A man who owns the ‘world’s smallest cars’ has revealed how it’s the ‘most hilarious vehicle’ to have as it ‘gets lots of attention’ – and it costs just £7 to fill up.
Alex Orchin, 31, drives around his Sussex village in his quirky blue Peel P50 and appeared on This Morning today to showcase the three-wheeler, which is the world’s smallest passenger car.
Co-presenter Dermot O’Leary drove around the TV studio in the vehicle, which is a replica of the 1960s classic motor, with the originals selling for over £100,000.
Video: Dermot arrives late to This Morning in world’s smallest car
A man who owns the ‘world’s smallest cars’ (pictured) has revealed how it’s the ‘most hilarious vehicle’ to have as it ‘gets lots of attention’ – and it costs just £7 to fill up.
Explaining his purchase of the car in 2018, Alex said: ‘I love weird cars, old cars, anything that’s quirky and alternative basically.
‘This is a reproduction, they were originally made in the 60s. It was Jeremy Clarkson who made them famous on Top Gear, he drove it through the BBC office and as a result the few that were left were going for a £100,000.
‘But for people like me, replicas are an option. I got this and I’ve been using it and enjoying it and it’s just been the most hilarious car, it gets a lot of attention.
‘It’s fun to own, people are always asking questions, you can’t go anywhere, and I’ve answered the same questions millions of times… how do you get in it… can you go on motorways, all those kind of things.’
Co-presenter Dermot O’Leary (pictured left) drove around the TV studio in the vehicle, which is a replica of the 1960s classic motor, with the originals selling for over £100,000.
Alex Orchin (pictured), 31, drives around his Sussex village in his quirky blue Peel P50 and appeared on This Morning today to showcase the three-wheeler, which is the world’s smallest passenger car.
Explaining that it costs around £7 to fill up, Alex also recalled how he travelled from John O’Groats in Scotland to Land’s End to raise £11,000 for Children In Need last year.
Not only is the P50 just 1.3 metres long but also the same in height and less than a metre wide.
Explaining his purchase of the car in 2018, Alex said: ‘I love weird cars, old cars, anything that’s quirky and alternative basically’.
In 2010, the Peel was listed in the Guinness World records and given the title of the smallest production car ever made.
The highest figure on record for a P50 is almost £122,000, achieved at an RM Sotheby’s Florida sale in March 2016, with bidding for the car described as ‘hotly contested’ at the time.
Explaining that it costs around £7 to fill up, Alex also recalled how he travelled from John O’Groats in Scotland to Land’s End to raise £11,000 for Children In Need last year.
An extremely basic motor, they have no onboard instruments or odometer and just three forward gears. The P50s are not fitted with a reverse gear.
Fitted with a 49cc single-cylinder petrol engine, the Peel is capable of a maximum speed of just 38mph and can return around 100mpg, thanks to its featherweight 59kg of bulk (minus a driver, of course).
Peel Engineering Limited on the Isle of Man launched the P50 – designed and built by Cyril Cannell and Henry Kissack – at the 1962 Earls Court Motorcycle Show, with the vehicle so small that it qualified as a motorcycle.
An extremely basic motor, they have no onboard instruments or odometer and just three forward gears. The P50s are not fitted with a reverse gear.
The Peel shot to recent fame in the 2007 during season 10 of Top Gear, with Jeremy Clarkson driving the vehicle into the BBC’s studios and around the broadcaster’s head office.
Source: dailymail