Berkeley Cars Ltd., Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, UK 1956 - 1961

Berkeley cars were built by Lawrence "Lawrie" Bond. He had built up a successful business making caravans and pioneered the use of fibreglass in their construction and he was also responsible for the design of the Bond Minicar of 1948.

The experience with fibreglass enabled him to build the world's first unitary (monocoque) chassis/body unit. It was an attractively styled little sports car, but with a rather spartan interior. It had all round independent suspension, front wheel drive and was powered, if that is the right expression, by the 322cc air cooled 2-cylinder 2-stroke Anzani motorcycle engine. The drive to the front wheels was by chain. It was called the B60 because it was capable of 60 mph but, although the car handled very well, it was not very exciting so the Excelsior powered B65 was quickly introduced.

When the Austin-Healey Sprite was announced in 1958 it was clear that the Berkeley could not compete and so production was suspended whilst the project was re-thought.

The result was a three wheeled version of the B65 called the T60 which was quite successful. It had the advantage of being in a low road tax class and could be driven on a motorcycle licence and there were no rivals to this layout at that time so it filled a small niche in the market.

About 2,500 were made in one year.

The 4-wheeled cars were also improved and fitted with the 492cc three cylinder Excelsior engine and called the B90. They were available with 2 or 4 seat bodies.

A further development was the fitting of the 692cc Royal Enfield "Constellation" twin cylinder 4-stroke engine which in the B95 and B105 models. About 2,000 of all 4-wheelers were made.

The latter only weighed about 800 pounds and with 50 bhp available was fast enough to have some competition success.

A tuned B105 was raced by George Catt from Henlow, Bedfordshire, where he was a Berkeley agent. George was a very tall man and quite well built so that he seemed to be sitting on the Berkeley rather than in it. He was a fearless driver but a very amiable person, so it was a tragedy when he was killed on the circuit.

In 1960 John Tojeiro was retained to design a sports car called the Bandit to rival the Austin-Healey Sprite. It was a conventional design and used the well tried Ford 105E engine and drive train. Unfortunately it's launch coincided with demise of the parent company when caravan sales collapsed.

The Bandit was revived in New Zealand in the 1980's as the Ibis Berkeley but not many were made.

Bibliography:

Lawrie Bond, the Man and the Marque, by Nick Wotherspoon, published by Bookmarque Publishing, 1993