A big price for a small car: Dinky 1963 Peel P50 sells for £111k

You can get a lot of car for over £100,000, but one collector of classic motors has just spent north of that amount on a vehicle that measures in at a mere 1.3 metres long.

A 1963 Peel P50 microcar – the world’s smallest passenger car – has sold for £111,000 in a British auction.

It’s the second highest figure ever paid for the dinky three-wheeler, with the record amount of £122,000 achieved at a Florida auction six years ago. 

The diminutive motor was sold last month by online auction specialist, Car & Classic.

The 1963 car with registration ‘747 UNN’ is one of only 46 examples ever produced by Peel Engineering in the early sixties (1962-1965) and had just two previous keepers from new, according to the paperwork provided with the auction sale.

Around only half – believed to be 26 in total – are said to remain in existence today, making them highly sought after and particularly collectible. 

Not only is the P50 just 1.3 metres long but also the same in height and less than a metre wide. 

In 2010, the Peel was listed in the Guinness World records and given the title of the smallest production car ever made. 

This particular example has a ‘wild past’, according to the auctioneer.

It was used for a May 1963 promotional stunt, with the vehicle lifted all the way to the top of the Blackpool Tower and subsequently driven around the observation gallery to mark its arrival to the market.

Experts believe it may also be the earliest model ever made, with it being a pre-production example sporting a lower fitment of the windscreen, early Lucas sidelights, a cream steering wheel and no rear roll bar. 

‘No other Peel has the same features,’ says Car & Classic.

‘Partly because of its glamorous history and totally unique features as well as its rarity as a model, the Peel was the object of brisk bidding until the winning £111,000,’ the online auction site added, revealing some 99 bids were made during its auction session.

The highest figure on record for a P50 is almost £122,000, achieved at an RM Sotheby’s Florida sale in March 2016, with bidding for the car described as ‘hotly contested’ at the time. 

Fitted with a puny 49cc single-cylinder petrol engine, the Peel is capable of a maximum speed of just 38mph and can return around 100mpg, thanks to its featherweight 59kg of bulk (minus a driver, of course).

Peel Engineering Limited on the Isle of Man launched the P50 – designed and built by Cyril Cannell and Henry Kissack – at the 1962 Earls Court Motorcycle Show, with the vehicle so small that it qualified as a motorcycle.

An extremely basic motor, they have no onboard instruments or odometer and just three forward gears.

The P50s were not fitted with a reverse gear, with owners expected to the rear of the car with a grab handle and hand turn it to face the desired direction.

The Peel shot to recent fame in the 2007 during season 10 of Top Gear, with Jeremy Clarkson driving the vehicle into the BBC’s studios and around the broadcaster’s head office.  

The vendor is said to have sold it due to a lack of use over the years and in the hope it will take pride of place in a microcar collection.

Last year, 31-year-old Alex Orchin achieved the incredible feat of driving the length of Britain in his Peel P50, taking three weeks to travel from John O’Groats in Scotland to Land’s End on England’s south coast.   

At 5ft 11, he had to drive with knees jammed either side of steering wheel, though his escapade raised more than £8,000 for Children in Need.