The Peel Engineering Company was a manufacturing company based in Peel on the west coast of the

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

that primarily made

fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass c ...

boats through its subsidiary company West Marine Ltd. and fairings for motorcycles.

History

Cyril Cannell founded the Peel Engineering Company in Peel in the late 1940s. At first he mainly manufactured GRP fairings for motorcycles and cars. The sports fairings were recognisable for their styling with integral 'blisters' enclosing the handlebar-ends and rider's hands, and were available for racing, named Mountain Mile, with a similar sports-style for road use incorporating a distinctive, large rectangular Cibié headlamp, named Peel 707. A different design was for touring, aptly named TT Tourer. In 1955 Cannell built the first Peel microcar - the Manxcar. The company also built an experimental

hovercraft A hovercraft (: hovercraft), also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, and various other surfaces. Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the ...

design in 1961 powered by a 500cc Triumph engine. On 31 December 1964 the company was renamed Peel Engineering Limited. The original company was dissolved on January 8, 1965. The directors were Cyril Cannell and George Henry Kissack. In 1965, the former directors arranged for all fairing production to be transferred under licence to Mike Ivory of

Luton Luton () is a town and borough in Bedfordshire, England. The borough had a population of 225,262 at the 2021 census. Luton is on the River Lea, about north-west of London. The town's foundation dates to the sixth century as a Saxon settleme ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

, England. Prototype and development work continued on the Isle of Man. Over the course of its history, Peel Engineering developed the Peel Manxcar concept vehicle, the Peel P-1000 4-wheeled

microcar Microcar is a term often used for the smallest size of cars, with three or four wheels and often an engine smaller than . Specific types of microcars include bubble cars, cycle cars, invacar, quadricycles and voiturettes. Microcars are ofte ...

, the Peel P50 and the Peel Trident 3-wheeled microcars, in addition to the

Peel Viking Sport The Peel Viking Sport was a Mini-based car made by the Peel Engineering Company on the Isle of Man between 1966 and 1970. The 2+2 debuted at the 1966 Racing Car Show. Using moulded replicas of cut-down Mini doors, the glassfibre, monocoque, fast ...

and prototype GRP Minis for BMC. These models constitute the only

automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...

s manufactured on the Isle of Man. A limited-run Peel Manxkart

go-kart A go-kart, also written as go-cart (often referred to as simply a kart), is a type of small sports car, close wheeled car, open-wheel car or quadracycle. Go-karts come in all shapes and forms, from non-motorised models to high-performanc ...

was also produced. The Peel P50 is in the ''

Guinness Book Of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

'' as the world's smallest production car. In 1966 Peel stopped producing cars, concentrating again on motorcycle fairings and – under the name West Marine Ltd. – on the construction of fiberglass boats, especially small fishing boats with outboard motors such as the Peel Inshoreman 18. After the death of George Henry Kissack on 16 March 1972, his widow Eileen May Kissack became director on 3 November 1972. She resigned from the post on 25 November 1973 and was replaced by Alice Victoria Maud Cannell on 30 November 1973. On 10 May 1974, the owners decided to dissolve the company, which was then carried out on 29 August 1974.

Further use of the name Peel and replicas

In August 2010, it was announced that two British entrepreneurs, Gary Hillman and Faizal Khan from Peel Engineering in

Sidcup Sidcup is an area of south-east London, England, primarily in the London Borough of Bexley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, bordering the London Boroughs of London Borough of Bromley, Bromley and Royal Borough of Greenwich, Greenwich. It was ...

, founded in 2008, were rebuilding the P50 almost to its original state. Instead of the 45cc petrol engine used at the time, an

electric motor An electric motor is a machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a electromagnetic coil, wire winding to gene ...

now drives the single rear wheel. The new edition, which will only be produced in 50 units, will also have a reverse gear. The price of the car per unit will be around 15,300 euros. Arthur Alan Evans also produces

replicas A replica is an exact (usually 1:1 in scale) copy or remake of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without ...

of the Peel P50 through his Gainsborough-based company - Bambycars, which he founded in 2011.

References

External links

Website of a UK company that produces replicas of some of the original Peel cars

Owners' club website for owners of original & reproductions of the Peel cars
{{Automotive industry in the United Kingdom Defunct companies of the Isle of Man Peel, Isle of Man

History

Further use of the name Peel and replicas

See also

References

External links