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.

Comments: E-mail Me!

For general auto articles see my article page at:

Honda Accord Aftermarket Parts

Thanks for visiting.