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BUCKLERS LEAD - OTHERS FOLLOW |
  
 Picture,
courtesy of Peter Hilton's archive (many thanks to Peter
Silverthorne)
DD2. supercharged Ford 1172 c.c. with Elva ohiv cylinder
head. The photo was taken in 1962. I was about to race
the following weekend at Silverstone. The photo was
taken at my home in Peasemore. The man standing behind
it (and his car - Ford Popular further behind) was known
to us affectionately as "Simmy". He was a retired RAF
engineer and worked in my father's miniature steam
railway company that had its workshops at the farm.
Creighton Brown
Creighton Brown has been found - though he claims he was
never lost- To cut a long story short... As I was
pushing my PMO528 down the road, a neighbour walking
past recognised the car and told me about her cousin
Creighton. I shot off a quick email to him and now have
a series of errors to correct in the Archive pages. Many
apologies Creighton.
The moral of this story... Get YOUR Buckler out and
about !!
Here follows an extract from his reply
Dear Simon,
What a small world it is! I had been hoping for ages to
catch up with some of the old Buckler owners and news,
but really didn't know where to start.... So my cousin
Ursula's unexpected encounter with you really was a
miracle, and she deserves a medal for instantly
recognising a Buckler after all these years!
I built my DD2 in 1960, just after leaving the army,
where I did national service (in Somalia of all places),
and before I started a "proper job". The car started off
with a Ford E93A 1172 c.c. engine with an Elva o.h.i.v.
conversion. I fitted a Shorrock supercharger to it,
shaft-driven off the front of the crank-shaft. It went
like stink, and was quite reliable. The body was Mistral
glass-fibre.
I used to run the car on the road during the week, and
raced it at weekends! My first race was at Goodwood. I
demolished 50 yards of wattle fencing in practise, but
made the starting grid with a hastily applied Halfords
glassfibre patch-up kit holding the bodywork
together....My second race was at Silverstone, where an
oil pipe fractured and spewed oil all over the exhaust
system, creating a huge plume of smoke as I came bombing
into Woodcote corner, where my parents were watching in
the grandstand. My mother fainted and never came to
watch me again....The car was really quite competitive ,
'though I didn't win any races, the best result being
2nd and fastest lap at Mallory Park in 1962 in an
unlimited sports car race, but I had huge fun and
learned a lot.
Subsequently I acquired a steady girlfriend and ran out
of money to race with, so I sold the supercharged engine
and fitted a 1500 c.c. 116E Ford with twin 40DCOE Webers
in its place. This made the car far more appropriate for
normal road use, and it was very quick indeed. I fitted
a proper windscreen and hood, with detachable plastic
side windows. With the hood up, to get in and out of the
car you had to climb through the window, because there
was no door.... My girlfriend wasn't particularly amused
by these antics.
I finally sold the car - I can't even remember to whom,
but I lost touch and have no idea what became of it.
My brother Richard had another Buckler - the famous MOR
456 (I think that was the number). This car handled like
a dream and was super quick, being very lightweight.
Previously it had belonged to a good friend of mine
David Harrison, who used to race with me in the same
team - two Bucklers together. David's future wife Sue
subsequently became my long-suffering secretary for over
30 years.
Having endured about 5 years without racing I eventually
bought a Buckler Class IV Super kart - the ex Jack
Barlow machine. Richard and I then went on to build our
own Ardmore karts for 3-4 years, before getting back
into cars again. We started off with Mallock Clubmans
Supersports cars. I subsequently won three Championships
and Richard went speed hill-climbing, winning countless
awards and holding at one time every sports car hill
record in Britain. He also held the outright record at
Shelsley Walsh (Pilbeam DFR) for no less than 8 years.
In the mid '70's I got involved in running a
professional Formula 2 team, and then became a director
of the McLaren Formula 1 team for 9 years during the
1980's. In 1990 I set up McLaren Cars Ltd with Gordon
Murray, producing the revolutionary McLaren F1 road car.
Now I live in Santa Catarina, Brazil, where I am
involved in building a new high performance sports car
factory and a 4.5 km international race circuit.
Our memories of Bucklers are as strong as ever. The cars
were years ahead of their time and the first genuine
spaceframe cars with serious torsional stiffness. I
remember your grandfather Derek very well - an amazing
man.
Very best regards,
Creighton
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