Remember earlier this year when I showed you an incredible and tiny little jewel of a roadster, a yellow-and-green Berkeley SE328? Sure you do. That’s not the sort of thing you forget, after all. And then do you remember how my co-founder Beau let me bid on that car, to experience the decadent, trouser-endangering thrills of bidding on a car auction? Well, we won the car, and now that car is part of Beau’s collection, which means that I can get to drive it and try it out, to really live that Berkeley experience. Which is exactly what I did, and, even better, via the magic of video, you get to join me! For all of it! Even at the end, when we learn some hard truths about our own beloved David Tracy.
Before we get into the video, let’s recap a bit about what this car is all about, exactly. As you can see above there, the car is tiny. Like, bathtub-sized tiny. It’s a microcar, after all. But, what’s interesting about this microcar is that unlike most microcars, which were built as little spartan mobility tools for severe and austere times, the Berkeley was built for fun. Cheap, easy fun, the kind of car that was targeted at people who wanted an MG Midget or an Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite, but felt that those were both maybe too much car, in size, power, and, most significantly, cost. [Ed note: We launched our new player and the video is below but it’s not functioning 100% the way we want it to, just to be safe we put the YouTube video at the bottom of this post- MH]
I’m going to quote from past Berkeley articles to give you some background, if you’ll forgive me:
Berkeley was primarily a maker of fiberglass caravans – what we in America call campers or camping trailers – but that was a seasonal business, so the company was looking for something to sell when camper sales were slow. That’s why when Berkeley was approached by designer Lawrence Bond, the guy who had made the Bond Minicar, about designing a low-cost, fun sports car that could be “something good enough to win World 750cc races,” the team was willing to give it a go.
This is a car that made 18 HP from its Excelsior two-stroke engine and weighs only 672 pounds. It’s tiny in every context. And it’s fun. Enough talking, though; time to see this little monster in action!
See what I meant about David? What a jackass.
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Can I just say, whoever your audio person is, they’re a goddamn wizard. Jason’s driving around at 50mph in a car with no top or insulation and his narration is Crystal clear – that’s incredible.
This was great, thank you. This is a great weekend car. The manual is kinda crazy, and I love it. If I am in LA, can I drive it??? When are you guys going to start to offer that in the memberships?
What a great little Roadster ! this is perfect for the upcoming So. Cal. TT Ride October 8 & 9 .
GREAT video too .
-Nate
We had a Berkely show up at our All Brit car show over Labor day weekend, it had a 2 cyl Honda 400 in it and sounded bad to the bone!
Way back in the day one of the mechanics at the Porsche dealership I worked at had one that he put a 6 cyl Mercury outboard motor in – said it went every way but straight due to the massive torque steer from that much HP (over 100)
Awesome video! And what a great little sports car!
That was great vid! It was very entertaining. I had a smile on my face the enirtre time I was watching it! (honestly!!) 🙂
That’s a great video; I enjoyed every minute of it.
The video was great!
The video player was not. Screen went black about 4 minutes in and the audio for an ad started playing. It then went back to the beginning for a few seconds before another ad started up. Gave up and muted it so I could watch the YouTube video at this point.
At the risk of sacrilege, Honda swap it. In 2001 I saw a Berkeley at show that had been repowered with a CB550 four that was probably twice as powerful as well as probably better sounding
Wrong. If you’re going to swap it, it has to stay 2 stroke. There are plenty of snowmobile engines that would be PERFECT in that thing. Going 4 stroke would require a radiator, water cooling system, etc etc etc which just adds more weight. Gotta keep it aircooled and 2 stroke, imho
Also keeping it two-stroke gives lots of cheap and fun tuning opportunities, like cylinder ports, expansion chambers etc!
Y U RUNE KLASSIK??????
I kinda think it’s perfect as-is, provided they stick a rear-view mirror back on.
Had I been grading “Ferrous Duellers Face Off” I’d have given you an A just for the wordplay.
Love that Berkeley! The stripe carrying on through the seat upholstery is splendid, and even the steering wheel is yellow and green! Talk about commitment. 🙂
It’s so smol!
THE SMOLLEST BEAN
Ah, I had wondered what happened to this little roadster. Glad to see it again. And the ending of that video had my actually laughing out loud.
Great review. I am amazed at how quiet it is in the cabin. Could hear every word clearly. Of course this is best video of the day because JT is just having a blast. EV interview 2 minutes hard to ramp up. Has anyone thought of changing hubcaps to the 10 commandments chariot wheels so you can shred big truck tires?
Ok so a buddy and I were thinking a few of these would make a great heist movie (like that one where they found employment in Italy) only we’ve decided these probably wouldn’t be up to the task to haul off tons of gold and have changed the plot to where they’re stealing honey. Why? So that we can have bears driving the cars of course, try and keep up!
Anyways, now my buddy and I are arguing over whether bears will fit in a Berkeley. He says Torch is much smaller than the average bear and is thinking we’ll need to switch to chimps driving the cars but I’m still pretty firm on the honey heist plot over bananas so what I need to know, Torch, is how do you compare size-wise with the average North American ursidae?
Update: The bears are now from the future. Time-traveling bears from the future have come back to heist the honey because in the future there are no more bees. Why aren’t they just stealing bees instead? Because they’re bears, again, try and keep up!
Edited to add: I hope this isn’t violating the SAG/AFTRA strike, I’d hate to be a scab! The bears though, they aren’t unionized so they don’t care. Which is a shame really because I bet they’d be great at negotiating. Maybe that Shawn Fain fella could send a couple of bears in to speak with the Ford CEO. That would have to be a separate movie though, CAMPAIGN BEAR.
I can’t keep up!
I know, the pace is unbearable.
Take your damn smiley face.
“Steal honey and a bear eats for a day, teach a bear to beekeep he eats for a lifetime.” Frankly if bears solve time travel, which I doubt as no thumbs and the time travel paradox, I think they could solve artificial honey.
But this does make me sad because if bears take over Noone is working on sex robots.
To be fair, there’s plenty of artificial honey out there made with corn syrup and other junk, but the stuff where you can taste the field of flowers each worker-bee defiled for pollen and the pooped back into the hive is *chef’s kiss*.
Between this and their preference for fine wild-caught salmon, I think bears are just food snobs, too.
Artificial “honey” is an abomination!
As a former beekeeper and raging pedant, I have to chime in and point out that pollen is not used to make honey (it’s used to make bee bread for the baby bees) and the nectar that is used to make honey is puked out (not pooped out) after being mixed with enzymes and other magical ingredients in the worker bee’s honey stomach.
Thanks for the clarification! I should’ve been a bit more specific with my words, haha.
I dunno, I don’t trust these scab bears from the future. If they let one future bear act, write and/or build cars, they’ll replace us all with bears from the future. We’ve got to nip this in the fluffy little bear tail while we can.
Hey guys, we found our antagonist!!!
A chimp can rip a human apart faster than a bear. And more human shaped so while I doubt a bear could fit a chimp could lounge.
An orangutang can be taught how to operate a car:
https://youtu.be/Xf32ggObtjM?t=7
Yes but the animal must fit in the car. I doubt an 800 pound bear would fit in a microcar. However a video I want to see. Now I have seen Every Which Way but Loose but can a Orangutang be taught to drive a manual car?
I suppose we could just say that in the future we could just claim that bears have evolved to be smaller (due to the bee-pocalypse leading to a dwindling honey supply) until they will fit in a microcars but that wouldn’t support the primary purpose of my comment which is to get Jason to post an image of him standing side-by-side with a black and possibly brown bear for comparison.
Okay I am up for JT posing with bears. But really California bears are going to be hairy homo human bears, not that there is anything wrong with that. But really my fat ass won’t fit 8n that sweet ride a bear is even less likely.
Also, David posing with the chimpanzee and orangutan for that rude water cup gag.
Black bears weigh between 250 to 500 pounds. Yes in captivity a fat male adult black bear can definitley weigh over 500 lbs, but hes going to be unhealthly over weight and in general in the wild that is super rare.
Saw a Lot of black bears up close around Ely, MN this summer.
A “small looking” adult female weighed 250 lbs.
There was an unofficial wild black bear feeding place and I counted over 30.
Not sure how well two 250 – 500 animals would fit in a micro car, so sure I’d go with bears from the future that are humanoid in form and that have slimmed down due to the lack of honey availability
Oh no no, each bear gets its own Berkeley roadster! That’s critical to the plot!
Plot? Are you SURE there’s a plot?
I mean, I’d watch it, so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
I’d watch it, too, but I watched Space Truckers yesterday, so I’m not sure I’m to be trusted.
This keeps popping up in my “recommendations”. Is it worth wasting a couple of hours?
Ah, someone else who has totally screwed up their algorithm!
There are a surprising number of well known actors in it. Clearly, they all needed this paycheck.
But…
Okay, without spoiling too much, I will just say this: Charles Dance’s character becomes a cyborg with a pull start penis. If that’s your kind of movie, you’ll love it.
Pretty much, all penises are pull start. In addition, they may later be outfitted with other starter mechanisms. But. From the factory, that’s how they come.
That explains Ohio drivers.
Yes, but bears can come tearing out of the International Honey Exchange in downtown Manhattan and after a 10-15 minute chase sequence where they lose the cops by slicing through traffic in their microcars they emerge into some delightfully twisty 2-lane country roads in Upstate NY and pull into the forest where they blend in with all the other bears driving Berkeley roadsters. Chimps can’t do that because there aren’t any chimps in Upstate NY! Seriously, I need you guys to try and keep up with the details!
Only if you can reproduce buzzy bear driving an ice cream truck on the Drew Carry Show.
We’re already in talks with Drew’s people.
Great I love DC and that buzzy bear was the funniest thing I have ever seen. Except buzzy following Memi
depends if we are ripping skin or dismembering I feel like. not a race I want to be a test subject for in any case
Update 2: I couldn’t wait and asked AI to write a script about time traveling bears from the future stealing honey. It’s…not bad… but I think we’re still going to need those human writers for a bit longer.
=============
Scene 1
Three Berkeley Roadster microcars pull up to the International Honey Exchange. The drivers are three bears, all wearing sunglasses and baseball caps. They get out of the cars and walk into the building.
Bear 1: This is it, fellas. The International Honey Exchange. The biggest honey heist in history.
Bear 2: I can’t believe we’re actually doing this.
Bear 3: Me neither. But we have to. There’s no honey in the future. The bees have all died.
The bears enter the building and head for the vault. They quickly disable the security system and break into the vault. Inside, they find a vast stockpile of honey.
Bear 1: This is it! The motherlode!
The bears start filling up bags with honey.
Bear 2: We have to hurry. The alarm is going to go off any minute.
Bear 3: Don’t worry. We’ll be long gone by then.
The bears finish filling up the bags and head for the exit. Just as they’re about to leave, the alarm goes off.
Bear 1: Shit! They’re onto us!
The bears run out of the building and into their cars. They peel out of the parking lot and speed away, with the police in hot pursuit.
Scene 2
The bears lead the police on a wild chase through the city streets. The bears weave in and out of traffic, narrowly avoiding crashing into other cars. The police cars are right behind them, their sirens blaring.
Bear 1: We’re losing them!
Bear 2: Keep going! We’re almost there!
The bears finally lose the police cars and head for the countryside. They drive through the twisty back roads, laughing and celebrating their successful heist.
Bear 3: We did it! We actually did it!
Bear 1: We’re rich!
Bear 2: To honey!
The bears raise their bottles of honey in a toast. Then, they pull into a forest and disappear into the trees.
The End
Uh-oh. You’re going to incur the wrath of George!
Patrick George, that is. Not only did you produce a script during the writer’s strike, you did it using the loathed AI!! You are gonna get moderated into the shadow realm!!
If anything this AI generated “script” is proof that we still need humans. Everybody around me keeps going on about how ChatGPT has changed the world but I’ve yet to find a valid use for it. The code it generates is drivel, the text it generates is derivative, and god forbid you ask it a math problem.
I totally get it. I’m a graphic artist, and anytime someone mentions using AI generated artwork, once I realize they’re not talking about Adobe Illustrator, I ask “Have you SEEN AI generated artwork? It looks like it was generated by an emu on six tabs of LSD!”
The AI Apostles will just say we don’t know how to form our requests to get the right responses from AI.
For REAL.
But yeah, go off about how your twelve-handed woman with a lopsided face that was a mishmash of stolen DeviantArt works is changing the world, nerds.
Added hijink plot points. While visiting Mammoth mountain in the Sierras our group got the standard ranger warning about bears with these “true” ranger stories:
1) A mamma bear was trying to reach a food sack strung up in a tree. She couldn’t reach it herself so she threw her cub at it. The terrified cub grabbed the sack for dear life and its sharp claws tore it open, showering the contents on the happy mamma below.
2) A hiker, bedded down for the night had put a package of sandwich ham in a bear proof food canister at the bottom of his sleeping bag. He awoke in the middle of the night to see a bear ripping the bottom of his sleeping bag off. The bear got the canister and did it’s best to open it but failed. Frustrated, the bear swatted at the canister with all its might flinging it into the nearby river where it was stepped over a waterfall.
I’ve got one as well. At my previous job one coworker was from Russia and it was the history of Apollo or something and he was boasting that Russia was first in space. I shrugged it off though because they only put dogs in space while we were putting chimps in space. He got very indigent and replied, “There are no chimps in Russia. Only bears and dogs, and the bear wouldn’t fit.”
This immediately drew the mental picture of a bear squeezed into a shiny space suit but it’s like 20 sizes too small, because. And he’s crammed into the space capsule and lights are blinking and alarms are buzzing and he doesn’t know what any of it means and in he’s roaring in frustration and smashing the controls and blinking lights.
I can’t figure out how that would fit into the plot of our honey heist movie but maybe it would work as an after credit stinger. Ya know, leave the audience wondering what happens in the sequel.
Okay, how about in the future, bears need the honey…
…to fuel their hibernation period on their journey to RETURN TO THEIR HOME WORLD!!
That’s right, bears are aliens trapped on Earth.
It’s Bears. In. SPAAAAAAACE!!!
I like where this is going, looks like we’ve already got the sequel sketched out!
It’s the BCU! Bear Cinematic Universe!
We’re gonna make so much honey
Well a Russian circus bear has no problem fitting in a Ural sidecar:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4zorTYwPNvE
So I think a pair of red blooded ‘Murican smarter-than-your-average bears would be no problem in a Berkley….
Unless that Berkley does have a swing axle. That might bee a problem
You’re saying the bear is driving?
Exactly like that, except they’re in convertibles, and instead of passengers just a giant keg of ill-begotten honey!
If you haven’t listened to The Next Big Sting from Story Roost you definitely should. It’s literally a sci-fi honey heist story starring mostly bears.
Sounds like intellectual property theft! Don’t worry, I’m already on the phone with our lawyers!!!
Needs some twenty-fours.
I’ve been following this merry gang for the past decade or so, and I created an account for the first time just to say how incredible and delightful that video was. The way it was scripted, directed and produced is top notch.