Richard Lichtfel

I have gone through all my Peerless archives and all I can find is that Bohannon was negotiating with a European company in 1930 to produce a front wheel drive car. The article did not mention the name of the car company. The president and vice president of Continental Motors purchased a large block of Peerless stock and had tried to take over Peerless at the time. There was a rumor in 1930 that Peerless may be moved to Detroit. I do not know the connection that Buccialli had with Continental Motors but that may be what started the negotiations with Peerless. RHL

jwilli43 That boat tail roadster would be a fine automobile, worth trying to locate. In June 2115 we are having a meet in Cleveland of all Cleveland built automobiles and trucks. We are combining that with our national Peerless meet. I hope the Jordan owners are notified of this. Will be fun to all get together.

Peerless produced four different models with a full range of bodies in 1930 that ranged in price from $1495 to $3045. Total production 4,010 In 1931 models and prices were the same as 1930 --Production stopped June 30, 1931 with 850 cars built. In October 1931 several cars were assembled from parts in inventory and sold as 1932 models at reduced prices, Deluxe 8--$1,195 & Standard 8--$1,095, some of these would be a mix and match of parts. Peerless continued maintaining a parts inventory for Peerless cars already built. The factory closed Nov. 7, 1931 and converted into a brewery.

After the 1929 crash and the luxury car market died the new President of Peerless Motor Car (Bohannon) was searching for another product. The connection between Bucciali and Peerless may have been the Continental engine company. Continental was a major stock holder of Peerless and had tried to take over control of the Company. This is the reason Peerless started using Continental instead of their own engines. Continental was also supplying Buccialli with engines. However, Bohannon wanted to make something that everyone could afford:---------------------BEER

My 1916 Peerless has the pet cock but the 1917 Peerless has a dip stick. The name is an old plumbing word--cock meaning spigot or valve and petite meaning small.

On January 24, 1865 Robert and W.L. Simpson established the Peerless Wringer Co. in Cincinnati. In 1885 they purchased the Mercantile Manufacturing Co. in Cleveland. In Feb. 1891 the name was changed to Peerless Mfg. Co. and on Nov. 1, 1900 the first Peerless Motorette was displayed at America's first auto show in New York. In Feb. 1902 Company was incorportated as the Peerless Motor Car Company. The Peerless factory shut down Nov. 7, 193i. Peerless purchased the rights from Carlings of Canada to brew beer. In 1933 the name was changed to Peerless Corporation and in 1936 became Brewing Corp. of America and in 1938 name was change to the Carlings Brewing Company.

This is a 1910 Peerless model 28 6 cylinder 7 pass. Touring $6,000

My 1931 370S-WS10 was called a Sport Cabriolet by MB

Automobile state license plates and registration were originally for anti-theft and this was in the pre-teens. Now it is more of a revenue source.

The touring car appears to be a 1918 Peerless. The radiator and hood are Peerless shape, the three point suspension and body look Peerless. The car looks identical to my 1917 Peerless touring except the 1918 windshield was slanted and not straight. RHL

This appears to be a 1922 Peerless engine. The 1923 had the air compressor on the transmission not in front by the fan. The 1921 engine had the distributor in the rear. It looks like a Peerless frame that has been cut off and the axle and wheels are not Peerless. The big question would be the condition of the blocks, pan and water pump.If water sat in these they could be badly oxidized. RHL

That is a beautiful Peerless truck and good restoration. I wish it were in the USA The engine is the T head Peerless four but the water return manifold on top of the heads does not look original and does not match the ones shown in the truck manuals. I wonder if they had trouble with the originals and had these cast in London as replacements. The Peerless truck company was in business in England until the mid 1930's and made many of their replacement parts for the Peerless trucks. RHL

This was the Opera Sedan built by Bruce Mohs on a International truck chassis. He only built one. He did build a couple of Safari cars on the truck chassis but they were quite different from the Opera Sedan. He built a lot of different things over the years. Look him up on Google Bruce Baldwin Mohs.

This is the original formula for a Marvel Mystery oil substitute: 1 1/2 gal. ice machine oil--10 ounces synthetic oil of wintergreen---4 ounces technical chloroform--1 gal. kerosene-- 8 ounces carbon tetrachloride and 1/2 teaspoon red oil dye Carbon tet. is illegal today so they must be using something different in place of it.

Your hood appears to be off a 1903 two cylinder Peerless. I did not realize they were brass. This is a very rare car.

I have installed shut off valves on all my gas lines that are easy to get to and shut off when I stop for a while

Peerless built their first heavy truck in 1911. They were making delivery trucks, patty wagons and such on their auto chassis but in 1911 they started producing the 1 1/2 ton truck and then added the 3 ton and 5 ton to the line. England purchased thousands of these chassis and installed their own bodies on the back. In 1914 Peerless had so many orders for trucks that their total production on 4 cylinder engines went into the trucks and only 280 automobiles were built that year and they were all six cylinders. Peerless truck production continued thru 1917 with very little change. RHL.

Packards were made just south of Cleveland in the beginning. Packard, Peerless and Pierce- Arrow were very similar cars in the early years selling for about the same price All three received perfect scores in the 1905 Glidden tour with Percy Pierce winning the popular vote. Early writers of automobile magazines referred to them as the three P's. By 1920 the 3 P's went different ways. Packard was sporty and stylish, Pierce-Arrow was more sedate and was known as the bankers car. Peerless on the other hand had developed their V-8 and running gear that was going 200,000 miles with only minor repairs.They decided to keep their body designs the same so an older Peerless would not be out of style. Not the thing to do in the roaring 20's. Sales went down and there were three stock take-overs that didn't help sales. In 1929 Count Sakhnoffsky was hired to design the new Peerless and try to re-gain their prestige, but it was too late, with the depression not many were able to buy an expensive car. Peerless the decided to make something that everyone could afford--BEER

Notice to owners of Peerless automobiles: we have established the dates for our annual Peerless meets. September 4th-6th, 2014, New Glarus, Wis. Applications will be in our next Co-Operator The National Peerless Meet for 2015 is June 12th-14th in Cleveland, Ohio. The Northern Ohio Chapter AACA along with the Crawford Automobile & Aviation Museum and the Peerless Automobile Club will be assembling a gathering of Cleveland built automobiles. There were 75 different manufacturers of automobiles in Cleveland. This should be a very interesting meet. Put these on your calendar. RHL

I know it has been a long cold winter in Wisconsin but the Central Fall Meet in Oconomowoc scheduled for July 31st-Aug. 2nd is mid-summer here. They talk of climate change but this is pushing it. RHL

We have so much snow they are selling it for sanitary land fill!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This cap is rare and the originals go for several hundreds of dollars. However, they are being reproduced but still not cheap.

These aren't as rare as you might think. One in very good, complete condition would be very rare. Most of the ones I have found were not restorable. I contacted the seller on this engine and could not get any information on it which tells me the engine is in very bad shape. Maybe a boat anchor. The tower gear cover shown doesn't go with that engine. RHL

It is a good article but I disagree with the comment about Carlings Black Label being a bad beer. It was a good beer and we drank it all through college. The Red Cap Ale was the best and I would still drink it if was still available. RHL

Peerless built many commercial vehicles over the years. They started building heavy trucks in 1911 and were building light commercial vehicles on the car chassis. Like police cars, paddy wagons, ambulance, hearse and light delivery trucks. Peerless showed these in ads but I believe the special bodies were built by other body companies. The big problem with sedans of this era is the cost to restore is always more than the selling value when it is done. I think that is why so many are made into rods. Jeff mentioned the engine about the same HP as a 1946 Dodge Power Wagon. I had one of those and 35 mph was about top speed. Of course a hearse would never have to go much faster, but you could always put an overdrive on it to make it more road worthy. If I was younger I would have liked a project like this. I hope this goes to a good home. RHL