The Peel Trident is the second three-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 often ...

made by the

Peel Engineering Company The Peel Engineering Company was a manufacturing company based in Peel on the west coast of the Isle of Man that primarily made fibreglass boats through its subsidiary company West Marine Ltd. and fairings for motorcycles. Description and his ...

on the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

. An all-new design from its one-seat counterpart the

Peel P50 The Peel P50 is a three-wheeled microcar originally made from 1962 to 1965 by the Peel Engineering Company on the Isle of Man, and then from 2011 to present. It was listed in the 2010 Guinness World Records as the smallest production car ever m ...

, the Trident has two seats.

History

The Trident was launched at the 1964 British Motorcycle Show held at

Earls Court Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...

. The seat, stated as being wide, was intended to provide for use as an occasional two-seater. A completely new design from the earlier side-engined

microcar, the Trident was manufactured in 1965 and 1966. In 2011, Peel Engineering Ltd. reinstated manufacture of the Peel Trident and P50, in Sutton-in-Ashfield, near

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

, England. All vehicles are hand-built to order in petrol and electric form.

Description and specifications

The

glass-fibre 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 clot ...

shell was a

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

with coil-sprung, undamped wheels. It featured a clear bubble top and either two seats or one seat with a detachable

shopping basket A shopping basket is a basket provided by stores for shoppers to carry around items before purchase. They are the smaller equivalent of shopping carts. Some sources also use the term ''shopping basket'' as a synonym for shopping bag, referring ...

. The

Lakeland Motor Museum The Lakeland Motor Museum is a museum now located at Backbarrow, Cumbria, England which houses a collection of classic cars, motorcycles, bicycles, pedal cars and motoring related items and memorabilia and an exhibition dedicated to the land and ...

observes that the Trident's bubble top constituted grounds for its sobriquet "The Terrestrial Flying Saucer." Like its predecessor, it was marketed as a "shopping car" or a "Saloon Scooter". The car is long and wide, with a weight of . Like the P50, it uses a

DKW DKW (''Dampf-Kraft-Wagen'', en, "steam-powered car", also ''Deutsche Kinder-Wagen'' en, "German children's car". ''Das-Kleine-Wunder'', en, "the little wonder" or ''Des-Knaben-Wunsch'', en, "the boy's wish"- from when the company built to ...

engine which generates , and a top speed of . It was

advertised Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

that the Trident got , "almost cheaper than walking". The original retail price was £190. All engines supplied to Peel from Zweirad Union (for both the P50 and Trident) were of the 49 cc 3-speed 4.2 hp 804–1600 type. Uniquely, however, the Peel engines had the 8th digit as a 4, thus being of the form 80416004***. This car is one of the smallest in the world.

Media appearances

The Trident made a late transatlantic media appearance in the American television series ''

Monster Garage ''Monster Garage'' is an American television series aired on the Discovery Channel and hosted by Jesse James. Each episode was an hour in length and was conceived and produced (along with James) by Thom Beers. The show premiered on June 23, 2002 ...

'', when a team of engineers and fabricators attempted to fit a high-performance

Suzuki Hayabusa The Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa is a sports motorcycle made by Suzuki since 1999. It immediately won acclaim as the world's List of fastest production motorcycles, fastest production motorcycle, with a top speed of . In 1999, fears of a European re ...

superbike A sport bike (sports motorcycle, or sports bike) is a motorcycle designed and optimized for speed, acceleration, braking, and cornering on asphalt concrete race tracks and roads. They are mainly designed for performance at the expense of comfor ...

engine into the bodywork of a Trident, mounted onto a conventional

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

frame. The project was a failure, and the unfinished car was destroyed by the show's host

Jesse James Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, bank and train robber, guerrilla and leader of the James–Younger Gang. Raised in the " Little Dixie" area of Western Missouri, James and his family maintained stro ...

with a single shot from a .50 caliber sniper rifle. It also made a brief appearance in the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

History

Description and specifications

Media appearances

References

External links