Pelland Engineering was a British engineering company that produced
kit car
A kit car is an automobile available as a set of parts that a manufacturer sells and the buyer then assembles into a functioning car. Usually, many of the major mechanical systems such as the engine and transmission are sourced from donor ve ...
s and made an attempt on the world land-speed record for
steam car
A steam car is a car (automobile) propelled by a steam engine. A steam engine is an external combustion engine (ECE) in which the fuel is combusted outside of the engine, unlike an internal combustion engine (ICE) in which fuel is combusted ins ...
s.
The Pelland Sports
![Pellandine steam car](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Pellandine_steam_car.jpg)
On his return from
Australia,
Peter Pellandine set up Pelland Engineering at
Thetford
Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24, ...
,
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
. In 1979, he began to manufacture kit cars developed from his
Pellandini steam car. The two-seater Pelland Sports used the
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Beetle—officially the Volkswagen Type 1, informally in German (meaning "beetle"), in parts of the English-speaking world the Bug, and known by many other nicknames in other languages—is a two-door, rear-engine economy car, ...
drivetrain
A drivetrain (also frequently spelled as drive train or sometimes drive-train) is the group of components that deliver mechanical power from the prime mover to the driven components. In automotive engineering, the drivetrain is the components o ...
but mounted backwards to create a mid-engined configuration. This was intended to enhance the dynamic characteristics of the car. The body shell was a
GRP 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 VW front torsion bar suspension but Pellandine's own design traverse-leaf arrangement at the rear. It was essentially a roadster but a
gull-wing hardtop was available.
The design was sold to Ryder Cars of
Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...
in 1980 who marketed it as the Rembrandt and explored the feasibility of replacing the flat4 VW engine with a midmounted water cooled Ford Kent Crossflow engine. The company was then sold on to Graham Autos based in Tyneside. Very few cars were built by either business and some time later it was sold again to Listair.
Listair subtly updated the styling in the late 1980s and sold it as the Dash. They also offered the option of an
Alfa Romeo Alfasud
The Alfa Romeo Alfasud (Type 901, 902 and 904) is a small family car manufactured and marketed from 1971 to 1989 by Alfa Romeo as a front-engine, four-door, five-passenger entry-level model over a single generation — with facelifts in 1977 a ...
engine.
Dash Sports Cars of
Chesterwood
Chesterwood is a hamlet in Northumberland, in England. It is situated a short distance to the north-west of Haydon Bridge on the South Tyne, west of Hexham. It includes a number of "Bastle Houses" from the 17th Century, originally built to prot ...
,
Hereford then took on the project in 1990.
Around 1996/7 the project was sold to Richard Bell who moved from England and took the project with him to Dana Point in Southern California. Bell still owns 3 examples of the cars and continues to research the history of the marque.
Chris Evans based near Inverness, Scotland is the Owner, Secretary & Treasurer of the Pelland Rembrant Register. The club boasts a small membership but as at April 2009 has located 19 surviving examples. Chris, himself, owns five cars of which two are complete runners whilst two of the others are undergoing restoration and the last one is in the final stages of modification prior to it being used as a basis to produce fresh moulds. This latest derivation, (Name to be decided), is a little larger and more practical but retains the character of Peter Pellandine's original creation.
Paul Pellandine built the first two VW powered versions in South Australia and the first UK model in 1979. He still has his now sky blue car in Northern NSW Australia completely restored.
The Dash demo car and moulds were passed on to Mel Hubberd of Manx Buggies in Norfolk, England.
The Pelland Steamer
The Pelland Sports formed the basis of the first Pelland steam car called "The Steam Cat" This was the same fibreglass monocoque chassis and used a twin-cylinder double-acting compound engine. The car was built to a contract with the South Australian Government in 1974. It currently is at the National Motor museum at Birdwood South Australia. In 1977 the Pelland Mk II Steam Car was built. It was a project Pellandine had originally started in Australia with funding from the Australian government. It had a three-cylinder double-acting engine in a 'broad-arrow' configuration. This was mounted in a tubular steel
chassis, with a
Kevlar
Kevlar (para-aramid) is a strong, heat-resistant synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed by Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont in 1965, the high-strength material was first used commercially in the early 1970s a ...
body giving a gross weight of just . Uncomplicated and robust, the steam engine was claimed to give trouble-free, efficient performance. It had huge
torque
In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational equivalent of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). It represents the capability of a force to produce change in the rotational motion of th ...
() at zero engine revs, and could accelerate from 0 to in under 8 seconds.
Pellandine's intention was to break the world land-speed record for steam cars which stood at . He made a number of attempts to set a record, but was repeatedly thwarted by technical problems. The last attempt was in 1991. Subsequently sold at
Christie's, this historic car can be viewed at 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 ...
in
Backbarrow
Backbarrow is a village in the Lake District National Park in England. It lies on the River Leven about 5 miles (8 km) northeast of Ulverston in Furness in the county of Cumbria.
History
Backbarrow probably grew during the Elizabethan pe ...
, Cumbria.
Pellandine moved back to Australia in the 1990s where he continued to develop the Steamer. The latest version is the Mark IV.
The Pelland Sports Mk II
Peter Pellandine marketed an all-new version of his Pelland Sports in 1989. It also used a GRP monocoque but with bespoke double-wishbone suspension and a mid-mounted
Alfa Romeo Alfasud
The Alfa Romeo Alfasud (Type 901, 902 and 904) is a small family car manufactured and marketed from 1971 to 1989 by Alfa Romeo as a front-engine, four-door, five-passenger entry-level model over a single generation — with facelifts in 1977 a ...
powertrain. It was available in both roadster and coupé versions with traditional-style doors, rather than the gullwings of earlier projects. The car's roadholding was described as "superb" by Kitcars International magazine.
See also
*
Pellandini Cars – the predecessor company, in Australia
References
* ''Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars: 1885 to present'' -
G.N. Georgano (1982)
* ''The Kitcars International Guide to Kit Cars and Their Values 1964 to 1991'' - Haydn Davies and Ian Hyne (1991)
External links
{{Commons category, Pellandine vehicles, Pellandini Cars
Pelland steamer Mark IIPhotos of a Pelland Sports (as owned by Richard Bell)Pelland Steam Car Mk II (1982) at Lakeside Motor Museum(photos on Flickr)
Pelland Sports - Further information and photos (by Richard Bell)
Steam cars
Kit car manufacturers