The best thing about small under powered cars is being able to drive it like a maniac, giving it 100% and having the Police smile and wave as you go past doing 35 mph.
my 1.0L geo metro is a giggle machine. i can "cane the nipples off it" just driving around town. my proudest moments were 1. almost putting a caddy seville sts in someone's front yard when he tried to pass me in some s curves and 2. when i took a vette off the line at a stoplight twice (ok, the first time i ambushed him, the second time i did start moving first and he passed me within 20 feet. i love that little pos. i've owned it over15 year and have less invested in it than that vette owner spent on his wheels and tires.
I should have known Steve had a Berkeley in his collection! I love it how Steve uses British terminology like, bonnet, boot, and petro while showing his cars.
Biggles WADE not wahhd! The ultimate Berkeley is the T60 with a tuned Mini-Metro 1300 grafted in. OK you also need a motorsports chassis, but the end result has to be even more fun than a Frogeye Sprite. I've had both. Still have the T60, it's nearly finished....oh yeah, the T60 has one rear wheel, an 8 by 13" rim. Fronts are 4.5".
When you started it up, all I could think of listening to the engine was: If you ever drive down the road and encounter a downed tree blocking it, you can just take the chainsaw out of the engine bay and take care of that tree! 😜
I was born in 1952, and by the 60's began to buy books and magazines about cars. These cars were of course, from England, but other than in books, I have never seen a Berkeley, so we'll done for showing it! And I think you're right, they must have GOT the idea for the Cobra from this! The two pictured together makes up the set@
I wish you was here in England ! Your knowledge enthusiasm and hands on skills is remarkable. You own and have in-depth knowledge of so many British cars that even some English people would not know about. I salute you sir. You are an astounding guy. Best wishes Dave.
Age the ripe old age of 16 in 1971, this was my second car here in the UK. My first was a Heinkel Trojan bubble car, also a 3-wheeler as my licence entitlement at 16 included motorcycles 250cc and under. If you sat & passed your motorcycle test, your entitlement then included unlimited size of motorcycles plus 3-wheeler cars (unsupervised). It did mean that on my 17th birthday, I had to revert to a provisional car licence and a supervisor in order to drive my Ford Anglia to the test centre in the afternoon where I passed my car test & could drive any type of 4-wheel car just like I'd been doing for the previous year with 3-wheelers.🤣 I loved my 2-stroke Berkeley although one evening, the left front wheel fell off at 50mph due to the split (cotter) pin having somehow dislodged from the hub nut which consequently unscrewed (I was lucky to retrieve it). It was a ¼ mile embarrassing walk to retrieve the wheel which had happily bounced on its merry way whilst the car came to a grinding 45º halt though. Happy days.
Long ago, when I was a teenager, I put a deposit down on a 2 stroke Berkeley three wheeler. Belatedly, I got my Dad to look at it, he pointed out that turning the steering wheel moved the engine but not the front wheels, I was convinced this repair was beyond me and to the guys credit, he gave me my deposit back!
@@robertcross1441 I appreciate how the Bonds engine swings round to steer but the Berkeley I saw had a sub-frame that had largely removed itself from the fibreglass shell, turning the wheel moved everything - though at some stage the slack would be taken up allowing some steering!
I watched this video because I was interested in the Berkeley. Then you climb aboard a SUNBEAM TIGER!!!!! to back it out. I am instantly jealous. I learned to drive in my mum's Hillman Minx Series IIIB, distant cousin of the Tiger. Rootes cars were very well made. The Hillman Minx and Humber Super Snipe and, I think, the Sunbeam Alpine (I'd be surprised if the Tiger wasn't imported already built) were assembled here from CKD kits. Rootes had a factory at Port Melbourne (Australia). You hardly ever see Rootes cars on the road any more, but they were dependable, solid vehicles. Subscribed.
A Cobra looks closer to the Berkeley, than it does an Ace Bristol. lol WOW You've been "burnin' the late night oil" kickin' out All these vids since the Holidays have passed. I For One, Really Appreciate the Effort & Enjoy watching them Immensely. Thank You Very Much Steve.
Little known fact about the 328cc Excelsior two stroke engine is that it is fitted with a SIBA Start combination electric starter and alternator directly on the crankshaft. A design principle I believe BMW are adopting over half a century later. Berkeley also made a two wheels in the front one at the year three wheeler with the same engine ( which I had), a 492cc Excelsior engined four wheeler which had a third cylinder in the centre of the twin 328cc design and a Royal Enfield Constellation motorcycle 700cc twin cylinder four stroke engined four wheeler that I believe was good for over 100 mph. Berkely of Biggleswade, Hertfordshire, England was mainly a caravan manufacturer.
When I was in high school in the sixties my neighbor, a fighter pilot, had one. Let me drive it. Whoa that was fun. When folks were around he loved to nose the Berkeley into a parking spot and get out, lift up the back end, and walk it over parallel to the curb. Excellent, enjoyable video, well edited and educational. Thank you!
Great video.Nice to see all those British cars saved from the scrapyard.The Berkeley is quite nippy and interesting but not an AC Cobra or Sunbeam Tiger.
I saw the Berkeley new, at the dealers in Miami. I was in high school, about 1958. Five years later, my friend had one with a Triumph 650 cc twin. His other car was an Austin Healy with a fuel injected 283 Chevy engine that replaced the original 4 cylinder. ( actually, it may have been a 327 )...
Later the put in a 500cc triple cylinder motor. They were designed by Lawence Bond who also designed the three wheel Bond minicar. My father drove one for several years but the Austin Mini put paid to all such creations.
WOW ! Lovely to see a Berkeley again. A workmate had a (late?) fastback model when I worked with him in the early 80's. I seem to recall his was powered by a Reliant (Regal/Robin) 4 cylinder engine/drive train.
I had the three wheeler. Had a lot of fun in that. I changed the engine for the two stroke triple, Excelsior. Then later for a BMC 1100. They are these days used in VMCC, vintage racing, along with period sidecars.
WOW! thats incredible! Im in the UK and back in 1977 i had a Berkeley three wheeler with this engine, it had no body but was rear engine and drove the single third wheel at the rear.. bought it as a gokart and nearly killed myself several timesas it tipped over so easily, but in a straight line it was incredibly swift...id almost forgotten bout it till i saw this video thanks for the memories Steve..you got an awesome collection of cars there :)
One thing you need to be aware of with older carbureted two stroke engines, is that in the carburetor, air-fuel ratio is a function of fuel viscosity, and with modern high ratio 2- cycle oil, the viscosity is lower and might cause a 'richer' fuel ratio, if the carb has a "hi" needle, it needs to be re-adjusted for the brand and mix ratio of the oil you are using.
Yes. I had the Mk2 Austin Healey Sprite. The one usually rebadged & associated with MG as the Midget. Fantastic car. Fantastic fun. But bloody cramped if you're 6ft tall!
I agree with 4n4. I love watching your videos. I am trying to watch all of them. Thank you for your content and personality you put into your videos. Also, this car is so so cool.
I had a three wheeler version, because of licensing you could drive one on a motorcycle licence, it had a thick glass body but only a bit of steel reinforcing but NO alloy in it. 20; 1 mix before the synthetics were thought of. People also put mini engines in them and all manner of mixes were done.
Back in the 90's a lad in the next unit where I worked now good friends had a 3 wheeler Berkley took me out for a spin what a hoot thought the thing was going to tip over , North East UK.
He could get the head and intake manifolds gas flowed and ported. Had that done a few years ago to my Ford Capri. Guy doing the work said he had done a 2 cylinder 2 stroke that had 22bhp. When he finished it had 38bhp that's a gain of roughly 80% more power.
Love the sound and smell of a two-stroke engine! That Berkeley was also available as a three wheeler. In the 50's and 60's there were many three wheelers around like reliant, bond, trogen, and the bubble cars because the road tax here in the UK was so much cheaper. The Berkeley three wheeler was just like yours only it had a single wheel mounted centrally at the back. Great video, Steve. Love your videos. That Sunbeam Tiger looked beautiful!
Back in the early 80`s a neighbor had a faded fiberglass bodied car that looked just like this but none of us knew what it was. It was just the body minus everything else. Now that I see this I bet this is what it was. I always thought it was so pretty but it was just an empty faded shell. I wish I had bought it. I knew I was missing out but had no clue what I was missing out on.
Fab little car. I remember going to buy a motorcycle petrol from someone in the 70s and they had a similar Berkeley but it had a 3 cylinder 500cc two stroke engine (not sure if it was a villiers or Excelsior). I suspect it was rather quick. Beautiful engineering on that one. Thank you. First one I've seen on the road. Nice video. Well done
"Bedfordshyre" 😂 ...lovely little car 👍 I had a BSA Bantam that I rode in the fields when I was about 13, I remember having to "tickle" the Amal carb on that.
I didn't know Berkeleys were exported to the US until I saw one lurking in a barn on 'American Pickers' a few weeks ago. As well as the four wheelers you could also get a three wheeled version which cost a lot less in road tax in the UK as they were rated the same as a motorcycle and sidecar. Another advantage of the three wheeler, you could drive them at age sixteen instead of seventeen for a four wheeler.
Had to laugh when I saw your video, I had a 3 wheeler version back in lat 60s it had a 250 villiers engine, to start it you had to open the bonnet and kick start it
@Terry Bloomfield Thanks for confirming that there was a three wheel version - I remember seeing one quite often when I was at college in Bristol in the mid-60s. I recall hearing that it was so low that it would drive under the exit barrier of some car parks.
I had the three wheel version!! it had no body and it had been fitted with the 328cc engine exactly the same as the car in the vid, electric dynastart and reverse gear..i had it as a go kart ..it was mental and nearly killed me loads of times! :D :D
I remember these cars very well. I think a friend had one in the sixties. We were kids so insurance and running costs were low. My friend also had a frog eyed Sprite with a half race cam, that thing could go.
Great little car. A friend of mine bought one for peanuts in the 70s and put an RE Constellation engine in it. I'd like to see a BMW K75 engine in there, that would be about right.
When I was in Junior HIgh School in the late 1950's in Palo Alto, CA a neighbor had one of these. Our house was on the outside of a 90 degree bend in the street. The Berkley (pronounced Bark- lee) driver would come home every evening and hug the inside curb of the turn while going about 30 mph, most other vehicles would take the turn at about 15 mph. This was on Janice Way. You could probably use Google Earth to see the bend in the street to understand the situation.
Always liked these back in the sixties, but never able to get one. With our British weather it would have to be a hardtop though! Thanks for the video.
I remember seeing one almost 50 years ago. It was chain drive too right? There was some issue with reverse too. I had forgot the name many years ago but that was it. Sure did enjoy refreshing my memory.
Looks like a Lotus Elan that converged on a Ferrari and an ac cobra. For having a transmission that works like it does in a car with a bike engine is probably my favorite aspect of this car, simplicity and it does what it should do mechanically.
Thanks for this. I will need to dig out my old car magazines from the 50's to find the articles written about the Berkeley. I thought they were interesting, at the time, anyway. Its nice to see one running.
Such a cool and rare little car. I've only ever seen one of them in my life, competing in an autocross event back in the 60s (I think we called them gymkanas or something like that back then). It was doing quite well until something (a backfire?) caused it to burst into flames and it burned to the ground in the parking lot.
Just gotta love those little things ! Though the 2 stroke engine had a HORRIBLE WRAP ( well, for good reasoning I guess 🙄 ). Some EXTREMELY NICE little rides came out with them .
The winter of 1985 my dad and I went to a guy's house here in Ohio to look at a Volvo P1800 in his barn and when we got there we noticed he had 2 SE328's in the barn with the P1800 and I loved them but he would not sell them I wish I could have gotten one they are really neat cars.
I owned one back in the 1970’s. Two of us picked it up and stuffed it in the back of a pickup truck to take it home. I dreamed of replacing the powertrain with a Kawasaki H1 triple.
Quite an unusual car, even after nearly 7 decades living in the UK I'm not sure I've ever seen (or heard) one before, Wiki says that only a few thousand of this model and various other Berkeleys were made between 1956 and 1960. Rather more popular cars of this genre in the UK were the very weird, three-wheeled two-stroke Bond Minicars with about 25,000 produced between 1949 and 1966. We also had a fair number of two-stroke bubble cars on the roads here in the 50s and early 60s, notably the Isetta, the Messerschmitts and the Trojan which all had a similar engine sound to the Berkeley.
I used to have a 3-wheeled T60 version, which had the uprated 520cc 3-cylinder two-stroke engine. It was driveable (in the UK) on a motorcycle licence. Odd you use a flashlight to check your petrol when you have a fuel gauge...
I always wanted one of these when I was young, had seen several at car shows. I settled for a 58 bugeye sprite instead, berkeley's were too scarce even in the sixties. I loved the bugeye though and still have one today.
The best thing about small under powered cars is being able to drive it like a maniac, giving it 100% and having the Police smile and wave as you go past doing 35 mph.
my 1.0L geo metro is a giggle machine. i can "cane the nipples off it" just driving around town. my proudest moments were 1. almost putting a caddy seville sts in someone's front yard when he tried to pass me in some s curves and 2. when i took a vette off the line at a stoplight twice (ok, the first time i ambushed him, the second time i did start moving first and he passed me within 20 feet.
i love that little pos. i've owned it over15 year and have less invested in it than that vette owner spent on his wheels and tires.
@@jessebianchi2631 "cane the nipples off it" where on earth did you get this phrasing? It sounds old and I'm old but I've never heard it.
@@writerconsidered i have no idea where i gathered that bit of wool but it has a Dickensian "feel" to it..
Yeah, I have a blast in slow car with body roll. I get to drive at the limit, and only look "a little quick" compared to traffic.
I love the way the speedo on this thing goes up to 120 MPH.
I should have known Steve had a Berkeley in his collection! I love it how Steve uses British terminology like, bonnet, boot, and petro while showing his cars.
I was thinking about correcting him. You're not British, man! Or is it "old chap"? Just joking though. Love this channel. :-)
Still can’t manage solder though.....
Yes but he does correctly say “Barklee” !
Now if he'd just correct his pronunciation of "shire" to "sheer"! Nice car!
Biggles WADE not wahhd! The ultimate Berkeley is the T60 with a tuned Mini-Metro 1300 grafted in. OK you also need a motorsports chassis, but the end result has to be even more fun than a Frogeye Sprite. I've had both. Still have the T60, it's nearly finished....oh yeah, the T60 has one rear wheel, an 8 by 13" rim. Fronts are 4.5".
The Berkeley reminds me of the Honda S600/800 roadster from the mid-60's.
Maybe it was this car that I confused the Lotus Elan with.
This is becoming my favorite UA-cam channel.
It is great to see the range of vehicles you collect. It also is great to see you are actually involved in maintaining them.
More cars and $$$$ than J. Leno..
When you started it up, all I could think of listening to the engine was: If you ever drive down the road and encounter a downed tree blocking it, you can just take the chainsaw out of the engine bay and take care of that tree! 😜
hmmmmm... the car could BE the chainsaw and nobody would be the wiser, chainsaw blade on the front and pto the thing to the chain
Cute and kinda reminds me of the Crosleys we had back in the 50s . Was an age of innovation driven out of necessity !
Hi Steve. As always great video. I always enjoy hanging out at your shop.
I was born in 1952, and by the 60's began to buy books and magazines about cars. These cars were of course, from England, but other than in books, I have never seen a Berkeley, so we'll done for showing it! And I think you're right, they must have GOT the idea for the Cobra from this! The two pictured together makes up the set@
I wish you was here in England !
Your knowledge enthusiasm and hands on skills is remarkable. You own and have in-depth knowledge of so many British cars that even some English people would not know about. I salute you sir. You are an astounding guy. Best wishes Dave.
Saw the SE328 in the title and thought "Good lord HOW many seasons has this been going on?"
Age the ripe old age of 16 in 1971, this was my second car here in the UK. My first was a Heinkel Trojan bubble car, also a 3-wheeler as my licence entitlement at 16 included motorcycles 250cc and under. If you sat & passed your motorcycle test, your entitlement then included unlimited size of motorcycles plus 3-wheeler cars (unsupervised). It did mean that on my 17th birthday, I had to revert to a provisional car licence and a supervisor in order to drive my Ford Anglia to the test centre in the afternoon where I passed my car test & could drive any type of 4-wheel car just like I'd been doing for the previous year with 3-wheelers.🤣
I loved my 2-stroke Berkeley although one evening, the left front wheel fell off at 50mph due to the split (cotter) pin having somehow dislodged from the hub nut which consequently unscrewed (I was lucky to retrieve it). It was a ¼ mile embarrassing walk to retrieve the wheel which had happily bounced on its merry way whilst the car came to a grinding 45º halt though. Happy days.
Long ago, when I was a teenager, I put a deposit down on a 2 stroke Berkeley three wheeler. Belatedly, I got my Dad to look at it, he pointed out that turning the steering wheel moved the engine but not the front wheels, I was convinced this repair was beyond me and to the guys credit, he gave me my deposit back!
That would have been a Bond with the single wheel at the front, the Betkeley three wheeler had the single wheel at the back.
@@robertcross1441 I appreciate how the Bonds engine swings round to steer but the Berkeley I saw had a sub-frame that had largely removed itself from the fibreglass shell, turning the wheel moved everything - though at some stage the slack would be taken up allowing some steering!
I watched this video because I was interested in the Berkeley. Then you climb aboard a SUNBEAM TIGER!!!!! to back it out. I am instantly jealous. I learned to drive in my mum's Hillman Minx Series IIIB, distant cousin of the Tiger. Rootes cars were very well made. The Hillman Minx and Humber Super Snipe and, I think, the Sunbeam Alpine (I'd be surprised if the Tiger wasn't imported already built) were assembled here from CKD kits. Rootes had a factory at Port Melbourne (Australia). You hardly ever see Rootes cars on the road any more, but they were dependable, solid vehicles. Subscribed.
A Cobra looks closer to the Berkeley, than it does an Ace Bristol. lol
WOW You've been "burnin' the late night oil" kickin' out All these vids since the Holidays have passed. I For One, Really Appreciate the Effort & Enjoy watching them Immensely.
Thank You Very Much Steve.
I wish I had that problem of moving my fleet around when I decided what I wanted to drive that day
Just gotta move this 370z and Lotus out of the way, phewf, exhausting, what a cool car the little 2 stroke beast!
A pleasurable video to watch. Thanks for introducing so many of us to this wonderful little machine.
I used to own a three wheel Berkeley T60 many decades ago. They are really fun cars.
Impressed by the breadth of your interest in British cars, wouldnt have expected an American to appreciate any Berkeley, thank you
I thought the starter motor had jammed on!
This is a great channel. More of the 280z pleaze.
I love how huge the motorcycle looks next to it. Must cause a lot of smiles from passers by!
Little known fact about the 328cc Excelsior two stroke engine is that it is fitted with a SIBA Start combination electric starter and alternator directly on the crankshaft. A design principle I believe BMW are adopting over half a century later. Berkeley also made a two wheels in the front one at the year three wheeler with the same engine ( which I had), a 492cc Excelsior engined four wheeler which had a third cylinder in the centre of the twin 328cc design and a Royal Enfield Constellation motorcycle 700cc twin cylinder four stroke engined four wheeler that I believe was good for over 100 mph. Berkely of Biggleswade, Hertfordshire, England was mainly a caravan manufacturer.
Ahhh, the melodious sound and fragrant “atmosphere” of a Berkeley….what could be better?
What an absolute gem of a car and despite my lifelong interest in cars that's one I didn't know about.
When I was in high school in the sixties my neighbor, a fighter pilot, had one. Let me drive it. Whoa that was fun. When folks were around he loved to nose the Berkeley into a parking spot and get out, lift up the back end, and walk it over parallel to the curb. Excellent, enjoyable video, well edited and educational. Thank you!
Great video.Nice to see all those British cars saved from the scrapyard.The Berkeley is quite nippy and interesting but not an AC Cobra or Sunbeam Tiger.
I saw the Berkeley new, at the dealers in Miami. I was in high school, about 1958.
Five years later, my friend had one with a Triumph 650 cc twin. His other car was an Austin Healy with a fuel injected 283 Chevy engine that replaced the original 4 cylinder. ( actually, it may have been a 327 )...
Later the put in a 500cc triple cylinder motor. They were designed by Lawence Bond who also designed the three wheel Bond minicar. My father drove one for several years but the Austin Mini put paid to all such creations.
WOW !
Lovely to see a Berkeley again. A workmate had a (late?) fastback model when I worked with him in the early 80's. I seem to recall his was powered by a Reliant (Regal/Robin) 4 cylinder engine/drive train.
I had the three wheeler. Had a lot of fun in that. I changed the engine for the two stroke triple, Excelsior. Then later for a BMC 1100.
They are these days used in VMCC, vintage racing, along with period sidecars.
Someone i knew many years ago fitted a 1960's Mini engine & gearbox in his Berkeley SE328, it was very quick!
WOW! thats incredible! Im in the UK and back in 1977 i had a Berkeley three wheeler with this engine, it had no body but was rear engine and drove the single third wheel at the rear.. bought it as a gokart and nearly killed myself several timesas it tipped over so easily, but in a straight line it was incredibly swift...id almost forgotten bout it till i saw this video thanks for the memories Steve..you got an awesome collection of cars there :)
One thing you need to be aware of with older carbureted two stroke engines, is that in the carburetor, air-fuel ratio is a function of fuel viscosity, and with modern high ratio 2- cycle oil, the viscosity is lower and might cause a 'richer' fuel ratio, if the carb has a "hi" needle, it needs to be re-adjusted for the brand and mix ratio of the oil you are using.
Cool to see one that hasn’t been repowered and/or hacked up.
I love that little car. I used to drive and grew up driving VW beetles. Both cars were are very fun to drive. Good luck with your car. THANX!!!
Nice little car with a great motor THNX!
fun little thing thanks steve for showing me something different
Yes. I had the Mk2 Austin Healey Sprite. The one usually rebadged & associated with MG as the Midget. Fantastic car. Fantastic fun. But bloody cramped if you're 6ft tall!
Yes, more please. Thank you
I haven't even watched all I need was the 2 stroke part and I'm in!
What a very cool car...I can honestly say I’ve never seen a Berkeley before !
Thanks for sharing !
Enjoyed the video, quite a collection of vehicles. I had 2 stroke cars for years, loved driving them.
I agree with 4n4. I love watching your videos. I am trying to watch all of them. Thank you for your content and personality you put into your videos. Also, this car is so so cool.
What a little ripper!
My cousin had a 3 wheel Berkeley in the 1960s. Same engine.
One wheel at the back.
I had a three wheeler version, because of licensing you could drive one on a motorcycle licence, it had a thick glass body but only a bit of steel reinforcing but NO alloy in it. 20; 1 mix before the synthetics were thought of. People also put mini engines in them and all manner of mixes were done.
Very cool micro car! Really neat to see 3 or 4 cars in a row start and move out of the garage!
Back in the 90's a lad in the next unit where I worked now good friends had a 3 wheeler Berkley took me out for a spin what a hoot thought the thing was going to tip over , North East UK.
They also made the with the big Royal Enfield twin engine - I guess these would be quite exciting with 50 odd horse power.
He could get the head and intake manifolds gas flowed and ported. Had that done a few years ago to my Ford Capri. Guy doing the work said he had done a 2 cylinder 2 stroke that had 22bhp. When he finished it had 38bhp that's a gain of roughly 80% more power.
Love the sound and smell of a two-stroke engine! That Berkeley was also available as a three wheeler. In the 50's and 60's there were many three wheelers around like reliant, bond, trogen, and the bubble cars because the road tax here in the UK was so much cheaper. The Berkeley three wheeler was just like yours only it had a single wheel mounted centrally at the back. Great video, Steve. Love your videos. That Sunbeam Tiger looked beautiful!
Back in the early 80`s a neighbor had a faded fiberglass bodied car that looked just like this but none of us knew what it was. It was just the body minus everything else. Now that I see this I bet this is what it was. I always thought it was so pretty but it was just an empty faded shell. I wish I had bought it. I knew I was missing out but had no clue what I was missing out on.
Your stuff is good. Had liked a while ago when you found the sprites. But rang the bell today.
I'm recalling how the crew on Star Trek: TNG referred to Ensign Barkley as "Broccoli". Paint the car in British Racing Green and there it is!
I loved Berkeleys when I first saw one in Europe. I never got to drive one, so this is a hoot!
I had a 3 wheeler the same running gear back in 66 still have the photos my first car
Fab little car. I remember going to buy a motorcycle petrol from someone in the 70s and they had a similar Berkeley but it had a 3 cylinder 500cc two stroke engine (not sure if it was a villiers or Excelsior). I suspect it was rather quick. Beautiful engineering on that one.
Thank you. First one I've seen on the road. Nice video. Well done
Let's see if it starts... Garage fills with two-stroke exhaust smoke.
I love the sound of two-strokes.
Delightful! I’ve seen Berkeleys at shows, and am always amazed at how much smaller they are than my MG Midget.
"Bedfordshyre" 😂 ...lovely little car 👍 I had a BSA Bantam that I rode in the fields when I was about 13, I remember having to "tickle" the Amal carb on that.
A vast collection of cars you've got & quite a few British ones, a Micro-car to look out for is a Meadows Frisky
I didn't know Berkeleys were exported to the US until I saw one lurking in a barn on 'American Pickers' a few weeks ago. As well as the four wheelers you could also get a three wheeled version which cost a lot less in road tax in the UK as they were rated the same as a motorcycle and sidecar. Another advantage of the three wheeler, you could drive them at age sixteen instead of seventeen for a four wheeler.
Very cool, thank you!
Had to laugh when I saw your video, I had a 3 wheeler version back in lat 60s it had a 250 villiers engine, to start it you had to open the bonnet and kick start it
@Terry Bloomfield Thanks for confirming that there was a three wheel version - I remember seeing one quite often when I was at college in Bristol in the mid-60s. I recall hearing that it was so low that it would drive under the exit barrier of some car parks.
I had the three wheel version!! it had no body and it had been fitted with the 328cc engine exactly the same as the car in the vid, electric dynastart and reverse gear..i had it as a go kart ..it was mental and nearly killed me loads of times! :D :D
The battery store must love you.
I remember these cars very well. I think a friend had one in the sixties. We were kids so insurance and running costs were low. My friend also had a frog eyed Sprite with a half race cam, that thing could go.
Great little car. A friend of mine bought one for peanuts in the 70s and put an RE Constellation engine in it. I'd like to see a BMW K75 engine in there, that would be about right.
"Biggles- wayde" is how it sounds... :-)
Thanks
@@ThisWeekWithCars Yeh, I used to live there, in Rose Lane, never knew they built cars there
@@ThisWeekWithCars
Meh...
Wish I'd read this before saying the same thing....
When I was in Junior HIgh School in the late 1950's in Palo Alto, CA a neighbor had one of these. Our house was on the outside of a 90 degree bend in the street. The Berkley (pronounced Bark- lee) driver would come home every evening and hug the inside curb of the turn while going about 30 mph, most other vehicles would take the turn at about 15 mph. This was on Janice Way. You could probably use Google Earth to see the bend in the street to understand the situation.
A most excellent 328.
Would love to see a race with Berkeley's at the time, still fun and enjoyable and in very good shape! Nice video!
What a cute small car! Thank you for showing it.
Amazing car. Interesting that it's LHD.
Always liked these back in the sixties, but never able to get one. With our British weather it would have to be a hardtop though! Thanks for the video.
TR7 was a nice surprise
Cool little car - thanks for the video!
I remember seeing one almost 50 years ago. It was chain drive too right? There was some issue with reverse too. I had forgot the name many years ago but that was it. Sure did enjoy refreshing my memory.
Looks like a Lotus Elan that converged on a Ferrari and an ac cobra.
For having a transmission that works like it does in a car with a bike engine is probably my favorite aspect of this car, simplicity and it does what it should do mechanically.
Thanks for this. I will need to dig out my old car magazines from the 50's to find the articles written about the Berkeley. I thought they were interesting, at the time, anyway. Its nice to see one running.
Thanks, Steve I didn't know about these cars. I learn something from every one of your videos. Cheers, Ken
Such a cool and rare little car. I've only ever seen one of them in my life, competing in an autocross event back in the 60s (I think we called them gymkanas or something like that back then). It was doing quite well until something (a backfire?) caused it to burst into flames and it burned to the ground in the parking lot.
I would love to see your Berkeley parked next to an MG Midget for a size comparison. Thanks again for another great video.
Mark from Maryland
Awesome little car
Amazing design - would love to have one in my garage
BIG engine ! Dad drove a 750cc DKW junior (also two stroke)
I had a car about the same size when I was a kid of about 8! It had to be pedalled around though and it was an Austin J40 - look that up.
What a fun little car! Reminds me of the old "Droopy" cartoon, "Mutts About Racing"; his car looked quite similar--in color and size!
Just gotta love those little things ! Though the 2 stroke engine had a HORRIBLE WRAP ( well, for good reasoning I guess 🙄 ). Some EXTREMELY NICE little rides came out with them .
The winter of 1985 my dad and I went to a guy's house here in Ohio to look at a Volvo P1800 in his barn and when we got there we noticed he had 2 SE328's in the barn with the P1800 and I loved them but he would not sell them I wish I could have gotten one they are really neat cars.
Ooo !
And there's also a TR7 amongst the 'exotica' !
And here i thought driving a Sprite around in modern traffic felt crazy. Can't imagine how much smaller you'd feel in one of these
I owned one back in the 1970’s. Two of us picked it up and stuffed it in the back of a pickup truck to take it home. I dreamed of replacing the powertrain with a Kawasaki H1 triple.
Quite an unusual car, even after nearly 7 decades living in the UK I'm not sure I've ever seen (or heard) one before, Wiki says that only a few thousand of this model and various other Berkeleys were made between 1956 and 1960.
Rather more popular cars of this genre in the UK were the very weird, three-wheeled two-stroke Bond Minicars with about 25,000 produced between 1949 and 1966. We also had a fair number of two-stroke bubble cars on the roads here in the 50s and early 60s, notably the Isetta, the Messerschmitts and the Trojan which all had a similar engine sound to the Berkeley.
Best to live in a flat area to enjoy this little sportster. I still love a two stroke twin.
I used to have a 3-wheeled T60 version, which had the uprated 520cc 3-cylinder two-stroke engine. It was driveable (in the UK) on a motorcycle licence. Odd you use a flashlight to check your petrol when you have a fuel gauge...
I always wanted one of these when I was young, had seen several at car shows. I settled for a 58 bugeye sprite instead, berkeley's were too scarce even in the sixties. I loved the bugeye though and still have one today.
What a beauty.
Grassroots Motorsports built one of these several years ago with a 750cc Suzuki GSX-R engine in it.
Great vid, thanks, my Uncle had one, imagine it with a modern 500cc motorcycle engine !
I saw one of these at Mad Dogs and Englishman car show at The Gilmore Collection in Hickory Corners MI. Very cool little car
This thing is Fantastic