Hello pals! I’m here at the Amelia Island Concours, which is kind of like a mini Pebble Beach/Monterey Car week crammed onto a little island in Florida, which I think sinks at least a few inches into the sea with the weight of all the incredible cars piled upon it. I’m going to be getting video and pictures of all sorts of things, so keep an eye on our social media whatevers and our semaphore flags, but first I wanted to show you this astounding little Berkeley Sports. I’m showing the interior first because it’s so good, with how the stripes continue unabated inside, transforming themselves into upholstery from paint and then back into paint. So good.
Berkeley was only around for four years, from 1956 to 1960, but in that time they made some wonderful, tiny, cheap fiberglass-bodied sports cars with little engines and lots of fun. This one I think is a ’57 or ’58 Sports SE328, with a 328cc air-cooled inline twin, but each of those tiny cylinders got their own carb.
Berkeley liked to tout that these had the very parallel specs of being able to hit 70 mph and get 70 mpg, but I suspect both those 70s were a bit optimistic. Still, these were incredibly fun little motor-pants.
The way this one is treated with the lemon-lime paint scheme and the fantastic upholstery feels exactly right for a Berkeley: fun, not too serious, and taking advantage of how much you can do with a car when there’s so little car there to work with.
This thing is great and there’s so so much more here. Stay tuned!
Your Beetle needs a stripe update!
This car sold on bring a trailer on April 5 2022 for $18,899.
Wonder how much it will bring this week as it’s Lot 109 | The Amelia Auction | Estimate: $30,000 – $40,000 at Broad Arrow Auctions
Now we know!
Notoriously unreliable even for a British car, but during the moments when everything is working correctly, they are the funnest little cars in the world.
This one looks very, very familiar to me. There was a guy on the old Berkeley Yahoo Group that was doing a restoration about 4 or 5 years ago that painted his that way if I recall correctly.
I wish Yahoo hadn’t closed down their Groups so that I could look back in the old posts for a picture to confirm. The listers moved over to the Berkeley Facebook page. My own Berkeley is also a 57 or a 58 (the BEC seemed to think it’s a 57, though the title has it as a 58), and also an SE328 (chassis # 733) that is awaiting restoration. I know of another owner in Delran, NJ that has an SE328 that’s been shown at a few shows here in southeastern PA. Very neat little automobiles constructed out of three main (bottom “punt”, front and back) fiberglass assemblies reinforced with aluminum that were originally riveted together. Bonnet lid, doors, and the cubby lid behind the seats were the only other panels.
A few years ago at a microcar show several of us offered rides to the general public and to each other, so I’ve ridden in a Berkeley. For anyone contemplating the purchase of one (which I have to assume is nearly everyone here), I’ll warn you that there’s not much legroom. I mean, yeah, I get it, it’s a small car, but even so there’s less room than one would expect. Probably worth it, though.
Don’t get me wrong, I love this little fella. I totally agree that the stripes continuing into the upholstery is fulfilling God’s will.
However.
The stripes and the seams in the upholstery give the appearance that the steering wheel and speedometer are off-center. Or maybe they actually are off-center? I can’t…not…be annoyed by it. But, annoyed in the same way that my cat knocks my earbud case off my desk and then looks at me with his dumb, adorable eyes and half-mustache.
The effect isn’t as obvious with the stock upholstery, but yes, this is one consequence of the fact that it’s an extremely narrow car. Its diminutive size is hard to capture in photos like this because the overall proportions hold up so well, but when seen in person a Berkeley makes a Spridget look like an oversized land yacht.
Love the Berkeley. I saw one last summer at a local car show – THEY’RE SO TINY!!!!! And yet I want one very much, even though my big booty probably wouldn’t fit in it very well.
LETS GO PACK
Is what you would hear, every time you drove it in Wisconsin.
This is true. There are cars around here painted like their helmet. One is a Geo Metro and is pretty convincing.
Beautiful little car. I’m only semi joking when I say it’d be perfect for a NA rotary swap. Just smooth low torque high revving power and fun sounds all the way to the beach. At least that’s how it works in my head.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1958-berkeley-special/
I would go in a completely different direction and start with an EV golf cart. Would result in a more useful car.
Back in the early 60’s when my Dad was in high school., he and his siblings shared a Berkley as their car. When the motor finally gave out, they sold it to their neighbor who had the idea to make it an electric car.
He put a big throw switch on the hood to give it power, and he used a rheostat as the throttle.
What he didn’t know was when he cut off the body at the rockers to install all the batteries and motor, he also cut the brake lines.
The first time he tried to drive it, the power switch welded itself together and blew out the rheostat. He took off at full power (which wasn’t that fast) and quickly realized he had no brakes.
My Dad was out and around and saw his old car blast through an intersection with his neighbor standing in the seat, steering with one hand and pounding one the power switch with a hammer. He said it was very surreal.
Motor-pants; love it. Is that pants in the British sense, because this would definitely qualify as the auto equivalent of tighty whities.
Would not want to be in that car if it was ever in an accident and flipped over.
Don’t worry. It doesn’t have seat belts. If it flips, you won’t be in it.
My dad likes to tell the story from his youth about buying his first car. He had the choice of a Berkeley B95 or a Fiat 600. He chose the Fiat, and to this day is not sure he made the right choice.
Golly gee, what an astonishing car. Can’t have been too many sports cars, whether British, European, Japanese or even American, that had bench seats?? My family had an old red Beetle when I was growing up and my dad liked to tell people we had a red German fastback, designed by Ferdinand Porsche and tested on the Autobahn, with four on the floor and bucket seats, ooooh!
I’m going to the show on Sunday. Anyone else going ? I’m curious how many other Autopian readers will be there.
I’d love to be there. Alas, I’ll be at an elementary school talent show instead.
Mello Yello
This would be perfect for Mercedes (the person) as it is small, light and made by a caravan (trailer) company.
Now I want a Sprite
You didn’t want one before, what’s wrong with you?!
/s
I owned two Sprites, a Bigeye and a MKIII (purchased new). Driving the
Bugheye was the most most fun I ever had driving a car., but both cara were very unreliable, About 20 years ago, I considered buying a Bugeye, but my memories of owning a Sprite were not as pleasant as my memories of driving one.
Frog-eye or carbonated?
Bug eye Sprite for the win. Have wanted one since 1966. I better get on that soon LOL
I have had a few Sprites, they are hugely fun cars and very simple to work on. This car makes a Sprite look, if not huge at least big. A small guy, hell maybe pre-teen kid, can pick up the rear end easily. A friend in the club had one, it had overheating problems he never solved.
Please put that car in your pocket when no one is looking. You can wrap it in plastic and check it as luggage when you fly home. 🙂
The Lane Motor Museum has a nice page about the Berkeley. I would put a link here but that seems to trigger the moderation penalty box, so I will leave it as an exercise for the reader.
The engines in the SE328 came from the Excelsior Talisman motorcycle, and they are gorgeous in their own right. And they are two-strokes, which makes sense for that era. The 328s appear to be have been available with either single or dual carbs (Amals, of course). The 1958 Berkeley se328 at Lane seems to have a single carb, oddly enough.
Anyway, that is the happiest little car. Enjoy the show!
You guys should have a public facing calendar. Then have meet-ups when you go to different events
I met Brock “The Assassin” Yates at Amelia Island about 24 years ago. I was there with my college (Savannah College of Art and Design. Go Bees!) displaying the concept car we built in the product design department. My friend, Ed, led the design team as his senior thesis.
I saw Yates walking past, so ran over and asked him to check out our car. He came over and was very nice. He hung our for a bit and talked cars, and even agreed to maybe give us a shot at a write up in Car and Driver.
When he walked away, Ed and I grabbed each other and whisper screamed “OMIGAWD THAT WAS BROCK YATES!!!”
Our Argentinian professor looked at us and said “You two are acting like leetle gurls.”
I didn’t see Brock, but the blue Kirk White Ferrari Daytona he and Dan Gurney piloted on the first Cannonball was parked outside the NY Coliseum at the 1972 (?) Auto Show. I was ecstatic.
The next time I buy a car, I will tell everyone that I’m changing my motor-pants.
That car just makes me smile. It looks like a happily surprised Pokemon.
I won’t be there Sunday for the Concours, but I am driving up today for RADwood and Cars and Community tomorrow. If you see a black second gen RX-7, that may very well be me.