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.
00:10It's kind of a ludicrous idea.
00:12The world's smallest car.
00:20Sometimes it doesn't start very quickly.
00:22Sometimes it does.
00:25This was my worst fear.
00:34It's red.
00:35It's rare.
00:36It's really tiny.
00:38The smallest production car ever built.
00:41This mini marble from the swinging 60s is the Peel P50.
00:55The 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.
01:09It's kind of a ludicrous idea in the fact they only made 49 of them.
01:14There was 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 had some special features for the Canadian market,
01:28which makes it really special, I think.
01:35At 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 49cc engine and has a top speed of 37 miles per hour and
01:504.2 horsepower.
01:54It's a one-seater, one headlight.
01:56I also love how it's three wheels, so the back wheel is the one that is driving it with a
02:01chain 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, so you have to bend like this.
02:12There you go. Easy as that.
02:15Here'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
02:23reversing 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.
02:37They 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 Windy 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, if you're lucky enough to find one up for
03:00grabs now,
03:01expect to pay big bucks.
03:03A P50 was sold at auction in 2016 for $176,000.
03:11Peel actually made two models, this 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, and that's what I was actually after.
03:20I was just playing online, looking around, and 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.
03:42Once 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.
03:50We 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.
04:15Where did you get the mirror?
04:19It makes me want to cry.
04:21It's so adorable.
04:23It was smaller than I remember.
04:28Same seat.
04:29Same seat?
04:30You just reupholstered it?
04:31Yeah, reupholstered, yeah.
04:33Because they used to tell us our seat was wrong.
04:35I found another BC car, and it has that seat.
04:39Really?
04:40Yep.
04:40So we didn't have the real one?
04:42Yes.
04:42Where 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.
05:20The 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.
05:35Oh, 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.
05:47Oh, you squeezed the bottle, and it fits.
05:50Oh, no way!
05:54I did drive it to school one time.
05:56Yes.
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.
06:10On the front, and maybe that's what happened to the rear-view mirror.
06:15The 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.
06:22And 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.
06:29It gives 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 thinking, damn, that was a pretty good childhood.
06:41Every time anyone sees a scar, they have a huge smile on their face.
06:44And that's really fun to be around.
06:46For more than one another, I love you too.
06:47Then I'm��d offers you.
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