The story
History
Cyril Cannell founded the Peel Engineering Company in the Manx fishing town of Peel in the late 1940s. It moulded glass-fibre fairings for motorcycles (the TT Tourer, the Peel 707, the Mountain Mile), built boats under the West Marine name, and tried cars: the Peel Manxcar of 1955, an experimental hovercraft in 1961 and, in 1962, the single-seat Peel P50.source 1source 2 The Trident was the P50’s sibling, and English Wikipedia credits its design to Cannell (more in the designers).source 3
How much it owed to the P50 is not agreed. The Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum, in Georgia, calls it a further development of the P50 on essentially the same chassis; the Lane Motor Museum, an evolution made slightly larger for two modest-size adults; English Wikipedia, a completely new design.source 4source 5source 3 The Weiner museum also lists it as having no chassis at all. The likeliest reading, ours rather than any source’s, is a new glass-fibre shell carrying the P50’s engine, gearbox and kind of running gear. It was shown at the British motorcycle show at Earls Court in November 1964, and The Motor Cycle described a glass-fibre monocoque on coil-sprung wheels without dampers, with a 79 cm (31 in) bench meant for occasional use by two.source 3 It could also be had with one seat and a detachable shopping basket.source 3
A dome for a door
The Trident had no door. To get in, you raised its clear bubble top, which ratcheted upwards and forwards.source 4source 5 The Lakeland Motor Museum reports its nickname, the terrestrial flying saucer, and the badge on its nose was a three-pronged trident.source 3 English Wikipedia says, without giving a source, that Peel sold it as a shopping car or a saloon scooter.source 3 Two occupants could double its weight, about 150 kg (330 lb); the Weiner museum’s 90 kg is out of line with the other sources.source 5source 3source 4 It was about 1,854 mm (73 in) long.source 3source 5
The bubble glass top which ratchets upward to allow entry works great from an ergonomic viewpoint; it works very poorly for ventilation, as on a sunny day, the car becomes an oven.
The engine was the P50’s 49 cc Zweirad Union (DKW) two-stroke single, air-cooled, giving 4.2 hp (3.1 kW) through a three-speed gearbox, with the engine and drive at the back; the Lane museum’s “twin-cylinder” is a slip.source 3source 5source 4 It was started by a pull cord, with magneto ignition and 6-volt electrics, cable brakes and direct steering, on 3.50 × 5 in wheels.source 4 Top speed was 45 km/h (28 mph) by English Wikipedia, or 30 mph by the Lane museum.source 3source 5 Peel advertised 100 miles per gallon and called the car almost cheaper than walking, the line it had used for the P50, and the price was £190.source 3source 5 The Lane museum calls it the world’s smallest two-seater car.source 5 It was a bubble car in the most literal sense, and a three-wheeler, though none of the sources read says in words how its three wheels were arranged. Nor do they say whether it had a reverse gear, which the P50 lacked; on the smaller car the driver lifted the tail and turned it round by hand.source 6
Forty-five, and six with Tina engines
The Trident was built in 1965 and 1966, by English Wikipedia’s and the Lane museum’s dates; the Weiner museum gives 1964–65.source 3source 5source 4 About 45 were made.source 4source 5 The Weiner museum says the last six had the 98 cc engine of the Triumph Tina scooter, with automatic belt drive and 6.5 hp; its claim of 75 km/h for them seems high for that power.source 4 Its own car was one of the six, bought from the designer, who still lived on the Isle of Man, after some years on show in a German museum.source 4 In 1966 Peel also offered the Trident with a 12-volt electric motor and a range of 65 km; whether anyone bought one is not known.source 4
Peel stopped building cars in 1966, by English Wikipedia’s account, or 1967 by Grace’s Guide’s, and went back to fairings and boats; it also made glass-fibre prototype bodies for BMC’s Mini.source 1source 2 No other cars have ever been made on the island besides these two, the Viking Sport, the P1000 and the Manxcar.source 1source 2
A second life
In 2007 the Trident was on Dan Neil’s list of the 50 worst cars of all time for Time.source 3 Four years later Peel Engineering Ltd began building it again, by hand and to order, at Sutton-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, in petrol and electric forms, alongside the P50.source 3 By 2018–19 it was selling about ten Tridents a year.source 7 Another firm, P50CARS, also builds continuations of Peel’s cars.source 8 In August 2024 Tridents came back to the island with P50s and Vikings for the 60th-anniversary rally of the Manx Transport Heritage Museum, touring the island and calling at the motor museum at Jurby.source 9 Sixty years on, the little domes were back where they were made.
