1910 Peerless Model 29

The Peerless Company was started in Cincinnati in 1874 as a manufacturer of clothes wringers, clothespins, and washboards, later moving to Cleveland and becoming the Peerless Manufacturing Company. The Peerless Company had many talents including being the world leader in laundry equipment. In 1891, the company entered the bicycle manufacturing business. Success soon followed but by 1900, it was clear that the new opportunity lay in automobiles.

Louis P. Mooers was chosen by Peerless to spearhead this new endeavor. Licenses from DeDion Bouton were chosen, building both tricycles and 4-wheeled motorettes with single-cylinder DeDion engines. Soon, Mooers had moved beyond the lightweight DeDion machines, and designed a vertical inline two-cylinder with the engine in front of the driver and rear-wheel shaft drive.

By 1904 Mooers had built a 60hp four-cylinder Peerless for competition by the company's new driver, Eli 'Barney' Oldfield. The car was called the 'Peerless Green Dragon' and would help form the company's reputation for high performance and quality. The company would do well in the early Glidden Tours, setting perfect scores in 1906, 1907, and 1908. In 1907 Peerless introduced its famous slogan, 'All that the name implies'.

Mooers and Oldfield left Peerless in 1905 and went to work for the Moon Company. Packard design Charles Schmidt, who had designed the successful Packard Gray Wolf racer, was by Peerless to help with the creation of its six-cylinder engine. The new engine was patterned after the 30-horsepower four-cylinder unit designed by Mooers in 1905 and introduced for the 1908 model year. Both the four- and six-cylinder units used a T-head valve placement with the six using dual coil and magneto ignition, and both engines had a 5.5-inch stroke and 4 7/8-inch bore. The engines used cylinders cast in pairs that bolted to cast-aluminum crankcases and were backed by a three-speed manual transmission, using shaft drive to the rear axles and rear-wheel contracting band brakes. The front suspension was comprised of semi-elliptical leaf springs while the rear used a conventional platform rear setup with longitudinal semi-elliptical leaf springs at each side secured to the frame at their forward extremities and shackled to the ends of a transverse leaf spring at the rear.

Peerless models during the late 1900s and early 1910s catered to a wide audience of buyers, offering two four-cylinder engine options, a six-cylinder engine, three different wheelbase sizes, and ten catalog body designs.

Four and six-cylinder power, offered on several chassis sizes, were offered through 1915. For the 1916 model year, Peerless consolidated to a 125-inch wheelbase model powered by a new eight-cylinder engine with much of the coachwork designed for seven passengers.

The 1910 Peerless Model 29 was a four-cylinder, twenty-horsepower model resting on a 113-inch platform. Factory body styles included a limousine and landaulet with seating for six passengers. The limousine listed for $4,200 and the landaulet added an additional $100 to the price. The side valve, four-cylinder engine had a 4-inch bore and 4 5/8-inch stroke giving it 410 cubic-inch displacement.

by Dan Vaughan

Park Phaeton by Brewster
Chassis number: 16124
Engine number: 5095

This car is a Model 29 which was introduced in mid-1910 and continued into 1911. Power is from a 25-horsepower four-cylinder unit with a 4-inch bore and a 4 5/8-inch stroke. The wheelbase measures 113 inches. It wears a custom body by Brewster & Company in New York City. The Victoria body is an adaptation of formal horse-drawn coachwork. There is an elevated seat for the driver and footman with a private seat in the rear. The style was popularized by Queen Victoria.

This example was owned by tobacco heiress Doris Duke. The Duke family may have owned it from new. But, since Doris Duke's husband James Cromwell was a Vice President of the Peerless Motor Car company, it is possible that the car had its ancestry on that side of her family.

The next owner was an opera singer and car collector James Melton, who would later sell it to pioneering plastic surgeon Dr. Sameul L. Scher.

When Dr. Scher made the group sale of a large part of his collection to noted Maine-based collector Richard C. Paine, Jr., the Peerless was included, joining another of the most prominent collections in America at that time.

On the death of Richard Paine, some 41 years later, the car was auctioned by Bonhams, at which point it was acquired by the present Private European Museum Collection.

While in Dr. Scher's custody, the car rewarded him with an AACA National First Prize, suggesting that it had recently been restored at that time. It is likely that the cloth-trimmed rear cabin section, cape cart top, and leather fenders are the originals.

The car has Peerless-branded acetylene headlights made by Atwood, Dietz Empire Junior kerosene sidelights, an Atwood kerosene taillight, and a Peerless bulb horn. The Victoria tonneau is finished in Brewster Green and upholstered in beige broadcloth while the rest of the Peerless is finished in black with Brewster Green wood spoke wheels.

In 1905, Louis Mooers and Barney Oldfield decamped to the Moon company. Peerless hired Charles Schmidt from Packard, the designer of the famed Packard Gray Wolf racer. Schmidt moved Peerless into the realm of the six-cylinder engine in 1908. The engine was modeled after the 30-horsepower four designed by Louis Mooers in 1905. Both were 4 7/8' bore, 5 1/2' stroke engines with T-head valve placement although the six got dual coil and magneto ignition. The engines used cylinders cast-in-pairs that bolted to cast aluminum crankcases. The driveline consisted of a three-speed manual transmission, shaft drive to the rear axles, and rear-wheel contracting band brakes. The suspension was by semi-elliptical leaf springs at the front, with platform rear suspension arrangement: longitudinal semi-elliptical leaf springs at each side which were secured to the frame at their forward extremities and shackled to the ends of a transverse leaf spring at the rear.

Peerless offered two four-cylinder engines and one six-cylinder engine on three different wheelbase chassis. Ten catalog bodies were offered by Peerless themselves, while some clients preferred their own bespoke coachwork from one of the major coachbuilders.

by Dan Vaughan