  
Buckler Mk. XVII
Peter White's Buckler in 2003 during it's
first race for many years
This car has been restored to a very high
standard by Peter White.
Extracts of emails from the owner, Peter
White
I am nearing the end of restoring what was a
Mk XV11 Buckler Chassis #X90974). Previous
owners had started the restoration with the
quality varying. I have started again from
scratch with the restoration now near
completion. About 1975, I believe, the
vehicle was shortened by about 8 to 9 inches
the existing front end was replaced by a DD2
front end fabricated by Dewar Thomas ( Bruce
Mclarens chassis builder) with Bruce
Sutcliffe's help. The geometry appears to be
very accurate. The original Ashley body was
damaged and a locally made de Joux DD2 body
was to be fitted but up until I bought the
car had not been. I am interested in the DD2
rear axle you have for sale as I am building
the car up primarily for classic motor
racing. The vehicle is running tuned 1600cc
Sunbeam Rapier motor and Rapier
transmission/rear axle.
Subject: RE: Buckler Mk. XVII
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2001 17:08:41 -0700
Malcolm. Kelvin Brown's book "The Kiwi
Connection; Buckler Sports Cars And Their
Competition ....etc" probably has as much
history as I know ... although some detail
isn't quite as I understand it.
In brief the car is a Mark 17 the local
motorsport log book has it as built in 1959
although the first owner was listed as D
McDonald in 1958. It was originally a 2 plus
2 seater with an Ashley body on it.
I understand that it was built by an RAF
engineer together with his apprentices in
the UK, as a road car with MGA front
suspension and motor. The owner immigrated
to NZ. The car was in an accident in NZ ...
Bruce Sutcliffe found it in a sad state some
years later and bought it off the Taxi
Driver owner approx 20 years ago.. Dewar
Thomas ( who built chassis's
for Bruce Mclaren) shorten the car by about
200 mm and replaced the MGA suspension with
DD2 front suspension. This was done on a DD2
jig that Bruce had access to... I have
measured the front steering/suspension
geometry it
it seems pretty good. . I am not sure
whether Bruce owned the car at this stage or
a later owner... Richard Anderson.. but I
have pictures of these alterations being
made to the chassis with Bruce in the
photographs.
The Ashley body was removed and replaced
with a locally made de Joux body which many
local DD2's have although this was never
mounted on the car.
The car passed through several hands after
Bruce, including Richard Anderson who
installed a Sunbeam Rapier drive train. It
was then on sold to Ian Hallet in Auckland
and then Colin Barnett of Geraldine.
I bought the car off Colin late in 1999 as a
rolling chassis with the body shell sitting
on it. Because the vehicle had sat for so
long being "rebuilt" virtually everything
needed revisiting + some of the workmanship
was not to my standard. The front suspension
was in good order except I had to play
around with shockie mounts and fabricate an
anti-sway bar. I rebuilt the rear suspension
with new coil-over-shockies, trailing arms
and panhard rod all now rose jointed). I
rebuilt/renewed, the brakes system, the
motor and gearbox, and ancillaries including
profiling the head to Holbay specs and
rebuilding /rejetting the Webber carbs/
altering the inlet manifold and designing
building an exhaust system that hopefully
will add horse power. I have fabricated
aluminium bulkheads, inner guards, inner
body work, dashboard and seats etc and I am
in the process of bonding the body to the
aluminium sub-structure. Aside from that....
the vehicle needs wiring and painting. As I
believe I said in an earlier e-mail I have
been distracted by building up a Peugeot 205
Gti as a rally car for the Targa NZ later
this year... but I am now managing to get a
little more time on the Buckler. Hope
to have the Buckler racing in historical
events this Summer.
Regards
Peter White
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