Extremely rare German-Australian sports car is one of the smallest ever made worldwide

Cars seem to be getting bigger and bigger in the modern era, but back in the 1950s, the German-Australian Goggomobil Dart made a claim to be one of the smallest sports cars ever made, and it became quite an icon.

Thanks to an industry-wide effort to make SUVs more affordable in the modern-day era, many of our roads are dominated by huge vehicles.

Spotting a little nippy sports car is a rarity, unless it’s a Fiat 500.

But setting up a generation of funky and sassy vehicles was the Goggomobil Dart, and it deserves its page in the automotive history books.

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The Goggomobil Dart was an icon as one of the smallest sports cars ever

Some of the smallest sports cars in the world are made with the sole purpose of being a tiny gimmick.

Take the Peel P50, for example. It’s worth more than some supercars, but it is solely made to land itself in the Guinness World Records.

But to be road-legal, affordable, and perform its duty as a daily driver, this German-Australian Goggomobil Dart was way ahead of its time.

Made by Buckle Motors Pty Ltd in Sydney, Bill Buckle made the famous car by taking advantage of fiberglass to create a tiny bodywork on a sports car chassis, and slipping in a 400cc engine.

Capable of 53mph, and weighing just 761lbs, the Goggombil Dart was a fun and savvy car that even featured in multiple ad campaigns throughout Australia.

Namely, the Yellow Pages championed the smallest sports car quip in an advert, while a film in 2019 showcased an Australian artist using one as a canvas for the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival.

Where are they now?

Only around 700 of these cars were made by Buckle Motors, which produced them by hand between 1958 and 1961, and only a handful of them remain in use.

One particular Goggomobil Dart is housed at the Klairmont Kollections Museum in Chicago, which could be the only one on American soil.

Nowadays, the smallest sports cars on the road are EVs, but calling some of them sporty would be generous. Even calling them cars is quite the kindness.

Still, microcars are all the rage in Europe and Asia, and it’s a nice change from watching the shadows on the road grow bigger and bigger.

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