British microcar builder Berkeley may have been in business for just five years, but it produced a surprisingly large number of different models in that time, and it also offered something genuinely different from most of the other microcar brands, in that the focus was on fun rather than utility. As Autocar put it: “This car really does have sporting characteristics, while also being a satisfactory means of economy transport for two people.”
There were two key players in the Berkeley story. The first was Laurie Bond, of Bond Minicar fame, and the second was Charles Panter, who owned Berkeley Coachworks, one of the biggest caravan makers in Europe. Both men wanted to create cheap sports cars that looked good, were easy to maintain, and fun to drive. Through his ownership of economy-car maker Sharps Commercials, Bond had experience of designing cheap-and-cheerful cars, and Panter’s company had ample experience of working with fibreglass, so they were perfectly placed to change the automotive landscape. Well, that’s what they hoped …
The first Berkeley sports car burst onto the scene in September 1956. The SA322 Sports featured a British Anzani 322cc two-cylinder two-stroke air-cooled engine, which sent its 15bhp to the front wheels via a chain and three-speed gearbox. With independent suspension all round and a kerb weight of just 320kg, the Berkeley Sports was great fun to drive.
From January 1957 things got even better, with a 20 per cent power increase thanks to the fitment of a 328cc Excelsior engine. With its heady 18bhp and 62mph top speed (with 0–50mph possible in a dizzying 30.6 seconds), the SE328 Sports as it was now known, was the perfect vehicle for Berkeley to break into the North American market, where the titchy sports car sold surprisingly well. Priced at £574 in its home market, with its 60mpg potential the SE328 was just the thing for economy-minded motorists.
Autocar was certainly impressed when it tested a 328cc edition in summer 1957, commenting that the Berkeley Sports was “a very small, light car with a mean top speed of 65mph, allied to a good ride, quick response to the controls, and road-holding which has yet to be beaten by any competitors in the field of very small cars.”
The magazine concluded: “This Berkeley proved to be much more than an economy runabout. It is a delightful miniature sports car, with characteristics which would do credit to much more powerful and expensive machines. It generously rewards the efforts of drivers who have a feeling for machinery, yet remains so simple in its controls that the most inexperienced drivers would have no difficulty in going from one place to another in complete safety.”
Late in 1957, things got even spicier, with a three-cylinder version of the Excelsior engine, now displacing 492cc and rated at a giddy 30bhp, courtesy of the triple carburettors that came as standard. Equipped with a four-speed gearbox, the top speed was now 80mph, which might sound fun, but in a car so small and light (just 318kg), it would have been a hair-raising experience as V-max approached …
Keen to promote its cars’ sporting credentials, from the outset Berkeley either entered races officially, or sponsored privateers to do so. As early as November 1956, a Berkeley Sports took part in the Blackpool & Fylde Motor Club meeting, and spurred on by success here, Berkeley set up its own competitions department. One of the privateers that Berkeley worked with was Count Giovanni Lurani, who bought three Berkeley Sports which he took to Italy, fitted his own design of hardtop to improve the aerodynamics, and ran in the 750cc GT class. One was driven by Lorenzo Bandini, who finished first in the 1958 Monza 12 Hours.
With more than 2000 Sports models sold by spring 1959, Berkeley was on a roll; it even introduced a four-seater model called the Foursome (just 22 were made), with the two-seater edition then marketed as the Twosome. Shame they didn’t do a three-seater version, which might have proved very popular in certain circles. Not so good was the fact that the three-cylinder Excelsior engine suffered from major reliability issues, which led to a big increase in warranty claims; the car’s reputation was so bad that on one occasion Federal authorities stopped a shipment of Berkeleys at the dock to fix what they saw as a serious design fault.
No doubt swayed by the three-cylinder engine’s fragility, in March 1959, Berkeley’s next move was to replace the Sports with a new model, which came in two flavours: B95 and B105. Both were equipped with a Royal Enfield 692cc two-cylinder four-stroke engine, the B95 packing a 40bhp punch and the B105 offering 50bhp. Thus equipped, the B105 became Berkeley’s first 100mph car, and at £651 it was eminently affordable; the B95 was an even more palatable £627, or £659 in hard top form.
Berkeley didn’t know it, but the good times were soon to come to a crashing halt, with the days of the microcar numbered by late 1959. It was at this point that having offered only four-wheeled sports cars, Berkeley decided to introduce the T60 three-wheeler, to capitalise on the much lower purchase and road tax costs for such vehicles, and the fact that they could be driven on a motorcycle licence.
Fitted with a 328cc Excelsior engine (that’ll be the troublesome one that kept overheating …), the T60 featured a four-speed gearbox and came in open-topped or fixed-head forms, priced from £400. The T60 proved such a hit that Berkeley decided to expand the range with a four-seater model called the T60/4. Introduced in October 1960, this even more practical model was just the thing for the family man on a budget, who also wanted something fun to drive.
But almost as soon as the T60/4 went into production, things went decidedly pear-shaped for Berkeley. The caravan market collapsed at this point, and Berkeley Coachworks bit the dust, taking the car-making operation with it, after about 4100 vehicles had been made. Panter tried to get Sharps Commercials to take over the car-building operation, but that came to nothing, and by Christmas 1960 everyone had been laid off. The final cars were sold in 1961.
For the sake of completeness, it’s worth including a post-script, because if Berkeley had stayed afloat for just a bit longer, who knows what it might have achieved. That’s because the company planned to introduce a much more grown-up sports car in 1961, called the Bandit. Designed by John Tojeiro and fitted with a 997cc Ford overhead-valve engine as seen in the Anglia 105E, the car was much more sophisticated than its predecessors, but still light and affordable. Just two Berkeley Bandits were made, one of which survives; the other disappeared more than 50 years ago.
There is a postcript;
https://www.berkeleysportscars.com/bandit-gt