Restoring History: "1958 Berkeley SE492"

[@vidmationstudio]

Exceptional work, I wish I could afford your work to get my SE328 redy for racing. Mine was last rigisterd in 1966. It has been a family project o and off from the late 70's when we bought it off a guy who had is in bits in his shed. I hope to have her running in a couple of months. Thanks for showing us what is possible.

[@fortuner123]

Excellent vid. Really nice to see this project. Well done all.

[@SV1Bricklin]

Very nice car, nice job !

[@GrrMeister]

A friend of mine had one of these in the early 60's and I viewed it with some admiration and a small amount of 'envy' I had a 'Powerdrive' 3 wheeler which was aluminium construction, and arguably at the time somewhat better than Glass Fibre, although it added some weight. It had the British Anzani 328cc twin 2 stroke engine in the rear behind the driver's seat, and covered many happy miles in it. It would run merrily along at 45 mph all day, but struggled a bit on long hills. Well done with the Berkeley Project. The rule was at the time, and is in fact still the case today in the UK, is that you could drive this on a motorcycle licence, and the 'road tax' was the same as a motor bike.

[@farveree]

Would have been nice to see it running on the track though with some performance figures thrown in.

[@RobertJones-ew8fz]

The AMAL Concentric carbs @ 4:04 were introduced in 1967. They would not have been a option in the late 50's.

[@peteclovis1791]

Super nice job! I am currently doing a 58 as well. Where did you get the cool gas filler?

[@Liamblock]

hello, i am restoring a berkeley at work and would like to know what you did about the front suspension? I saw you had a sway bar across the top mounts. just wondered how you mounted them to the frame. thanks P.S awesome finished car :)

[@denvergearhart6363]

Mark Millard, my father in law had a '59 Berkley in Wichita, but Kansas summers were too hot for the little ram-air cooled engine. Excelcior also made a cooling fan for a little 2cyl. truck which he bought complete with shroud and mounted it outside the primary case driven by the crank. We fabricated a fiberglass duct to blow all that air across the heads leaving the ram air for the iron cylinders. There's lots you can do to hotrod these little engines. Milling the heads raises compression. Cutting 1/8 to3/16 in.off the piston skirts extends the intake time, like "camming"a 4stroke,and mating and polishing intake and exhaust ports gets everything you can out of the little Villiers/Excelcior engine. I'd like to find Mark's car, but I think it went to Arizona.

[@carlray1886]

I have a1959 Berkeley no moter needs put back together want to sell it where do I do that at

[@Bearditwas]

Still have it? Location? Price in mind?

[@tristanyseult]

just for information Laurie bond is pronounced like lorry

[@tonyweaver7791]

When you can restore cars to that standard, you can criticize grammar, Tristan....

[@canalcuttings3529]

"Adhered to the car were white vinyl spheres". I do hope not - that's balls. You need circles. Berkeley is pronounced "Barkly" and surely Lawrence Bond was pronounced as "Lorri".

[@tonyweaver7791]

Canal, obviously you are a proof reader, and not a skilled auto restorer , please show respect, because people dont pronounce words like you it doesnt mean they are wrong...

[@Phiyedough]

Pity they don't pronounce Berkeley correctly!

[@tonyweaver7791]

They do the American way !!

[@pwddogman]

Far too much Bla Bla, where's the meat