Solved - NEH 4153: "Peerless / Austin Healey Special" - said to be 1959

Started by Carnut, June 25, 2015, 08:30:19 AM

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Carnut

What's this, from when and powered by what - for 1 point?:

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Interests in life:  Cars, cars, cars - oh and ..er..cars

Carnut

Interests in life:  Cars, cars, cars - oh and ..er..cars

AlexFrance

Is it a rebodied big Healey?

Carnut

Quote from: AlexFrance on July 09, 2015, 06:10:39 PM
Is it a rebodied big Healey?

The chassis is from a big Healey but nothing else.
Interests in life:  Cars, cars, cars - oh and ..er..cars

AlexFrance

Was it made in the UK?

Carnut

Interests in life:  Cars, cars, cars - oh and ..er..cars

AlexFrance

Is it a Jaguar underneath?

Carnut

Quote from: AlexFrance on July 13, 2015, 04:30:51 PM
Is it a Jaguar underneath?

No Jaguar bits at all that I'm aware of.
Interests in life:  Cars, cars, cars - oh and ..er..cars

Carnut

Interests in life:  Cars, cars, cars - oh and ..er..cars

barrett

It's a right bitsa - a Healey chassis, a Jensen 541 body and a 4-litre Princess R engine. It's called a Peerless-Austin-Healey special but beyond the car's ID I can't see much Peerless there. Registration KSL 190, dating from 1959.

Carnut

#10
Quote from: barrett on August 06, 2015, 04:59:53 AM
It's a right bitsa - a Healey chassis, a Jensen 541 body and a 4-litre Princess R engine. It's called a Peerless-Austin-Healey special but beyond the car's ID I can't see much Peerless there. Registration KSL 190, dating from 1959.

That's the car!

It was auctioned recently and shown below are the details published in the auctioneer's catalogue.
Auctioneers rarely seem to know anything about what they're auctioning and this seems to be no exception. It's described as "A Peerless sports car", which it clearly isn't, as the body is evolved mainly from a Jensen 541 and Peerless cars didn't sit on Austin Healey chassis...  so quite what is Peerless about it I can't imagine (as you can't either!). 

They say it is "Petrol 1991 cc" then go on to say it has "a 4 litre straight six Rolls-Royce engine"!  A 1991 cc engine would be the Triumph TR4 from a Peerless perhaps, so maybe the office boy has looked up Peerless on the internet and reproduced what he found there, not knowing the difference between "cc" and "litre"!  Who knows? Clearly not the auctioneers... 

The year 1959 must also refer to a Peerless, as the Princess R didn't appear until the mid-sixties, so this car has obviously been constructed (probably a lot) later than 1959. 

The registration number is a DVLA special age-related plate, which is meant to look like it actually dates from 1959, which it looks nothing like to anyone who knows anything about these things; plates like this only started to be issued about 15 years ago, carrying on from where "SL" reached before the suffix year-letter system started in 1963/4.

Anyway, it's an interesting car which somehow seems to have evaded anyone's attention for some 56 years!  We'll see soon in the press if it sold and for how much.

And just look at the size and position of that steering wheel!
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