Bucklers!

[Roger Dowding]

An advert by Bucklers NZ - provided by Bob Homewood on another forum ; Unsure what year but the phone number is 6 digits so in the 1970's perhaps ..

[Oldfart]

On the facebook page Dennis Marwood mentions that he bought the company around 1970 for the import licences. Became Performance Developments.
I find it interesting that the body shown in that advert is the English one on the car which Ivy owned, now back in the UK with a de Joux body. (Rivet counter)

[khyndart in CA]

In case you did not catch this on another thread there is some interesting Buckler and Elva information at this site;
(The Kiwi Connection ) prepared by Roger Dunbar.

http://www.elva.com/history/201209-kiwiconnection.php



(Ken Hyndman )

[Oldfart]

On facebook we have been discussing this car. Any further guesses will be interesting. Venue and owner would be good. I'm pretty sure it's Northland Car Club, I have made an educated guess at the ownership, but as usual, could be wrong.

[Roger Dowding]

On facebook we have been discussing this car. Any further guesses will be interesting. Venue and owner would be good. I'm pretty sure it's Northland Car Club, I have made an educated guess at the ownership, but as usual, could be wrong.

Oldfart .. Rhys,I presume that you have posted this on David Montgomery's Facebook page,?? haven't been in to there recently, cheers

[Oldfart]

Yes Roger, it was David who asked me to try to identify it for the new owner in the Netherlands of one of NZ's better 90s.
Yes another gone overseas, nobody in NZ seems to want them.

[Roger Dowding]

Yes Roger, it was David who asked me to try to identify it for the new owner in the Netherlands of one of NZ's better 90s.
Yes another gone overseas, nobody in NZ seems to want them.

Rhys, I went to the Buckler page and you got a lot of comments, sounds like many Classics and Specials, gone overseas !! Cheers

[Paul B]

Yes Roger, it was David who asked me to try to identify it for the new owner in the Netherlands of one of NZ's better 90s.
Yes another gone overseas, nobody in NZ seems to want them.

Hi Guys,
I would like to restore a buckler in the future (if there is a complete-ish one about ) I need to finish my Falcon sprint first.
Cheers

[Oldfart]

PM sent Paul

[Kevin Hirst]

Hi Guys,
I would like to restore a buckler in the future (if there is a complete-ish one about ) I need to finish my Falcon sprint first.
Cheers

Me to,

[Roger Dowding]

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 ??].

Just going through the thread, and now remember the name of the Buckler owner / driver,it was Ian Hallet, who I know competed in Teams races with Bruce Sutcliffe and others .. have seen a photo,which I must now find.
Bart Jonkers now owns one of the Green with Yellow stripes Bucklers, the car having left New Zealand during the year.
This car ;

David Child provided the photo.

one of my own photos, AHCCNZ Hill Climb,mid 1980's [ posted before ].

Unsure which of the events, my photos were from a number of years from 1984/5 on to 1989/90 ..

[BMCBOY]

I took these photos at Chelsea Hillclimb in 2010

[Roger Dowding]

I took these photos at Chelsea Hillclimb in 2010

The Car is now in Europe owned by a guy called Bart Jonkers, only arrived there a few weeks ago !!

[Roger Dowding]

[Paul B]

Roger,
Those bucklers sure do have nice lines. Shame we are loosing these to Europe.
Cheers

[Roger Dowding]

Roger,
Those bucklers sure do have nice lines. Shame we are loosing these to Europe.
Cheers

Yes Indeed Paul, we were talking about that at Chelsea .. the most recent is this one.
Sold to a Bart Jonkers from Netherlands - he posted photos of its arrival in Europe, and has been seeking photos of it in its previous life in NZ

This photo was sent to me - in the background is My TR4A so taken around 1979/80


AHCCNZ Otaua Hill Climb 1985 ish


Just realised posted both these photos previously, and BMC BOY has a few of the car at Chelsea in 2010..

[Roger Dowding]

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

Just re-read this and the mention of the "Blue Brick ", here is a Graham Main photo of the car with others, looks like the Bruce Sutcliffe [ ex Ivy Stevenson ] DD2 and Ian Hallet's yellow car. date of photo not known .. but Rhys and others may know. borrowed from the Facebook page " Buckler Cars and Karts " as they borrow my photos too !! Kelvin Brown posted the photo..



another Pic of the Ian Hallet car I think ?? jim Short photo ..

[Milan Fistonic]

Bruce Sutcliffe in the 'Blue Brick' at Whenuapai in 1984

[Roger Dowding]

1956 at Wigram, Jim Boyd in the Buckler MK 6 behind the Allard Palm Beach with TR3 and Healey 100 close by.
Start of the Sports Car Race, Jim also ran in the Lady Wigram Trophy race



the same Buckler at Wigram in 2018

[Oldfart]

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