Interesting kit car

[Rich Kallenberger]

I came across a craigslist ad for this car, a kit car I had never heard of before. Here’s the backstory. Fun to look.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blakely_Bernardi# 🙂

[edward ericson]

Indeed. Styling cues instead of trying to copy the old car. Looks cool but, as Bill can explain, that rear suspension setup was not the best & should be modified.

[Bill Gould]

My first new car (actually, one of the few new cars I’ve ever bought) was a 1974 Pinto. I’ll give you a moment to get all the old jokes out of your system. OK, then. Drove that thing for 11 years, doing nothing to it beyond routine maintenance and replacing the tires and battery a couple of times. It ran great, was comfortable, economical for its time, and had a hatchback that served my wife and me well during the early years of our marriage. The design flaw that got it so much bad press involved the fuel-filler neck, and the factory-covered fix involved a one-hour trip to the dealer. I shouldn’t have gotten rid of it, but as the family grew there came a time when two small cars (my daily driver was a ’71 VW Beetle) weren’t enough. But for a year or so there, I really did consider using that Pinto as a donor to build a Blakely Bearcat, the Bernardi’s slightly more austere sibling. Drove one that I came across near my folks’ house, thanks to a willing owner, and really liked it. Just couldn’t make the numbers work, or convince myself that I had the skill, tools or expertise to pull off the build. Ah, well. Still nice to look at.

1981 Lafer TI
1600 cc Type 1 engine

[newkitman]

TexAg71 wrote: My first new car (actually, one of the few new cars I’ve ever bought) was a 1974 Pinto.

Don’t feel bad. Mine was a used 73 Pinto I drove from Palm bay Fl to Plattsburgh NY. Car ran great though.

Allen Caron
VW based 53MGTD - "MoneyPenny"
"If one thing matters, everything matters" - from the book The Shack

[Author]

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