Had an interesting online chat on Gumtree with a gent from whom I bought some car related tools. I had mentioned I was working on a TR3 engine (hence the need for his carb balancer) and he wrote back to ask if I'd ever heard of a Peerless as he had one in the early '80's. This required further investigation.
Turns out he bought the above reg. in Edinburgh in the early 1980's with the usual issues of rotten chassis, holes in fuel tanks etc, etc. He set about it removing the body, building a new chassis, making up new fuel tanks and was, apparently, getting on quite well. He then started a new job that involved being away from home a lot and subsequently sold the car in 1989 as a project to a garage in Leith. He later found out that the garage closed down a couple of years thereafter but no news of the car. Apparently light green in colour and, he thought, still on the DVLA records. I had a look but can't see it. He also checked with the club registrar 'many years ago' and there was no record of it.
Has it turned up since?
He also mentioned another Peerless (reg. unknow) that apparently sat outside The Port of Menteith Hotel for many years. This might be during the 1980's when his new job took him all over Scotland, N.I. and North England.
Hmmm. Sounds like another one that's bitten the dust, then. Shame, as it was only 30 odd years ago. You would have thought someone would have recognised the value of it.
No sign of XMY381 but 381XMY is on the DVLA registration check website. A red Peerless 2litre GT registered on January 1st 1960 with the last V5C being issued in 1983. It might be tucked away in a dusty barn somewhere...
Will
According to my source, that last V5 would have been issued 6 years before he sold the car to the garage in Leith but, strangely, he claims the car was pale green.
He actually wants to come and see my car soon so I will quiz him and see if he has any reference material/photos.
Had another chat with Jim, the former owner of this car. He popped in to see my car on his way to Knockhill for the Touring Cars (driving a very nice Evora, btw).
Seems the car was pretty well on the way to being fully restored before he sold it. He was a motor engineer and had ample facilities to work on what was pretty much a barn find. He made up a new chassis all tig welded, had the body mounted to it, new fuel tanks made up, seats all retrimmed etc, etc. According to him, paint and minor finishing was all that was left to do.
To my mind, it seems unlikely that a car in such an advanced state of restoration would, in the late '80's, be either scrapped or left abandoned. Although Leith (where the car went) has been extensively gentrified, these are still plenty of old port buildings that remain untouched.
He was intrigued to find out if his name was still on the V5 or whether it had been re-registered to the people he sold it to. The fact that it was sold in gel coat and is now down as red would suggest that it has been.
Is there any process under which the club could ask the DVLA for this information or would the good old DPA laws come in to force?
Thanks Mike, every car is important! but yes, sadly GDPR bo**ocks makes my job here a misery and we don't have a chance of finding out anything from DVLA. As you say I'm sure it has survived and will reappear one day
Well fancy that.... I was that gentleman with a garage in Leith! So Nigel, our discussion about a missing registration has come full circle. And yes, the car has been sitting in numerous barns for the greater proportion of the intervening years. I suspect the previous owner's name will be on the V5 as we didn't go in for such namby pamby things as re-registering cars in those days, until we sold them.
The chassis is new (ish) and I have most of the rest. Seats being recovered might be a little bit of an exaggeration. They are also phase 2, along with the front and 2 spare doors. The colour was principally gel with more red than any other colour visible and the body is now generally junk.
So Mike, you can tell Jim his car still exists (more or less) and I can now put a registration to my chassis, which is most pleasing.
The mechanical restoration is actually underway but I am still dithering over what to do about bodywork.
Car without a reg no. meets reg. no. without a car!
Seriously, happy to have played a small part in hopefully bringing another car back to life.
Best of luck with the resto, Richard. I understand the draw of wanting to retain the original body but with new shells available, to me, it's a no brainer. New bodies come with their own challenges but my original was so far gone that the car would never got back to the point of being on the road without one.
Richard. At your suggestion, I emailed Jim to let him know his car still exists. He's got back to me and said he'd be happy to provide a statement of fact for the DVLA should you need one.
Thanks Mike, and yes please. I was gently whittering as to whether I could ask for exactly that, or was it just too cheeky. I never met Jim, it was my partner who collected the car but we did manage to drive it up my drive, with jerry can strapped to the back seat to feed the pumps.
In the intervening years, of course, anything that could perish, has!
I must admit, in regards to the bodywork, I've been thinking about what an enterprising chap with access to the Peerless parts bins would build as a weekend sports racer of the 2-seater open sports variety. Or would this get me drummed out of the brownies?
As the chassis is a replacement, the bodywork came off at least 3 different cars and no idea if the engine is original, my conscience has allowed me to at least contemplate this. comments, mud pies....?
Richard, I'll email Jim and ask him if he's happy for me to forward his email address to you. Can't think it'll be an issue. I'll pm it when I get the nod from him.
As regards what you do with the car, I'm probably the last person to ask. Although my car still looks like a Peerless, much has changed under the skin. I'd never get any prizes for originality.
If it were me, though, I'd go for that new body. Irrespective of what you do, it's never going to look as good as a Peerless.
