Actually, it’s difficult to categorize the Blakely Bernardi. After Tim Moe sent us photos of his Blakely Baron last month, we read up on Blakely and his products. According to Georgano, Dick Blakely started to offer Lotus 7-style kit cars, called the Bantam, in 1972 in Love Park, Illinois, and in 1975 began offering a more civilized version called the Bearcat. Five years later, Art Herchenberger bought the company, moved it to Princeton, Wisconsin, and restyled the Bearcat into the Bernardi, using the grilles from an Olds Cutlass, turned on their sides. We’ll at least give Art credit for invoking the name of Enrico Bernardi, who in 1884 built a gasoline-powered tricycle for his son, technically beating Karl Benz to the punch by a year or so. Most other kit car manufacturers would have called it a Leopard or Egret or something like that.
The kits typically used Ford V-6 engines, Mazda rotaries and Pinto four-cylinders, according to Georgano, which also stated that Blakely offered the cars as complete vehicles at one point. The Bantam was eventually renamed the Hawk, and both models appeared to continue to 1987, when the company folded for unstated reasons.
Tuck Edwards sent us photos of his Bernardi after the Blakely Baron post, and we can see where the comparisons to both the Morgan and the MG TD come from. Tuck said his has the Pinto 2.3L four-cylinder, a four-speed and a removeable hardtop. He’s looking for any brochures or literature on the Bernardi, and we’d both like to know roughly how many are out there.
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