back in the 70's and
80's I did receive some detail of 2 Bucklers in the States. One was a Mark
10 owned by Woody Crawley,6067 West Valley View, Mentor, Ohio 44060
and
the other was a Mark 5MM ( very likely imported from Canada) owned by Tom
Churchill, 390 Orton Rd., Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387.
About 400 Bucklers were made, mostly in component form.
The Ford Ten saloon car provided the basic running components for the
first range of Bucklers and Colin Chapman did likewise for the early Lotus
cars. In fact Bucklers used to provide all the close-ratio gearboxes for
Lotus in those days. My father and Colin Chapman plus one or two others
got together and founded the 1172 Formula to race all similar cars and
this was very popular and competitive throughout the 50's. Buckler and
Lotus were great rivals. The Lotus was a bit lighter ( my father
considered them dangerously under engineered ) but often they would have
breakages before the finish line. The Buckler chassis never broke and most
have lived to this day.
The same cars often took their owners to work and I know of one regularly
raced at Goodwood, that was used between races to carry goods around a
farm. This was the way life was after the war when people, who wanted to
do motor sport could not afford a second car. The early Bucklers were very
good ( and still are) in off road trials and there was also a model ( type
53 ) specially designed for trials. A lot of these motor sports may be
particular to England so forgive me. Hill Climbing is also very popular in
England but easily confused with trials. By Hill Climbing, I mean Speed
Hill Climbing on very twisting steep smooth tarmac hills, usually only 1
or 2 miles long or less, so that they are really hill sprints with sharp
bends. Many of the racing Bucklers were also used in these Hill Climbs,
with suitably low gearing.
Buckler Cars were really designed for the keen motor sport amateur and
they were more of a competition car than a road going sports car. However
almost all of them were registered for the road.
Also, for their time they were always leading car design. My father was
always trying to get the best power to weight ratio combined with the best
sprung to unsprung weight ratio ( not easy with a light car.) A Buckler
was the first car in Europe to be fitted with a glass fibre body. A
Buckler won the Mobil Economy Rally twice, once at over 90 miles for each
gallon of fuel ( 108 miles per American gallon), over a 1000 mile hilly
course, having to average not less than 30 miles per hour.
Bucklers designed some cars to special order. One was a Hill Climb Special
called the " Jaguara" raced by a man called Gordon-Parker. He won the
English championship with it. It had a Jaguar 3.4 litre engine with two
superchargers. Another was made specially to suit a Salmson 1.5 litre
engine and one to accept a Lincoln V12 engine !
All cars were built to order and to suit each customer, so it is hard to
find two Bucklers exactly the same although the chassis is the hallmark of
the Buckler and the only sure way to identify one.
A few single seaters were made and a space frame chassis was made for a
sports three wheeler but we have never found it. Bucklers made the first 4
or 5 Brabham space frames.
I think I have given you enough information for now. I have no idea ( or
time ) to make my own Website but would like to have some links to my
address.
The picture I sent last time is me in about 1991, road racing in the Manx
Classic. My car was a 1959 Buckler DD2 with a Ford pushrod 1500cc
engine.
This car did 0-60mph in 6.9seconds ( standing1 /4 mile 13.9 secs ) with a
top speed of about 110mph, or with road gearing120mph. The car weight
11.5
cwt. was lighter than a Mk1 Mini but had 140 horse power. The acceleration
was instant. I managed to beat all modern 1500cc cars in one event and
break the alcomers class record. Most other cars were on racing slick
tyres but I was using road tyres. Many cars arrived on a trailer but I
drove mine to the event.
Bucklers also made Karts and came second in the Class 4 world
championship
in the early 1960's.
For more information try and borrow " The Complete Catalogue of British
Cars" published by Horrobin.
I do not have the time or expertise to produce my own website but I would
like to achieve some links to my address here, entirely to provide free
infomation. For people who have a Buckler ( or used to compete in one )
we have a good club with over 100 Buckler owners and a regular newsletter.
Hope you can help to spread the word about this little known make.
Sincerely Malcolm Buckler.
MALCOLMBUCKLER@manxland.freeserve.co.uk
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