WARWICK

The Peerless was made by Peerless Cars Ltd. of Slough, Berkshire, between 1957 and 1960, when the company failed. The company was resurrected by one of the original founders, Bernie Rodger as Bernard Roger Developments Ltd and marketed as the Warwick from a base in Buckinghamshire, between 1960 and 1962.

Bernie Rodger started production of the car as the Warwick with minor changes to the appearance, a one-piece forward hingeing front end, a stiffer space-frame chassis and a revised dashboard. Although listed from 1960–62, only about 40 are thought to have been produced.

A car was tested by the British magazine The Motor in 1961 and had a top speed of 105.3 mph (169.5 km/h) and could accelerate from 0-60 mph (97 km/h) in 12.6 seconds. A fuel consumption of 32 miles per imperial gallon (8.8 L/100 km; 27 mpg_-US) was recorded. The test car cost £16666 including taxes.

Two prototypes of a successor car, the 3.5 Litre or 305GT, were made in 1961 and featured the light alloy Buick V8 engine that was later taken up by Rover.

John Gordon, together with Jim Keeble (who had previously inserted a Buick V8 engine into a Peerless), subsequently used the Peerless space-frame as the basis for a Chevrolet-powered car with Giugiaro-designed, Bertone-built bodywork, initially shown in 1960 as the Gordon GT, and which eventually reached production in 1964 as the Gordon Keeble.