00:00 Every time anyone sees this car, they have a huge smile on their face.
00:05 It's smaller than I remember.
00:08 I've loved weird cars my whole life.
00:10 It's kind of a ludicrous idea.
00:12 The world's smallest car.
00:14 Sometimes it doesn't start very quickly, sometimes it does.
00:23 This was my worst fear.
00:27 It's red, it's rare, it's really tiny.
00:30 The smallest production car ever built.
00:33 This mini marvel from the swinging 60s is the Peel P50.
00:38 The P50 came out of the blue.
00:50 It was a very, very small car.
00:53 The P50 came out of the Isle of Man, which is a small island between Ireland and England.
01:01 Basically the concept was a little car that you could use in the city.
01:05 I've loved weird cars my whole life.
01:08 It's kind of a ludicrous idea in the fact that they only made 49 of them.
01:12 There was a gentleman in Vancouver, British Columbia, that wanted to import them.
01:18 He brought in, I've heard, numbers three to six, which is a huge number of the overall production.
01:23 This is one of those cars because it had some special features for the Canadian market,
01:28 which makes it really special, I think.
01:30 At just one metre high and less than a metre wide, this really is a truly minute machine.
01:42 The P50 is powered by a DKW 49cc engine and has a top speed of 37mph and 4.2 horsepower.
01:52 It's a one-seater, one headlight.
01:56 I also love how it's three wheels, so the back wheel is the one that is driving it with a chain from a little moped engine.
02:03 It's got this cool suicide door.
02:06 And you have to be kind of smart to get in.
02:10 You have to bend like this.
02:12 There you go. Easy as that.
02:15 Here's the gear shifter, this orange little contraption.
02:18 It's three speeds, there's no reverse because you have to get out of the car and go around to the reversing handle,
02:24 pick up the car and turn it around and then get back in.
02:26 This may be a small car, but it has a big history.
02:34 There was a Russian freighter that came into the port of Vancouver.
02:37 They used it to drive around their huge freighter on the deck.
02:40 But then the refrigerator broke, so when they came back they traded this car in on a refrigerator.
02:45 It was in this ship supply store sitting there for $100.
02:49 This gentleman named Wendy bought it and brought it home for his son Don 50 years ago.
02:54 And that's who I bought it from, that family.
02:56 While it was bought for a song half a century ago, if you're lucky enough to find one up for grabs now, expect to pay big bucks.
03:04 A P50 was sold at auction in 2016 for $176,000.
03:11 Peel actually made two models, this was their first one.
03:15 And then they built another one that looks like a little flying saucer and that's called a Trident.
03:19 And that's what I was actually after.
03:21 I was just playing online, looking around and as I was searching I found this one.
03:25 It was in Kelowna, British Columbia, five, six hours away.
03:28 When it came to restoring this vehicle, Greg had his work cut out.
03:32 It was very complete but I needed a number of things.
03:35 The hardest part of restoring the car was just finding the parts and waiting months and months and months to get them from England.
03:41 Once in its life it had been chopped into a convertible.
03:45 Luckily the roof had been kept and put back on but there was lots of little pieces that had gone missing over that time.
03:50 We got a new door and had that fitted.
03:53 I've never really restored a car from the ground up, so this was a great opportunity for me to do that.
03:59 And now, having not seen the car since its restoration, the previous owners have come to check out Greg's handiwork.
04:06 Where did you get the mirror?
04:15 It makes me want to cry.
04:17 It's so adorable.
04:19 It was smaller than I remember.
04:26 Same seat.
04:29 You just reupholstered it?
04:31 Yeah, reupholstered.
04:33 Because they used to tell us our seat was wrong.
04:35 I found another BC car and it has that seat.
04:38 Really?
04:40 Yes.
04:41 So we did have the real one?
04:42 Yes.
04:43 Where did you find another BC car?
04:45 Eastern Washington.
04:46 I'm a sleuth.
04:47 I love it. I'm a car detective.
04:50 I learned to drive on this.
04:52 At six and a half.
04:53 Way before my license came out.
04:56 My husband was on his way home from work one day and he had to pass this second hand store.
05:02 And it was sitting on a shelf in the window.
05:05 And he screeched to a halt and ran in and said, "I want that!"
05:09 It was payday that day.
05:10 So no groceries but came home with a car.
05:12 Yes, no groceries but a car.
05:14 I don't think he was that happy that day.
05:16 I was going to kick him right from here to eternity.
05:20 The chrome on the inside of the engine where it breathes.
05:23 I know and you can't see it.
05:25 It was cut like this.
05:27 He kept flipping it all the time.
05:28 Couldn't get out?
05:29 Couldn't get out so he took the top off.
05:31 Every time it landed, it landed on the door.
05:34 Oh, that's the windshield washer.
05:37 That is the windshield washer.
05:38 And you've got it in the ashtray.
05:40 That is the holder for it.
05:42 It wasn't the ashtray?
05:43 It wasn't the ashtray.
05:44 I thought it was the ashtray too.
05:46 Oh, you squeeze the bottle and it fits.
05:49 Oh, no way!
05:51 I did drive it to school one time.
05:56 Yes.
05:57 You drove it to school?
05:59 Yeah, it was grade four.
06:01 And at recess, I got in the car and drove out into the soccer field.
06:05 I remember having 11 children on the car.
06:09 Hanging on the outside, on the front.
06:11 Maybe that's what happened to the rear view mirror.
06:14 The teachers got wind of what was going on.
06:17 I finally did get slowed down and then I got a couple of days off school for free.
06:22 And I think Dad had to come and get me.
06:25 Looks better than it ever has in its life, I'm sure.
06:28 Oh, it's wonderful.
06:29 It gives you such a good feeling.
06:31 You know when you look back as a child, things always have a rosy look?
06:35 I'm looking at this thinking, "Damn, that was a pretty good childhood."
06:41 Every time anyone sees this car, they have a huge smile on their face.
06:44 And that's really fun to be around.
06:46 (upbeat music)
Comments