For Down Under Folks Only

[jeff_a]

I am working on a worldwide listing of Peerless cars and trucks, 1900-1932, and just added No. 300 to the list today. I found a color photo of a 1926 Peerless taken in Tasmania in 1993. This one is a 5-passenger Touring Phaeton (or possibly a 7-passenger).

Have any of you Discussion Forum members in Austalia, New Zealand or Tasmania heard of this car and its current owners or whereabouts? The picture was taken at the "1993 world rally Tasmania" held by the Veteran Car Club of Australia and can be found by going to google image search and typing in "1926 Peerless Tasmania". [Sorry, the earlier address to that picture on picasaweb didn't work]

Thank you for any word on the car. I'm trying to find more information for the club records (model, engine, serial numbers, owner, etc.).

Jeff

[60electra225]

Have you tried writing to the VCCA ?

VETERAN CAR CLUB OF AUSTRALIA (N.S.W.) Home Page

[jeff_a]

Thank you for suggesting the VCCA. I looked at their site and found an address for the Veteran Car Club of Australia (Tas), Inc. { www.vccatas.org.au } and sent them a message. The photos of the 1993 car show are also on this site.

By coincidence, there's another 1926 Peerless in your part of the world. I have a faint lead on a Model 6-80 boat tail coupe somewhere in Australia, owner and location unknown, dating back to 1994. I think the car might have been in a place called Swinburne. Someone named John Henry Parlevliet said he had a friend with this car and was seeking info about it. His no-longer-in-operation email address is cake@gpo.swin.edu.au. Somehow I thought that might be a school in Swinburne....but that's as far as I got tracking down the car.

It was nice reading about these two antique car organizations in Australia: quite a few members, great photography, and they even have Clubhouses to meet in!

[1939_buick]

Swinburne is a suburb of Melbourne.
Swinburne is technical school - university. Guess your man worked or was a student there.

[60electra225]

If you have a look at the following list taken from the residential White Pages telephone directory, there are quite a few people with this surname, so one of them probably knows the person mentioned above. Unfortunately I am not in Australia at present, but someone else might offer to call these numbers and try and locate him.

whitepages.com.au - Search for an Australian Business, Government or Person

[Ivan Saxton]

I can find out a bit about a Peerless side valve six other than the boat-tail coupe that Jim Martin had in Melbourne in the sixties and later. One of my friends did quite a lot of restoration work for the owner of this other one; and I believe parts were used from the chassis of yet another which had been broken up. I'll ring John Davis tomorrow night when it is not too late. (It is about quarter to eleven pm here eastern standard time now; and I will ring only people this late of evening that I know for sure will not be disturbed.)
I only saw Jim Martin's boat-tail a couple of times at most, and it was a bit disappointing, being less dashing than serene. (I gave away a couple of Model 80 Pierce Arrows because I was not inspired by them.)
I doubt whether the Veteran Car Club divisions can help you much, because they are a different demographic whose main interest is brass cars. I'll find out what happened to Jim Martin's car for you. I think he has been horizontal for many years.

[jeff_a]

60electr225 and Ivan,
Thank you for looking into this for me! I could never afford to fly to your country to look for the cars myself, and it's a little too far to canoe to from where I live.

I at first thought that that the VCCA organization wouldn't be of much help in finding 1926 motorcars...but the Tasmanian division apparently has Vintage-Era cars at some of their meets and tours, as well as Veteran. I knew you had some knowledge of a Peerless boat-tail, Ivan, but it sounds like you're aware of others, too. Maybe one case where being a rare marque is helpful. ----Jeff

P.S.: Though the photo from the 1993 VCCA-Tasmania car show is really good, I'm unable to tell if this tourer is a Model 6-80 (63 h.p., 230 cu. in. six), 6-72 (70 h.p., 289 cu. in. six), or 8-69 (80 h.p., 332 cu. in. V-8).

[60electra225]

60electr225 and Ivan,
I could never afford to fly to your country to look for the cars myself, and it's a little too far to canoe to from where I live.

It's not that expensive and would be the trip of a lifetime ! We need more tourists to pay for the mess that your bankers left us in ! Our government seems hell bent on spending money that they haven't got and borrowing what they haven't got from the Chinese, so that we have ever more to pay back from the empty coffers ! Not quite sure how this all works - other than it doesn't and we end up being taxed to hell !

[Ivan Saxton]

I spoke to John Davis earlier this evening, Jeff. The car he worked on for a subsequent owner some years ago had earlier been Jim Martin's boat-tail coupe.
John knew that it had subsequently changed hands, but has no idea who is the present owner. It had not covered a great mileage, but John had never driven it on the road, and so had no idea what the performance was like.

[jeff_a]

Ivan,
Thank you very much for contacting John Davis about that Peerless Boat Tail Coupe that Jim Martin owned. I decided there was enough info to refer to this car as Jim Martin's on my Peerlesses-still-in-existence list. There can't be that many Peerless cars in Australia that we'd be confusing it with another one! I have a Peerless of the same model and with that engine, but I haven't gotten it running yet to tell you what the performance is. It has an 80 mph speedometer and the owner's manual suggests you can drive it in 3rd from 1 to 75 mph. ---Jeff

[DavidAU]

Jeff,

Just in case you are not aware of it, there are two Peerless sales brochures coming up for sale in the Bonhams auction in Greenwich Concours d'Elelgance on June 6, 2010. One is for 1909 and the other is 1912.

David

Bonhams 1793: Fine Art Auctioneers & Valuers