Whenever the British Peerless sports car is mentioned, the American Peerless from Cleveland usually comes to mind. There was a connection with the Britianis Triumph-based Peerless but it was tenuous at best. During the late fifties, motoring enthusiast and former race car driver, John Gordon was running a business which built shooting brake bodies on Rolls-Royce chassis in the Paddington section of London. After Gordon was approached by Jim Byrnes and Bernie Rodgers regarding building their Triumph-based GT, a company was formed and promptly took over a Jaguar distrbutorship called Peerless Motors, which was then in receivership. The company was so named after the facilities it occupied in Slugh Industrial Park. Following World War 1, the building had been used to rehab military surplus Peerless trucks. When the new business was established, with Byrnes' financial backing and Gordon running the business, the Peerless name was retained.

The latter day Peerless came about through John Gordon's friendship with Midland restauranteur James Byrnes, whose regualar patrons included several directors of Standard Triumph. It was through them that Byrnes received the credit and commitment for the TR3 componentry needed to build the cars which were originally to be called the Warwick. Master mechanic and race car builder, Bernie Rodgers was commissioned to design a space frame with the de-Dion rear suspension as the basis for the four passenger coupe. Virtually all other major componets were bought in "kits" from Standard-Triumph, except for the fiberglass body shell, which was molded by the coach building company of James Whitson and CO, Ltd. The production cars were built by the newly established Peerless Cars, which was establised as an entity seperate from Peerless Motors.

The Peerless GT was designed and built to fill a void in the market for a moderately priced four passenger touring coupe. Powered by the 100 bhp two-liter TR3 engine, the Peerless GT was capable of speeds exceeding 110 mph. The overdrive - equipped four speed transmission, front suspension and many other components from the TR3 simply bolted onto the space frame. The de-Dion tube worked in concert with the longitudinal leaf springs and used a Salsibury final drive unit. Bodywork was fiberglass and the true four passenger interior was covered in vinyl. Performance and handling were excellent, but early cars displayed many finish problems and an excessive noise level.

From the start, Peerless Cars had hoped to break into the highly lucrative American market. After showing the Peerless at the 1958 Paris Motor show, Gordon received a letter from Detriot Triumph and Lotus distributor John Posseluis, who was interested in handling the Peerless for his Midwest Triumph territory. It made sense because Posseluis had easy access to the Triumph spares as well as would be Triumph customers seeking a full four seater. In 1958, Peerless entered the LeMans 24 hour race and finished 16th overall and received a trophy for spending the least time in the pits. They covered 2006.6 miles in 24 hours at an average of 83.6 mph.

By 1960, the Peerless GT was no more. Two hundred and seventy five were produced but they were not received well. The finish wasn't the best and the price was a little too high. The small company also had internal problems that added to their demise.

Credit: British Sports Car in America by Jonathan A. Stein