Greg: Every time anyone sees this car,
they’d have a huge smile on their face.
Don: Smaller than I remember.
Greg: I’ve loved weird cars my whole life.
It’s kind of ludacris idea,
the world’s smallest car.
Sometimes it doesn’t start very quiclkly,
sometimes it does.
This was my worst fear.
It’s red,
it’s rare,
it’s really tiny.
The smallest production car,
ever built.
This mini-marvel
from the swinging sixties,
is the Peel P50.
Greg: The P50
came out of the Isle of Man,
which is a small island
between Ireland and England.
Basically the concept was,
a little car that you could use in the city.
I’ve loved weird cars my whole life.
It’s kind of a ludacris idea
in the fact they only made 49 of them.
There was a gentleman in Vancouver
British Colombia that wanted to import them.
He brought in about VIN numbers
three to six,
which is a huge number
in the overall production.
This is one of those cars,
because it had some special features
for the Canadian market
which makes it really special I think.
At just one meter high
and less than a meter wide,
this really is a truly [manute] machine.
The P50 is powered by
a DKW 49cc engine,
and has a top speed of
37 miles per hour,
and 4.2 horsepower.
Greg: It’s a one-seater,
one headlight.
I also love how it’s three wheels.
So the back wheel is the one
that is driving it
with a chain from a little Moped engine.
It’s got this cool suicide door,
and you have to be kind of smart
to get to open.
You have to
bend like this,
there we go.
Easy as that.
Here is the gear shifter,
this orange little contraption.
It’s three speeds,
there is no reverse.
Because you have to get out of the car
and go around to the reversing handle,
pick up the car and turn it around
and then get back in.
This maybe a small car,
but it has a big history.
Greg: There was a Russian freighter
that came into the port of Vancouver,
they used it to drive around
their huge freighter on the deck.
But then the refrigerator broke,
so when they came back
they traded
this car in on a refrigerator.
It was in this ship supply store,
sitting there for a $100.
This gentleman named [Windy]
bought it,
and brought it home to his son Don,
50 years ago.
And that’s who I bought it from
that family.
While it was built for song
half a century ago,
if you’re lucky enough to
find one up for grubs now,
expect to pay big bucks.
A P50 was sold at auctioning in 2016,
for $176,000.
Greg: Peel actually made two models,
this was their first one.
And then they built another one
that looks like a little flying saucer,
and that’s called a Trident.
And that’s what I was actually after.
I was just
playing online looking around.
And as I was searching,
I found this one
it was Kelowna, British Colombia.
Five, six hour away.
When it came to restoring this vehicle,
Greg
had his work cut out.
Greg: It was very complete,
but I needed a number of things.
The hardest part of restoring the car
was just finding the parts,
and waiting months and months and months
to get them from England.
Once in its life,
it had been chopped into a convertible.
Luckily, the roof had been kept
and put back on.
There was lots of little pieces that had
gone missing over that time.
We got a new door,
and had that fitted.
I’ve never really restored a car
from the ground up,
so this was a great opportunity
for me to do that.
And now,
having not seen the car
since its restoration,
the previous owners
have come to check out
Greg’s handy work.
Don: Where did you get the mirror?
It’s so adorable.
Don: Little bit smaller than I remember.
Greg: Same seat.
Don: Same seat!
You just reupholstered it?
Greg: Yeah, reupholstered, yeah.
Because I used to us our seat was wrong.
Greg: I found BC car.
It has that seat.
Don: Really?
Greg I was like YES!
Greg: Yes.
Don: Where did you find another BC car?
Greg: Eastern Washington.
I’m a sloth.
Don: Totally.
Greg: I love it, I’m a car detective.
Don: I learned to drive on this
At six and a half.
Don: At six and a half.
It’s way before my license came out.
Vivian: My husband was on his
way from work one day
and he had to pass
this secondhand store,
and it was seating
on a shelf in the window.
And he screeched to a halt
and run in and said I wasn’t that.
It was pay day that day.
with no groceries,
but came home with a car.
Yeah there was no groceries but the car.
Lynn: I don’t think
you were that happy that day.
No I was going to kick right from here to eternity.
The chrome on the inside
of the engine were brief.
I know, you can’t see it.
It was cut like this.
You kept flipping it all the time.
Don: Couldn’t get out.
He couldn’t get out, so he took the top off.
So every time that landed,
it landed on the door.
Don: That’s the windshield washer?
Greg: That is the windshield washer.
Don: And you’ve got in the ashtray?
Greg: That is the holder for it.
Don: That wasn’t the ashtray?
Greg: It wasn’t the ashtray.
I thought it was the ashtray too.
Don: You squeeze the bottle and it spits...
no way.
I did drive it to school one time.
Vivian: Yes.
Lynn: You drove it to school?
Don: Yeah, it was grade four.
And at recess,
I got in the car,
and drove out into the soccer field.
I remember
having 11 children on the car,
hanging on the outside. On the front and...
Maybe that’s what happened to the rearview mirror.
The teachers got wind of what was going on.
I finally did get slowed down,
and then I got a couple of days off school for free.
And I think dad had to come and get me.
Looks better than it ever has in its lifetime, sure.
It’s wonderful,
gives you such a good feeling.
Don: you know when you look back as a child,
things always have a rosy look.
I’m looking at this thinking damn,
that was a pretty good childhood.
Greg: Every time anyone sees this car,
they’d have a huge smile on their face.
And that’s really fun to be around.