Peel P50: The 59kg Car You Can Park Indoors

Ridiculous Rides

MEASURING in at just 100cm tall - and 99cm wide - the Peel P50 is the world’s smallest car to ever go into production. The three-wheeled microcar was originally made from 1962 to 1965 by the Peel Engineering Company and was listed in the 2010 Guinness World Records as the smallest production car ever made, with a weight of just 59 kilograms. Of the 50 P50s ever produced, only 27 are still known to exist today. Canadian, Greg, is one of the owners of these rare cars, and he told us: “The P50 came out of the Isle of Man, basically the concept was a little car that you can use in the city”.  Video Credits: Videographer / director: David Albright Producer: Giacomo Brunelli, Frazer Randalls Editor: Ian Phillips

Transcript

00:01Every time anyone sees this car, they have a huge smile on their face.

00:06Smaller than I remember.

00:08I've loved weird cars my whole life.

00:11It's kind of a ludicrous idea.

00:13The world's smallest car.

00:20Sometimes it doesn't start very quickly.

00:22Sometimes it does.

00:25This was my worst fear.

00:30It's red.

00:35It's rare.

00:37It's really tiny.

00:39The smallest production car ever built.

00:42This mini marble from the swinging 60s is the Peel P50.

00:56The P50 came out of the Isle of Man,

00:58which is a small island between Ireland and England.

01:01Basically, the concept was a little car that you could use in the city.

01:06I've loved weird cars my whole life.

01:08It's kind of a ludicrous idea in the fact they only made 49 of them.

01:15There's a gentleman in Vancouver, British Columbia, that wanted to import them.

01:18He brought in, I've heard, numbers 3 to 6, which is a huge number of the overall production.

01:23This is one of those cars because it adds some special features for the Canadian market,

01:28which makes it really special, I think.

01:29At just one metre high and less than a metre wide, this really is a truly minute machine.

01:42The P50 is powered by a DKW 49 CC engine and has a top speed of 37 miles per hour and 4.2 horsepower.

01:52It's a one-seater, one headlight.

01:55I also love how it's three wheels.

01:58So 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.

02:06And you have to be kind of smart to get in.

02:09So you have to bend like this.

02:13There you go.

02:14Easy as that.

02:15Here's the gear shifter, this orange little contraption.

02:18It's three speeds.

02:19There's no reverse because you have to get out of the car and go around to the reversing handle,

02:23pick 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.

02:33There was a Russian freighter that came into the port of Vancouver.

02:36They used it to drive around their huge freighter on the deck.

02:39But then the refrigerator broke.

02:41So when they came back, they traded this car in on a refrigerator.

02:45It was in this ship supply store sitting there for $100.

02:48This gentleman named Windy bought it and brought it home for his son Don 50 years ago.

02:53And that's who I bought it from, that family.

02:55While it was bought for a song half a century ago,

02:58if 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.

03:13This was the first one.

03:14And then they built another one that looks like a little flying saucer.

03:17And that's called a Trident.

03:18And that's what I was actually after.

03:20I was just playing online, looking around.

03:23And as I was searching, I found this one.

03:25It was in Kelowna, British Columbia, five, six hours away.

03:28When it came to restoring this vehicle, Greg had his work cut out.

03:32It was very complete, but I needed a number of things.

03:35The hardest part of restoring the car was just finding the parts

03:38and waiting months and months and months to get them from England.

03:41Once in its life, it had been chopped into a convertible.

03:45Luckily, 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.

04:02And now, having not seen the car since its restoration,

04:06the previous owners have come to check out Greg's handiwork.

04:10Where did you get the mirror?

04:19It makes me want to cry.

04:21It's so adorable.

04:23It looks smaller than I remember.

04:29Same seat.

04:30Same seat.

04:31You just reupholstered it.

04:32Yeah, reupholstered, yeah.

04:33Because they used to tell us our seat was wrong.

04:36I found another BC car and it has that seat.

04:39Really?

04:40Yep.

04:41So we didn't have the real one?

04:42Yes.

04:43Where did you find another BC car?

04:45Eastern Washington.

04:46I'm a sleuth.

04:47Oh, totally.

04:48I love it.

04:49I'm a car detective.

04:50I learned to drive on this.

04:52At six and a half.

04:53At six and a half.

04:54Way before my license came on.

04:56Straightened out all the wheels.

04:58My husband was on his way home from work one day,

05:00and he had to pass the second-hand store,

05:02and it was sitting on a shelf in the window.

05:05And he screeched to a halt and ran in and said,

05:08I want that.

05:09It was payday that day.

05:10So no groceries but came home with a car?

05:12Yes, no groceries but a car.

05:14I don't think you were that happy that day.

05:16No, I was going to kick him right from here to eternity.

05:18The chrome on the inside of the engine where it breathes.

05:23I know, you can't see it.

05:25It was cut like this.

05:27He kept flipping it all the time.

05:28Couldn't get out?

05:29He couldn't get out, so he took the top off.

05:31Every time it landed, it landed on the door.

05:36Oh, that's the windshield washer.

05:37That 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?

05:43It wasn't the ashtray.

05:44I thought it was the ashtray too.

05:46Oh, you squeezed the bottle and it fits.

05:49Oh, no way.

05:55I did drive it to school one time.

05:57Yes.

05:58You 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.

06:05I remember having 11 children on the car.

06:09Hanging on the outside, on the front.

06:11And maybe that's what happened to the rear view mirror.

06:14The teachers got wind of what was going on.

06:17I finally did get slowed down and then I got a couple of days off school for free.

06:23And I think Dad had to come and get me.

06:25It looks better than it ever has in its life, I'm sure.

06:28Ah, it's wonderful.

06:29Gives you such a good feeling.

06:31You know when you look back as a child, things always have a rosy look.

06:35I'm looking at this thing and damn, that was a pretty good childhood.

06:41Every time anyone sees this car, they have a huge smile on their face.

06:44And that's really fun to be around.

06:46And that's really fun to be around.

06:47And that's really fun to be around.

06:48And that's really fun to be around.

06:49And that's really fun to be around.

06:50And that's really fun to be around.

06:51And that's really fun to be around.

06:52And that's really fun to be around.

06:53And that's really fun to be around.

06:54And that's really fun to be around.

06:55And that's really fun to be around.

06:56And that's really fun to be around.

06:57And that's really fun to be around.

06:58And that's really fun to be around.

06:59And that's really fun to be around.

07:00And that's really fun to be around.

07:01And that's really fun to be around.

07:02And that's really fun to be around.

07:03And that's really fun to be around.

07:05And that's really fun to be around.

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