1959 Peerless Part 2

Yesterday I mentioned one of the strangest cars I have ever had. Today I'll continue the story on how I found the car. I had just moved into the Los Angeles area from the state of Washington. I was driving a brand new Rover 2000TC, which was the worst car I have ever owned. Another long story I'll tell down the line.

It seemed that the Rover was always causing me problems and I decided to sell it. I could not decide what I wanted to purchase so I started looking around at used cars. Took a ride in a Jaguar E type, and a used Maserati, but was not in love. While reading the classified ads I came across a car called a Peerless. Beats me what attracted me to the ad, but I called the guy up - or at least tried to. Seems he was a fire man at a station north of L.A., and you can't talk directly to them, just leave a message. I left the message and he called me back the next day. We made an appointment and I meet him outside of the station.

He was a much better salesman than I was a buyer. For example, he did not want to start the car up and let it idle as he claimed the oil would not flow correctly until the car was warmed up correctly. So most of my information was gained with the car turned off. However, I did get to take it on a long drive, and warm it up, before buying it.

I was really interested in the car as I had never seen or heard of a Peerless before. It was very low to the ground, and painted gold (!), but a nice gold. Looked like it was going very fast while it was standing still. Two front seats and a jump bench in the back, which a very small child might fit into. Very, very detailed because I guess firemen have a lot of extra time on their hands. Interesting story about the car and it's history. Following is from Wikipedia:

"The prototype of this British-built sports saloon which was alloy bodied and initially named Warwick, was designed by Bernie Rodger for company founders John Gordon and James Byrnes[1].

The car had been renamed the Peerless GT by the time series production started in 1957. It featured Triumph TR3 running gear in a tubular space frame with de Dion tube rear suspension clothed in attractive fibreglass 4-seater bodywork. While the car had good performance it was expensive to produce and the overall fit and finish was not as good as that of similarly priced models from mainstream manufacturers. The Phase II version had an improved body largely moulded in one piece.
About 325 were made.

A works car was entered in the 1958 24 Hours of Le Mans finishing 16th.
Production ceased in 1960 after about 325 examples had been produced."

Anyway I was hooked and two days later it was mine.

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1959 Peerless

One of the strangest cars I have ever owned was a 1959 Peerless. While there was an American car of the same name, this particular car was built in England. A Jaguar dealer in England built a unique car for himself and entered in the 24 hour La Mans race. As I understand it, the car did not win anything, but did finish the race. People who saw the Peerless wanted to buy one, so a company was formed and cars were built in the U.K.

Mine was number 176 our of a run of about 200. It was built on a TR2 chassis with some modifications, like a De Dion tube rear suspension with a Jaguar differential. The engine and interior was the standard TR2. Some real differences was that the body was handmade fiberglass and a very unique shape. Other oddities included two gas tanks. They were mounted under the side doors and you had a long step to get over them to get to the seats. Of course if you were hit in the side of the car it would probably cause an explosion.

I had the car for around 8 years and I experience a lot of strange problems, such as the gas tanks leaking and gas coming out through the fiberglass.

More on this car tomorrow.

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