Thanks for the fast comebacks, folks. The most popular guesses were:
1) The one I thought of first, Berkeley.
2) One that I had not considered, Peerless.
If I could not find out anything, I was going to take the day off and go to
the police-impound auction just in case they had misidentified something
really valuable, like a Lotus 7 or a Devon. It COULD happen...
But one of the organizers sent me a message:
>I just found out that the proper name is Buerkle,
Hmm. This is the spelling of a local Buick dealership. It's pronunciation,
well-known in these parts, is identical to that of "Berkeley".
For those among you who don't know:
Tiny Berkeley cars were made in England. Front-wheel-drive. Powered
by any of a number of motorcycle engines. I drove one once that had had
the engine and transaxle removed and the entire front subframe from a Mini
Cooper S grafted in, with a 1275 sporting Webers. It was very fast, but
had been pretty well hacked up by a bunch of lunatic U of M students. It
had a ridiculous roll bar made of wrought-iron like a stairway railing, and
the whole thing was painted a predictable maroon and gold. I never saw it
run autocrosses, but the folks who had been to events before I started in
1968 assured me the car had been a regular for a while. The students who
owned it liked to pick up the back of the car and turn it around as if it
were a wheelbarrow, they told me. I probably would have bought it, but the
second gear was gone. I was a young autocross freak, so I needed second
gear. I was not up to procuring parts and rebuilding transaxles, so I let
it get away.
Anyway, my contact says that this car (and wouldn't it be a hoot if it was
in fact the same Berkeley!) has been removed from the auction and likely
will go back to its owner. I suppose he found a way to pay his
snow-emergency tickets or something.
Phil Ethier Saint Paul Minnesota USA
1970 Lotus Europa, 1992 Saturn SL2, 1986 Suburban, 1962 Triumph TR4 CT2846L
LOON, MAC pethier@isd.net http://www.mnautox.com/
"It makes a nice noise when it goes faster"
- 4-year-old Adam, upon seeing a bitmap of Grandma Susie's TR4.
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