Photos of Cool Cars I Have Seen

[68fastback]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

It's obviously some kind of racer, and the blowups of the badge on the front looks like it says "Bently" but it can't be...

yeah, it looks like more letters than that ...I've tried searcing on every combo I can think of.

[JonW]

It definitely looks very similar to a Bentley logo, and it looks like it starts with a BE and ends with an ET, but I can't make out the rest of it. And there's one too many letters for Bentley.

[Birdman]

I believe it is a BERKELEYprobably early 60's

They used small air cooled engines ( 244cc, 322cc , 328cc ,500cc, 700cc )


Berkeley - Alternative Autos

http://www.coldplugs.com/berksecindex.htm

http://www.coldplugs.com/berkstoday01.htm

[Birdman]

Found this info on the Net thought you would be interested.


Berkeley Sportscars - Dealerships, marketing, and sales
Charles Panter, Berkeley's general manager, traveled to the US in the early fifties with his counterpart at Allard to assess the market here, and evidently felt enough potential existed to warrant a dealer network. Today, a typical car dealership is a multi-million dollar operation occupying several acres of land. This was rarely the case in the fifties, especially with "foreign" car dealers. Many were little more than gas stations, and were run with more enthusiasm than business sense.

Becoming a British, French, or Italian car dealer in the fifties and early sixties was usually easy and required only a small investment in spare parts and service equipment. I worked in the parts department of a large American car dealer for a few years and remember receiving the initial parts shipment for two foreign makes - the entire stock fit in the back of a single pickup truck. By contrast, our Chevrolet parts inventory would probably have required 20 or more tractor trailers.

None of this makes the cars less fascinating, of course, nor does it reflect on the efforts of those dealers who enthusiastically presented the cars to the public. This page, with material largely provided by Mark, attempts to expose some of those efforts to market and sell a great little car.

Skip Callanan was very active in racing in the New England - he held the "MG" lap record at Thompson in his TC and was co-winner of the 1959 Little LeMans at Lime Rock. He was instrumental in starting Scuderia Mosquito, which was to offer Berkeleys at a discount for people intending to race them. We have no evidence that this effort succeeded but would love to hear differently.



Kurland Motors in Denver sold Willys vehicles in 1955, Berkeleys and Simcas as of 1959, and Datsuns in the seventies. It was located at 1134-1144 Broadway.



Carroll Shelby's dealership in Dallas, Texas opened in early 1957. Shelby was a well known race driver, who had been named "sports car driver of the year" by Sports Illustrated magazine (do they still do that?) in 1956. Some of the financial backing came from Dick Hall, who was Jim Hall's (Chaparral!) brother. The building was located at 5611 Yale Blvd . Today, the building is empty and apparently being refurbished. Removal of a large sign recently exposed an artifact of the Shelby era and Don Gwynne graciously sent some recent photos and added some interesting background info: "You might be interested to know that the upstairs of the building in your photo housed the 'Playboy Club', but that one was owned by Jim Hall's brother, not Hugh Hefner! Racers hung out there in late 50's and early 60's."

















Dealer details and statistics
Prices
Based on various road tests and the Sports Cars Illustrated Directorys of 1959, 1960, and 1961, prices were as follows:
Model East Coast West Coast
SE328 $1,595.00 $1,695.00
SE492 $1,795.00 $1,895.00
B95 $1,795.00 $1,795.00
For reference, $1795 in 1958, bought as much as about $11,500 today. In 1960, the Austin Healey Sprite list price was $1795.

[JonW]

Great job! That's a lot of info you dug up.

[68fastback]

Great info, George, thanks!!!

When I read that I thought *maybe* the "Hall" in Carroll Hall Shelby was a link to Jim Hall (Chaparral) but apparently not...

...from Official Carroll Shelby website:

January 11, 1923 - Leesburg, Texas. Carroll Hall Shelby is born to Warren Hall Shelby, a rural mail carrier, and Eloise Lawrence Shelby.
...
Early 1957 - Carroll Shelby Sports Cars opens at 5611 Yales in Dallas, Texas, with backing from Dick Hall, an oilman from Abilene, Texas, and brother of Jim Hall who built the Chaparral cars.
...
...and this from CS' 2008 interview, but does how the roots of how CS' dad got into driving:

My father, Warren Hall Shelby, was a rural mail carrier in East Texas and, after he gave up using a horse and buggy, he drove cars. In 1928 he had a four-cylinder Whippet with 35 horsepower, made by Willys-Overland, the company that would later make the Jeep for World War Two. I was five then and I remember that Whippet of my dad’s to this day.


More on the Berkeley at Wiki ...there is a *slight* similarity to the pre-Shelby ACs, tho some of those other Lawrie Bond designed cars in that link you posted are really ...ummm ...strange looking.


...thanks for posting all that!!

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by Birdman

I believe it is a BERKELEYprobably early 60's

They used small air cooled engines ( 244cc, 322cc , 328cc ,500cc, 700cc )


Berkeley - Alternative Autos

That's it!

This one looks like it is actively raced.

Anyone know what one of these is worth these days?

[Birdman]

Tony I added two more current pics of Shelbys place in the post above ^^

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by Birdman

Tony I added two more current pics of Shelbys place in the post above ^^

These are cool. How the heck did you find the info about the Berkley? Had you seen them before and knew or just stumble across something? This is some good detective work. I saw the "B" logo and just couldn't get Bentley out of my head. I thought maybe the "B" part was part of their trademark and the wings were dropped for this.

Totally cool though.

[twobjshelbys]

never mind. hit post of the copy to the wrong place.

Thanks Birdman for the photos!

[Birdman]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

These are cool. How the heck did you find the info about the Berkley? Had you seen them before and knew or just stumble across something? This is some good detective work. I saw the "B" logo and just couldn't get Bentley out of my head. I thought maybe the "B" part was part of their trademark and the wings were dropped for this.

Totally cool though.

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

never mind. hit post of the copy to the wrong place.

Thanks Birdman for the photos!

Your welcome Tony glad to help.

Just did my best CSI imitation to figure what the letters were in your pic of the hood emblem, then did a search and found one name out of many that seemed to fit and that was it.

[twobjshelbys]

As we were leaving after seeing CSX2052, this was parked in the circle:

GT350H. One of the few white/gold cars.

[twobjshelbys]

So then after we left the framing place this was in the parking lot.

[68fastback]

Thanks for posting the pics, Tony!!

That 350H is very cool!

Chrysler's TC ...by Maserati! WTH?! It's a 2.2L 16V Cosworth head on a Maserati I-4 in a LeBaron. Gotta love Lee Iacocca!

[Birdman]

Can't tell in the pic but was the white GT350H a stick or auto ?

[gr8snkbite]

Originally Posted by Birdman

Can't tell in the pic but was the white GT350H a stick or auto ?

looks to be a stick..i can see what appears to be the boot.

[HSURB]

Sometime,you need to look up the Brush Automobile. It's a screamer, a classic, a pimp-mobile.

HSURB®

[68fastback]

Originally Posted by HSURB

Sometime,you need to look up the Brush Automobile. It's a screamer, a classic, a pimp-mobile.

HSURB®

Wow ...your namesake car! Cool... Something I'll never have to worry about

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by gr8snkbite

looks to be a stick..i can see what appears to be the boot.

Wow, your eyes are better than mine. I couldn't tell but didn't look carefully as my wife was in a hurry to go.

[Birdman]

Originally Posted by gr8snkbite

looks to be a stick..i can see what appears to be the boot.

Looks like it might be a 'T' handle on the shifter which would indicate an automatic. Sticks were very rare in the 350H's.