00:00Every time anyone sees this car, they have a huge smile on their face.
00:06It's smaller than I remember.
00:08I've loved weird cars my whole life.
00:11It's kind of a ludicrous idea.
00:12The world's smallest car.
00:20Sometimes it doesn't start very quickly, sometimes it does.
00:25This was my worst fear.
00:31It's red, it's rare, it's really tiny.
00:36The smallest production car ever built.
00:39This mini-marvel from the swinging 60s is the Peel P50.
00:53The P50 came out of the Isle of Man, which is a small island between New York and New York.
00:58The Isle of Man, which is a small island between Ireland and England.
01:02Basically the concept was a little car that you could use in the city.
01:06I've loved weird cars my whole life.
01:09It's kind of a ludicrous idea in the fact that they only made 49 of them.
01:15There was a gentleman in Vancouver, British Columbia, that wanted to import them.
01:19He brought in, I've heard, numbers 3 to 6, which is a huge number of the overall production.
01:24This is one of those cars because it had some special features for the Canadian market,
01:28which makes it really special I think.
01:36At just one metre high and less than a metre wide, this really is a truly minute machine.
01:43The P50 is powered by a DKW 49cc engine and has a top speed of 37mph and 4.2 horsepower.
01:54It's a one-seater, one headlight.
01:57I 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.
02:04It's got this cool suicide door.
02:07And you have to be kind of smart to get in.
02:10You have to bend like this.
02:13There you go. Easy as that.
02:16Here's the gear shifter, this orange little contraption.
02:18It's three speeds, there's no reverse because you have to get out of the car and go around to the reversing handle,
02:24pick up the car and turn it around and then get back in.
02:30This may be a small car, but it has a big history.
02:34There was a Russian freighter that came into the port of Vancouver.
02:37They used it to drive around their huge freighter on the deck.
02:40But then the refrigerator broke, so when they came back they traded this car in on a refrigerator.
02:45It was in this ship supply store sitting there for $100.
02:49This gentleman named Wendy bought it and brought it home for his son Don 50 years ago,
02:54and that's who I bought it from, that family.
02:56While it was bought for a song half a century ago,
02:59if you're lucky enough to find one up for grabs now, expect to pay big bucks.
03:04A P50 was sold at auction in 2016 for $176,000.
03:11Peel actually made two models, this was their first one,
03:15and then they built another one that looks like a little flying saucer,
03:18and that's called a Trident, and that's what I was actually after.
03:21I was just playing online, looking around, and as I was searching I found this one.
03:26It was in Kelowna, British Columbia, five, six hours away.
03:29When it came to restoring this vehicle, Greg had his work cut out.
03:33It was very complete, but I needed a number of things.
03:35The hardest part of restoring the car was just finding the parts
03:39and waiting months and months and months to get them from England.
03:42Once in its life it had been chopped into a convertible.
03:46Luckily the roof had been kept and put back on,
03:48but there was lots of little pieces that had gone missing over that time.
03:51We got a new door and had that fitted.
03:53I've never really restored a car from the ground up,
03:56so this was a great opportunity for me to do that.
03:59And now, having not seen the car since its restoration,
04:03the previous owners have come to check out Greg's handiwork.
04:13Where did you get the mirror?
04:16It makes me want to cry.
04:18It's so adorable.
04:20It's smaller than I remember.
04:23Same seat.
04:25You just reupholstered it?
04:27Yeah, reupholstered, yeah.
04:29Because they used to tell us our seat was wrong.
04:32I found another BC car, and it has that seat.
04:35Really?
04:37Yep, I was like, yes.
04:39Where did you find another BC car?
04:42Eastern Washington.
04:44I'm a sleuth.
04:46I love it. I'm a car detective.
04:48I learned to drive on this.
04:49At six and a half.
04:51At six and a half, way before my license came out.
04:55My husband was on his way home from work one day,
04:58and he had to pass this second-hand store,
05:00and it was sitting on a shelf in the window.
05:03And he screeched to a halt and ran in and said, I want that!
05:07It was payday that day.
05:09So no groceries, but came home with a car.
05:11Yes, no groceries but a car.
05:13I don't think you were that happy that day.
05:15No, I was going to kick him right from here to eternity.
05:18The chrome on the inside of the engine where it breathes.
05:21I know, you can't see it.
05:23It was cut like this.
05:25He kept flipping it all the time.
05:27He couldn't get out.
05:29So he took the top off.
05:31Every time it landed, it landed on the door.
05:34Oh, that's the windshield washer.
05:36That is the windshield washer.
05:38And you've got it in the ashtray.
05:40That is the holder for it.
05:42It wasn't the ashtray?
05:44It wasn't the ashtray.
05:45I thought it was the ashtray too.
05:47Oh, you squeeze the bottle and it fits.
05:50No way!
05:55I did drive it to school one time.
05:57Yes, you drove it to school?
05:59Yeah, it was grade four.
06:01And at recess, I got in the car and drove out into the soccer field.
06:06I remember having 11 children on the car.
06:10Hanging on the outside, on the front.
06:12Maybe that's what happened to the rear view mirror.
06:15The teachers got wind of what was going on.
06:18I finally did get slowed down, and then I got a couple of days off school for free.
06:22And I think Dad had to come and get me.
06:25It looks better than it ever has in its life, I'm sure.
06:28Oh, it's wonderful.
06:30It gives you such a good feeling.
06:32You know when you look back as a child, things always have a rosy look?
06:35I'm looking at this thinking, damn, that was a pretty good childhood.
06:41Every time anyone sees this car, they have a huge smile on their face.
06:45And that's really fun to be around.
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