Peerless at Hershey

[Richard Lichtfel]

We had a Peerless booth at Hershey this year and met several Peerless owners. We even picked up five new members. Johannus Dagevos from the Netherlands was there and we had a good conversation, my Dutch isn't too good even though my Grandfather came from Holland. Our booth was busy and I didn't have much of a chance to wander around the other vendors. Don Bettes was there selling some Peerless castings and forms and Ralph Cartino was also with us selling Peerless parts. On one of our forums we were talking about a rear seat windshield that was on a Peerless and if it was original. I picked one up from Ralph for my 1916 touring car. It is called a rear seat windshield and patented in 1911. It mounts to the floor and folds down behind the front seat. You have to remove it if you are going to use the jump seats but it just fits into sockets in the floor. I am looking forward to getting it restored and installing it. The back seat in a 7 passenger touring gets pretty windy. We have on occasion put up the rear side curtains.

I need some help!! While at Hershey I met the owner of a 1911 Peerless that was interested in joining the club. I lost his name. This car was purchased from Ted Oney of Oklahoma City. Can anyone help me with this?

Thank you, RHL

[jeff_a]

I'm glad to hear your reports about the Peerless Booth at the Hershey Meet, and how you had a lot of people stop by. Maybe I can make it sometime. I remember reading some scary stories about the epic mud at Hershey in the past, and wondered if it was a BYOB event (bring your own bulldozer).

Did Mr. Dagevos from Holland know ahead of time about our booth or just run into it by accident? Had he seen any of the other European Peerlesses? I heard that Philippe Mordant went on a 500 km trip through Luxembourg and Germany in his '27 Peerless recently.

Quite something that you got one of those rear windshields. I'll tell you if I have any news about the 1911 Peerless or its owner. I believe Evert Louwman in Holland has a 1911 Peerless Model 32 on display in a big museum.

Edited October 24, 2009 by jeff_a (see edit history)

[Richard Lichtfel]

Jeff,

No mud, everything is on blacktop. Nothing to gripe about anymore. Mr. Dagevos has been a member of the Peerless club for ten years and gets our news letter so he knew of our booth and location. Being that the American dollar is so weak and the Euro is high there were many European people at Hershey buying for about 50 cents on the dollar, a lot of our cars and parts are going to Europe. After the second world war we brought many of their cars over here so I suppose now it's their turn to bring some back.

Interesting note: that rear seat windshield that Ralph gave me, I cleaned it up and got the tag off it. Fryer-Auster Company The Auster Tonneau Shield Patent 1911

These have been around since 1911 and yet I have never seen one on a pre-20's touring car other than that 1920 Peerless.

RHL