Tiny Peel had a certain appeal

0 0 September 12, 2024 Edit this post

by Bill Buys

CAR comfort, moped costs, speeds to 40 mph (64km/h) and over 100 mpg (2.3L/100km).

Add to those claims ‘lively performance, powerful braking, armchair seating and saloon car protection’ and for £299 (AU$580) the Peel P50 had to be the best buy on Planet Earth.

Well, it didn’t quite work out that way for Peel Engineering, an Isle of Man company that primarily built fibreglass hulls for boats and fairings for motorcycles.

But for the few folk who bought one of their cars and kept it, their investment was impressive.

Designed by Cyril Cannell, the funky three-wheeled microcar started life in 1962 in Peel, a seaside town on the Isle of Man, and was soon listed in the Guinness World Records as the smallest production car ever made.

Designed as a city car, it offered “seating for one adult and a shopping bag."

It had a door on its left side and equipment included a windscreen wiper and one headlight.

Standard colours were Daytona White, Dragon Red, and Dark Blue.

Standing just one metre wide, a little over a metre tall, it was powered by a 49cc two-stroke engine from a 3kW DKW scooter, with a three-speed gearbox.

But instead of a reverse gear, there was a handle for you to pick up its tail and turn it around.

Easy, since it had a mass if only 105kg.

In fact, it was so compact it would fit through most garden gates, so you could drag your Peel P50 into your yard, or even into your house if you had a decent-sized front door.

The microcar got great publicity on the BBC’s Top Gear program when Jeremy Clarkson drove one through the Television Centre and that episode was one of the most watched episodes with a combined total of a 100 million views.

Despite that, sales didn’t go nearly as well as planned, and the company produced only 50 P50s, of which only 27 are known to still exist.

There was a spark of hope in an export market, when a Canadian entrepreneur took two of them to British Columbia in 1965.

They were adapted for the Canadian market by the installation of a basic heater: a hollow tube bolted to the outside of the exhaust, which directed warm air into the cabin.

The provincial government there gave the little car its approval, provided it was registered as a motorcycle.

Canadian motoring writer Brendan McAleer reviewed one for The Globe and Mail, reporting that "firing up the Peel P50 takes a few firm yanks on the starter lever, and then a gentle nudge to get the thing going.

"It rocks alarmingly from side to side as you go, and the engine begins to sputter on the slightest incline.

"Itʼs insanely loud inside, as if you were sitting in the bell of a two-stroke-powered trumpet.

"You can physically see the gasoline sloshing around in the tiny tank, just by your right hand.

"This is the slowest, loudest, most terrifying and most hilarious thing Iʼve ever driven.

"I canʼt stop laughing at how ridiculous it is. A mild slope lets the P50 pick up just enough speed to keep going, and it slingshots down the road at a walking pace that somehow feels incredibly dangerous."

He quoted the owner of that car saying: “It had sneeze-o-matic steering, because it was so touchy. Youʼd better keep your eyes open or youʼd go off the road.”

Still, the oddity had a sequel, one possibly even more bonkers: a two-seater Peel called the Trident.

It had the same engine and wheels as the P50, but everything else was new.

It was built in two halves, a fibreglass lower moulding which incorporated the seats and floorpan, and a one-piece clear acrylic bubble, with a flat windscreen.

One of the problems was the bubble tended to cook its occupants in sunny weather, so a ventilation hatch – actually intended for hand signals - provided a bit of help.

Production stopped after two years, by which time 86 examples had been made.

Most of those were in right-hand drive but a few with left-hand drive were exported,

The Trident was priced at £189 (AU$368) and by the 1980s some were already changing hands for around twice that amount.

In 2017 RM Sotheby’s sold a fully restored Trident for $121,000 (AU$182,000) – but one of the original P50 models fetched $176,000 (AU$262,000).

That’s a 451 times return on the initial price!

In a modern Ripley’s ‘believe it or not’ case, you can still get a P50 or Trident today.

Except that they’re now hand-built to order in the UK and available in petrol and electric models.

They were and are still road-legal in the UK, being in the three-wheeler category, and now also street-legal in the US.

A few have been exported, sometimes being classified as a moped (in Finland) while in The Netherlands, the Peel’s 50cc engine and its 45km/h top speed place it in the EU's quadricycle legal bracket.

Price on application, but you can bet today's cost will be a little more than the original $580.