Forgotten Cars of Australia: The Goggomobil Dart

Buoyed by the acclaim for his Buckle GT sports car, Bill Buckle, an automotive engineer and car dealer from Sydney’s northern beaches, formed a bold plan to partner with Germany’s Hans Glass GmbH’s Goggomobil to manufacture a unique compact car.

The late 1950s timing was perfect as Australian buyers had just been introduced to the Mini Cooper, Fiat 500 and Glas Goggomobil 250.

Mr Buckle looked to manufacture his own Goggomobil and travelled to the company’s headquarters in Dingolfling, Bavaria to negotiate a deal which would see parts exported to Australian shores.

The plan was to tap his company’s expertise in designing and building fibreglass bodies and attach the local product to a chassis, engine and running gear exported from Germany.

A small number of complete Goggomobil coupes were shipped to Australia so Buckle’s team could create accurate fibreglass moulds.

Thus was born the Goggomobil Dart, a two seater with no doors and styled not unlike the pedal cars popular with children of that era. Doors were introduced some time later.

Only 3.0m long and 1.3m wide, and weighing only 345kg, the Dart was not much bigger than the aforementioned pedal cars.

Engines were also tiny. The initial 0.3l two-cylinder two-stroke powerplant was later joined by a larger and more powerful 0.4l version. Both were mounted in the rear drove the rear wheels.

Outputs were 11kW and 14kW which was sufficient to provide a somewhat frightening top speed of 100km/h.

In more recent times, many Australians got to know the Goggomobil brand thanks to starring roles in prominent television commercials.

First there was a campaign for the Yellow Pages which ran extensively in the 1990s.
And some time later, the locally-made Goggomobil Dart starred in an advertisement for Shannons Insurance.

Later, diversification extended to a Goggomobil commercial vehicle called the Carryall which rode on the same underpinnings of the Dart. As the name suggests, the Carryall was a transporter, with a load area accessed via a single sliding door on the side.

Over three years ending in 1961, Bill Buckle and his team produced 700 Goggomobil Darts before turning their engineering and production talents to right-hand-drive conversions for American vehicles.

As for the Dart, sources suggest that there may only be 50 units left in existence today.