Low angle of view of Barney Oldfield's Peerless, a veteran racing car taking part in the London to Brighton veteran car run.
The Peerless Motor Car Company was an American automobile manufacturer that produced the Peerless brand of motorcars in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1900 to 1931. One of the "Three Ps" – Packard, Peerless, and Pierce-Arrow – the company was known for building high-quality luxury automobiles. Peerless popularized a number of vehicle innovations that later became standard equipment, including drum brakes and the first enclosed-body production cars. Louis P. Mooers designed an 80 hp four-cylinder engine for use in a lightweight racing car. The engine was designed with a T-head, and lubrication was fully pressurised. The car was entered in the 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup, where it was driven by Mooers. Its competition debut, however, was far from encouraging and the car retired on lap two after averaging only mph. The Green Dragon Undaunted, Mooers returned to production cars and produced two new machines, a 24 hp and a 35 hp, both with T-head four-cylinder engines. That year also saw Peerless introduce their Limousine, a car which is widely considered to be America's first non-custom-built closed car. In 1904, Mooers, determined to improve on his poor showing the previous year, designed another racing car. It was, in fact, the 1903 Gordon Bennett car, rebuilt and fitted with a 6 in bore x 6 in stroke engine. Christened the Green Dragon by its owner, Barney Oldfield, to whom the car had passed after failing to qualify for the 1904 Gordon Bennett, it was to establish the Peerless name in no uncertain , nicknamed the 'Boy in Green', acted as test driver for the company's racing cars. He was a natural showman and was soon attracting attention at race tracks all over America. Time and again he set new lap records and, in so doing, established both his name and that of the Peerless Green Dragon in the history books of American motor sport. He crashed Green Dragon in 1905, but a new car was soon built and, once again, Oldfield continued on his winning way.
Size: 2704px × 4064px
Location: Regents Street, London
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., barney, boy, car, close-, dragon, green, historic, louis, mooers, oldfield, oldfields, peerless, racing, vehicle, veteran, wheels
