Peerless Motor Company factory, circa 1910s

Peerless emblem

Peerless Model 56 7-Passenger Touring 1917

Frank Hershey's aluminum bodied Peerless, designed while he was employed by Murphy Body Works. Image taken before the car was shipped back to Peerless, which had decided to brew Carling Black Label beer instead of building cars.

Peerless was a United States automobile produced by the Peerless Motor Company of Cleveland, Ohio. The company was known for building high-quality, precision luxury automobiles. Peerless' factory was located at 9400 Quincy Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. [1] Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 558 pixelsFull resolution (891 × 621 pixel, file size: 104 KB, MIME type: image/gif) Peerless Motor Car Company, 10825 East Blvd. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 558 pixelsFull resolution (891 × 621 pixel, file size: 104 KB, MIME type: image/gif) Peerless Motor Car Company, 10825 East Blvd. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... This article is about Black Label beer. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ...

Established in Cleveland in 1900, Peerless Motors began producing De Dion-Bouton "machines" under license from the French Company. At the time, Cleveland was the thriving center of automotive production in the United States. Peerless employed Barney Oldfield as a driver of its Green Dragon racecar; in early speed races Peerless proved the durability of the product and setting world speed records. Peerless was noted for its use of flat-plane crankshafts in its engine designs. A De Dion-Bouton from 1899, from a French museum in Paris [1] De Dion-Bouton was a French automobile manufacturer operating from 1883 to 1932. ... Barney Oldfield (June 3, 1878-October 4, 1946) was an automobile racer and pioneer; born in a farmhouse on the outskirts of Wauseon, Ohio. ... The Liberty V8 aircraft engine clearly shows the configuration A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders. ...

As the Peerless evolved, it, along with makes Packard and Pierce-Arrow, became known as the "Three-P's of Motordom" (premium vehicles) in the United States. Packard red hexagon symbol made its debut in 1905, with the color red added in 1913 Packard was a United States based brand of luxury automobile built by the Packard Motors Company of Detroit,Michigan, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana. ... 1919 Pierce-Arrow advertisement The Pierce-Arrow was a Buffalo, New York (United States) based manufacturing company from 1901 to 1938. ...

Peerless' downfall was in its quality. In the 1920s, the company was producing conservatively-styled vehicles that would last for ten or more years. Current Peerless owners held onto their cars, which ran very well; new buyers of luxury cars were attracted to LaSalle, Packard and the Studebaker President series. 1936 LaSalle 5019 - see additional photos below For other uses of the name, see the LaSalle/La Salle disambiguation page. ... Packard red hexagon symbol made its debut in 1905, with the color red added in 1913 Packard was a United States based brand of luxury automobile built by the Packard Motors Company of Detroit,Michigan, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana. ... The Studebaker President was the premier model range for automobiles manufactured by the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Indiana (USA) during the 1927-1942 model years. ...

In 1930-31, Peerless commissioned Murphy Body Works of Pasadena, California to design what the company envisioned as its 1933 model. The task was assigned to a young Frank Hershey. Hershey's design for Peerless was a remarkably clean, elegant vehicle, powered by the company's planned V16 engine. Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ... Frank Hershey - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... A V16 engine is a V engine with 16 cylinders. ...

Just as the car was ready to be shipped back to Cleveland, the Board of Directors pulled Peerless out of the automobile business and reoriented the company to brew beer under the Carling's Black Label brand of beer. For other uses, see Carling (disambiguation). ... The phrase black label is used by suppliers of several products to indicate a prestige version, including: Penthouse magazine black label edition, containing more explicit photographs. ...

Hershey's prototype was walled up in a room at the Peerless factory where it sat until the end of World War II. Hershey's Peerless prototype is now owned by the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... The Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in 2006 The Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum, in the University Circle area of Cleveland, Ohio, is part of the Western Reserve Historical Society, and was founded by industrialist Frederick Crawford of TRW and opened in 1965. ...

Hershey himself would go onto design the 1949 Cadillac, among other American classics. Cadillac is a brand of luxury vehicles, part of General Motors, produced and mostly sold in the United States and Canada. ...

References

• Kimes, Beverly R., Editor. Clark, Henry A. (1996). The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1945. Kraus Publications. ISBN 0-87341-428-4. 
• Howell, James W. and Hershey, Hershey Franklin Q. Franklin Q. Hershey's Murphy-Bodied Peerless V-16 Prototype Collectible Automobile, Volume 12, Number 4, December 1995. pp.56-63.