Berkeley T60
| Berkeley | |
|---|---|
 Berkeley T60 Roadster (1960)
|
|
| T60 | |
| Production period: | 1959-1960 |
| Class : | Sports car |
| Body versions : | Coupé , roadster |
| Engines: |
Otto engine : 0.33 liters (13.2 kW) |
| Length: | 3110 mm |
| Width: | 1270 mm |
| Height: | |
| Wheelbase : | 1178 mm |
| Empty weight : | |
The Berkeley T60 is a three-wheeled mini sports car that the British manufacturer Berkeley Cars built from September 1959 to December 1960. In addition to the normal T60 with two seats, there was also the T60 / 4 with 2 + 2 seats.
Both vehicles could be driven in the UK with a motorcycle license and were therefore very popular. In addition, the purchase tax and the motor vehicle tax were significantly lower than for four-wheeled cars.
The T60 and T60 / 4 were powered by an air-cooled two-cylinder two - stroke in - line engine with a displacement of 328 cm³ (bore × stroke = 58 mm × 62 mm), which was supplied by Excelsior and delivered 18 bhp (13.2 kW) at 5000 rpm . The car had a four-speed gearbox and front-wheel drive. As with the four-wheeled Berkeley's, the front wheels were individually suspended and had coil springs, while the individual rear wheel was attached to a drawn swing arm.
T60
The T60 appeared in September 1959 and thus only towards the end of the British small car boom. The first about 600 cars had a bench for two people and a handbrake with an umbrella-shaped handle under the dashboard. The vehicle floor was reinforced with aluminum beams. Later models had steel girder-reinforced vehicle floors, single seats and a handbrake lever with a pistol grip mounted on the floor. The GRP body was available in a roadster version with a fabric roof and a coupé version with a fixed roof. The chassis numbers ran from 1 to 1800.
The very last of the approximately 1,800 copies built had modified front and rear wheel suspension units, presumably so that the bridge over the differential no longer broke at the front and the rear damper unit no longer came off.
The car was priced at £ 400 when it was launched.
T60 / 4
The T60 / 4 did not appear until October 1960 and corresponded in technology and appearance to the last version of the two-seater T60. However, behind the two individual seats he had an additional bench seat that could accommodate two children. The rear part of the GRP body was extended to create the additional space. The rear bench had a hump in the middle, under which the single rear wheel lay.
Until the end of automobile production at Berkeley in December 1960, 50 copies were made.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c d e David Culshaw, Peter Horrobin: The Complete Catalog of British Cars 1895–1975 . Veloce Publishing, Dorchester 1997. ISBN 1-874105-93-6 . P. 85.
- ^ A b c G. Robson: A – Z of British Cars 1945–1980 . Herridge Books, Devon 2006. ISBN 0-9541063-9-3 .
