^Who's engine was it?^ Sounds delightfully tiny, like a 50cc race motorcycle, which can be a lot of fun.
Wiki is your friend:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Cars#Models
"Power was provided by a
British Anzani twin-cylinder 322 cc two-stroke engine producing 15 bhp (11 kW; 15 PS)
[8] and mounted transversely, driving the front wheels via a chain and three-speed gearbox. The engine was already used by various motorcycle manufacturers such as
Cotton and
Greeves, but in the Berkeley was fitted with a
Siba Dynastart to provide both battery charging and electric starting. It was an advanced
two-stroke engine which incorporated a rotary inlet valve mechanism in the centre of the
crankshaft.
[8] The
gearbox was a three-speed Albion HJR5, using a steering column-mounted gearchange.
[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzani#British_Anzani
I drove a Subaru 360 in the 70's, it would go up and over pedestrian highway overpasses, I did it urged on by it's owner/co pilot who had done it before.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, you reckon someone powered a passenger car with a Rolls Royce Merlin at some point, from a decommed Spit? Probably a bit much for groceries, better for salt flats.
Please don't Google this to answer.
I think it'd be supremely impractical, maybe suited only for Bonneville. Aero engines are designed to operate in a much narrower rev range much closer to full power than autos, they aren't constantly starting from dead stops and having to cope with downshifting to engine brake, for example.
Plus you gotta make sure to get the anti-carburetor starvation-while-diving kit.
It'd probably fit in Steppenwolf's car though:
Just remembered when I was a kid, around ten years old, one of my schoolmate's dads had an Allison 12-cylinder aero motor on a stand in his garage, fully functional (no prop). He'd fire it up occasionally and you could hear it for blocks away. As I recall there was always at least a 10 minute warm-up period when it sounded pretty cool and bearable, After that it was only 2 settings, deafening and ear-splitting for about 5 minutes, then he'd let it idle again before shutoff, but occasionally he'd go twice...maybe when the mother-in-law was visiting?
Sillycon Valley was still about 30% undeveloped at the time.....never heard of anybody complaining.
Musta been a V-1710:
On the stand the thing was damn near as tall as I was.
