The Peerless & Warwick Discussion Forum

Wot's it like?

Well, once you'e in. there's loads of room.  It gets hot, especially in the footwells, and the ventilation's a bit primitive, so you'll be driving with the windows open to get some air, and of course, to listen to the noise.  Parking and slow speed manoevering is a pain, the turning circle's too big, and the steering's heavy.  The wheel is that size for a reason!  The gearbox feels crude and mechanical compared to a modern car, and the engine takes a while to warm through and settle down. 

But once you are on the move, things get better.  The steering lightens up, but it's direct, and full of feedback. There's hardly any ground clearance, so avoid drain covers and speed humps.  Remember to corner on an open throttle, slow in, fast out.  It doesn't roll, it will slide if provoked, but I've never managed to spin it.  Once it's warm. the gearbox is OK, but still needs a positive, committed action.  You soon give up playing with overdrive in the intermediate gears, the torque spread is so wide you don't need to.  If you are trying too hard, the inside rear wheel lifts, and spins away the excess power, but the rear end doesn't stamp around or slide away from you.  If you fit uprated pads the brakes are as good as a modern car but the tyre adhesion is not, so expect it to wriggle around under heavy braking.  It's alive, immediate, demanding, it challenges you to make it dance.  Get it wrong, lose the momentum, brake too late, and it's a brute that needs to be hauled back into line.  You'll find driving gloves essential.

Once you've become accustomed to the balance of the car you find yourself sliding it into corners, so that you can feed the power in early and slide it out.  You'll start to avoid busy times of day and seek out quiet back roads so that your fun isn't interrupted so often.  You'll travel cross country early in the mornings, roaring through sleepy villages, and arriving in the ofice before anyone else.

But mostly, you'll have a stupid grin on your face that won't go away.

If you want, I can suggest a package of improvements i.e. chassis bracing, uprated springs, gas telecopics and nylatron bushes, but these are not all approved by the originality brigade.

FF

Dear Joacim,

      When I bought our Peerless I drove it home for 7 hours non-stop ! I had never driven one before, but I was used to driving ancient and interesting cars, ( I took my first test in a 1947 Austin 10 ! ) It was a fantastic drive, Ian followed me in my road car, a new MG ZT, and whenever we stopped for fuel etc., asked if I wanted to swop ? No way !! It was boiling hot weather, and as Frank said, it gets very hot in the car, but I didn't care. People were driving past slowly looking at it and grinning, and I was listening to the lovely note of the engine. This was proper motoring as it should be, the car gave me a positive feel, and apart from being fairly heavy did exactly what was expected of it.  Subsequently we have raced it, and apart from having to race with cross ply tyres because of our series, and not having a slipper diff, so you lose traction completely if one wheel comes off the ground, it has behaved brilliantly. It is quite hard work to race, but that is all part of the fun, and we are now getting it to drift nicely round chicanes etc. Even when Ian got it completely out of shape when racing at Lydden Hill, it came back and never really looked like spinning, (mind you he is a very good driver !)

     So I am sure when you get yours on the road you will have as much fun driving it as we all do. You will have to bring it to England and meet all of us nutters!  Good luck and very best wishes, Celai and Ian.

    

Frank's description of his driving experiences in a Peerless are really great, there is absolutely nothing to add to it! His advice about wearing driving gloves is really good, I always use them. From the first moment in my Peerless, I liked this vintage feel of driving, this really has much charm. The Spitfire, by comparison, feels much more modern and easier to drive (I know this as I also have one). My personal feeling is that modernisation measures tend to weak this special vintage feel so I would think long before doing anything - for example I won't change the old-fashioned steering box!

Wolfgang

Hi Boys,

I agree with Frank, leather gloves are great for driving, in fact I quite like to wear leather chaps and sit on a brillo pad while whistling Rule Britania.

Love T

Penelope my dear you simply have no idea, mink went out with the ark, Brillo pads are a post modernist statement popularised by brutish northern artists intent on dumbing down the gay art form that is essentially, driving gloves juxtaposed with an iconic wartime oven cleaning pad instead of a the far more obvious beaded seat cover from Halfords.

If you're going to contribute sweetie get your facts right,

Love T

 

Nancy my darling ( Don't know if you are a little boy or a little girl ?) You really are out of touch my dear, mink is back in, after all the little blighters have done enough wrecking in good old Blighty when they were let loose. But anyway my little number was made long before faut became au fait, after all I am the original Penelope you know. As for Tarquin, if he wants to mess up his lovely little botty with those horrid rough washing up things he can, ( perhaps he enjoys it ?!) And I always found those beaded things left nasty marks on my beautiful posterior when I got out of my lovely big beast that had been thumping between my legs ? Oh dear I hope none of you take that the wrong way, you get my meaning ?  ( Dear Joachim, you probably will never come to the U.K. after reading all these mad things, don't worry its all fun , so please do come .) 

Penelope firstly I want to know , how do you know if Tarquin has got a lovely botty?He sounds a bit odd to me. So you have a lovely posterior, I've got spots on mine!

As for untamed beavers basking uncovered by our rivers Chuffer, it's actually Brazilian beavers that have been liberated! 

 

Hmmm.. beats me.

Anyway,there's a lot to be said for Brazilian beavers...

Right then! Driving Peerlesses:

I seem to remember reading something about rear seats flying into the back of the front seats at speed, and that the grp floors are rubbish, best changed to steel. Any ideas about mods that won't upset the balance of the car, but still make it stiffer and safer. I have a one year old and he was the reason why I sold my Spit and bought `The sports car for the family man' and It's rather important to me to have him seated and strapped in in a safe way.

Btw, does anyoe know the weight distribution of the car? I would like to upgrade it, but not at the expense of it's caracter and driving feel. This may sound strange as I've never tired one and have no clue what to expect, but I would hate to change things not really knowing what it does to the handling.

Joachim Sverd