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Re: 1958 Buerlse? Quickly, please.

To: "Phil Ethier" <pethier@isd.net>, <lotus-cars@yahoogroups.com>,
Subject: Re: 1958 Buerlse? Quickly, please.
From: "Phil Ethier" <pethier@isd.net>
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 20:04:41 -0600
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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