Berkeley Sighting

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On the way home from a school field trip, something on the side of the road caught my eye. Strapped into a boat trailer, which was in turn on top of a flatbed trailer, was a late 50s Berkeley Sports, an oddball 2- stroke British microcar, with a huge for sale sign next to it. I have, admittedly, been somewhat obsessed with these cars for some time now, but had not seen one up until now! These Berkeleys are very unique cars, and also exceedingly rare. My teacher, being as intrigued as I was, pulled over and we stepped out to give it a look.

The car was missing its 2-stroke engine, which would have had a displacement between 300 and 500 cc. Also, its lightweight fiberglass body was, to put it kindly, a little worse for wear. However, on the bright side, fiberglass over an aluminum frame means no major structural rust! Berkeley, apart from its strange foray into automobiles, was a quite successful camper/caravan company, hence their frequent utilization of fiberglass. The asking price for this one was $700. While it’d be astonishingly difficult to restore due to parts availability, I think it’s BEGGING for a sportbike or snowmobile engine! Its original front wheel drive setup with a chain drive transmission would lend itself quite well to either of these setups, I reckon. A typical snowmobile engine would be a significant step up in power, with the stock Berkeley Sports models never leaving the neighborhood of 15-30 horsepower.

This car’s front wheel drive, 2 stroke, and fiberglass body setup seem very reminiscent of an early Saab Sonett to me. One very interesting thing about this car is the front wheel drive axles, which are made up of U-joints rather than your typical constant velocity joint. With my obsession with small cars and British cars, this really ticks all the boxes! Unfortunately, I’ve already got a 2 stroke car taking up driveway space, so this one can’t come home with me, but I think this is an astonishingly cool car with plenty of potential. I’m now even more interested in these cars than I was before, and there’s certainly not an abundance of information about them on the internet, so if anybody knows anything cool about these, let me know!

-Max Daigle