Berkeley Cars

Berkeley Cars
legal form	Limited
founding	1956
resolution	1961
Seat	Biggleswade ( Bedfordshire )
management	Lawrence Bond, Charles Panter
Branch	vehicle construction

emblem

Berkeley Cars was a British manufacturer of automobiles . From 1956 to 1960 he built small sporty cars with engines derived from motorcycles with a displacement of 325–700 cm³.

Company history

The Berkeley Cars Limited in Biggleswade in Bedfordshire was a collaboration of the designer Lawrence "Lawrie" Bond with the Berkeley Coachworks Limited of Charles Panter , then one of the largest manufacturers of caravans in Europe. Berkeley Coachworks had a lot of experience in processing GRP and was looking for a product that could fill the gaps in its seasonally fluctuating caravan production. What Panter and Bond had in mind was "something good enough to win World 750cc races (...) but cheap, safe, easily repairable and pretty". (German:something good enough to win world championship races in the 750cc class (...) but cheap, safe, easy to fix and pretty. )

The first vehicles were immediately successful in the British market, and so a number of models derived from them were designed in the four years of production. An attempt was made to conquer export markets, namely the USA, and the cars were soon known as small, cheap sports cars that were great fun, but also fragile. The management recognized the opportunities of the class emerging with the Mini and the Austin-Healey Sprite in the late 1950s and developed a more conventional model with the support of Ford .

At the end of 1960 the caravan market collapsed and so the lack of financial reserves forced the Berkeley Coachworks into liquidation on December 12, 1960, with the automaker Berkeley Cars being carried away. After the production of around 4100 vehicles of different types, production had to be stopped shortly before Christmas 1960. The attempt to sell the car company to Sharps Commercial Ltd (manufacturer of Bond Cars ) failed, and Berkeley Cars was also liquidated in 1961.

The factory was later used by Kayser Bondor Ltd , a manufacturer of women's underwear, and demolished in 2002. Now there are houses there. A street called Berkeley Close in this residential area still reminds of the former car factory.

Today there is an active classic car club (Berkeley Enthusiasts' Club) that helps the owners of the several hundred surviving cars around the world maintain their cars and supplies them with spare parts.

vehicles

Type	Construction period	engine	Cylinder / valve control	Displacement	power	image
B60 Sports	1956-1957	Anzani / Excelsior	2 / without	322-328 cc	15-18 bhp (11-13.2 kW)
B90 Twosome / Foursome	1957-1959	Excelsior	3 / without	492 cc	30 bhp (22 kW)
T60	1959-1961	Excelsior	2 / without	328 cc	18 bhp (13.2 kW)
B95 / B105	1959-1961	Royal Enfield	4 / ohv	692 cc	40–50 bhp (29–37 kW)
QB95 / QB105	1959	Royal Enfield	4 / ohv	692 cc	40–50 bhp (29–37 kW)
B65	1960	Excelsior	2 / without	328 cc	18 bhp (13.2 kW)
bandit	1960	ford	4 / ohv	997 cc	39 bhp (28.7 kW)

Vehicles of this brand can mainly be seen in small car museums.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Berkeley - a miniature molded in Autocar . September 14, 1956.
2. ^ The Berkeley Car in The Motor . September 12, 1956.
3. ↑ 50's Superbomb! in Sporting Cars . February 1983.
4. ^ Nick Wotherspoon: Lawrie Bond - the man and the marque . Bookmarque, Oxford 1993. ISBN 1-870519-16-7 .
5. ^ David Culshaw, Peter Horrobin: The Complete Catalog of British Cars 1895-1975. Veloce Publishing, Dorchester 1997. ISBN 1-874105-93-6 . P. 85.

literature

• Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader: The great automobile encyclopedia. BLV, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-405-12974-5 .
• George Nick Georgano: Cars. Encyclopédie complète. 1885 à nos jours. Courtille, Paris 1975. (French)
• David Culshaw, Peter Horrobin: The Complete Catalog of British Cars 1895-1975. Veloce Publishing, Dorchester 1997. ISBN 1-874105-93-6 . P. 85. (English)

Web links

Commons : Berkeley  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

• GTÜ Society for Technical Monitoring mbH (accessed April 1, 2013)