Shady Character

One of the “shadiest characters” at the 2014 Iola Old Car Show (www.iolaoldcarshow.com) was the 1930 Peerless Model A Standard Eight that Ed Fallon, of Arizona, was trying to sell in the swap meet. According to the sign on the big, black sedan, only 34 Peerless Eights are known to exist and only seven are the same model as the car at Iola. That made the old buggy a pretty rare car. The price tag on the window said $17,500 or best offer.

Even though the Peerless Model A Standard Eight was called “standard,” there was a lot special about this car. It was designed by Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky and built by Hayes Manufacturing Co. It was part of the Hayes-Alsac line and supposedly the “Alsac” stood for “Alexis.” These cars had curved lower window sills and through window reveals (that ignored the inter-window pillars).

Their Peerless was loaded with accessories, too: dual side-mounted spare tires, a trunk rack, a rearview mirror with a clock, a cigar lighter and very rare accessory sun shades on the two forward side windows. The car was running and driving and all instruments except the gas gauge worked. The gas tank, fuel lines, fuel pump, pressure regulator and fuel filter were all new. Inside the car were the factory tools and jack.

The car needed thousands of dollars of restoration, but in the hands of a talented hobbyist who does all his own work, it could have been a real gem. We thought about it, but we just have too many projects going already. But each time we saw the car with those funky old sun shades, it called out “Buy me! Buy me!”