Cars

(This page concerns Peel's obsession with automobiles. For the American rock band, see Cars (2)).

"I love cars, and if I was like really wealthy, I'd have a very fast and dangerous car in which I'd kill myself almost instantly, probably, but fortunately I'm never likely to reach the stage where I can actually afford to do that. But I love the look of cars, and old cars in particular, but I have no idea at all what makes them work. I'm not interested: that's somebody else's responsibility, you see." (03 December 1994 (BFBS))

1987-Mercedes Benz-190E-2 — Mercedes 190

John Peel was regarded by many as a national treasure. His enthusiasm for music and love of Liverpool FC were well known, but how many people were aware of his sentimental attachment to cars? When Richard Simpson of the Daily Telegraph met Peel before he left for Peru in 2004, he was still recovering from the loss of his favourite wheels. On September 22 2004, after more than half a million miles in one another's company, his beloved - albeit defunct - Mercedes 190 had been removed from his Suffolk home. And, to avoid any unseemly display of emotion, he made sure he was in London when the deed was done.

Peel's Car Memories[]

Even letting a very tired old car go was out of character for Peel, who admitted that "everything I've ever owned, I've kept in boxes". This squirrelling instinct extended to cars too, because even in the absence of the Mercedes 190, some fascinating classics remained tucked away at Peel Acres. Peel grew up in a petrolhead's paradise: [1]

"My dad had some rather exotic cars: a Citroën Traction Avant, a Morgan three-wheeler and a Minerva. A couple of my father's sisters were really into vintage cars - when they were just old cars - and one of them took me to the hillclimb at Shelsley Walsh in a Bugatti that had belonged to Malcolm Campbell. And at one time, two of the three Talbot 105s that were built for a race at Brooklands were in my family."

Chevrolet-Biscayne-1958 — Peel's first car in America - A 1958 Chevrolet Biscayne

When the recently-demobbed Peel rode the wave of Beatlemania to various DJing jobs across America in the early 1960s, he soon acquired a slice of automotive Americana.

"The first car I bought for myself was a 1958 Chevrolet Biscayne, and then I had a 1961 model. But I drove that from Friendly Chevy in Dallas straight into the side of a truck."

In fact, Peel was surprisingly accident-free, given some of the muscular American machinery he owned:

"I had a 1963 Chevy Impala, and then the 409 cubic-inch Super Sports model. That was insanely powerful - most of them just blew up."

Later he had an ultra-desirable 1963 Corvette, and he kept another 1963 Impala.

Bedford Dormobile 018 — Peel's first car in Britain - Bedford Dormobile

Back in Britain, Peel didn't seem to have a car of his own at first, visiting Liverpool in late 1967 in a hired car, as he related in International Times [2]. He later recalled that

"When I used to get gigs, I took Tyrannosaurus Rex with me, which was then him (i.e.Marc Bolan) and Steve Took. I didn't have a car then, so I used to hire a Mini, and you could get all their gear into the boot of it. We'd drive off to places like Exeter and Newcastle and drive overnight - this is before the days of motorways. And it was really exciting..."[3]

But having joined BBC Radio One at its inception, he found that he needed a "van thing" to travel to his live appearances, although his driving slowed somewhat:

"I bought a Bedford Dormobile. It was a summer of '67 kind of car, and we took it across Europe."

Then came a chilly Land Rover-based camper, which, according to a 1971 column in Disc & Music Echo, he named Friday[4] It did sterling service, taking him to the gigs he talked about in his Disc columns, which often contain digressions on driving. At this time, said Peel,'"I was the king of the polytechnics" - and the Land Rover also served as a mobile dormitory after his Radio 1 shows. By then John and Sheila Peel were starting a family, and Sheila owned a Renault 5. " It was a wonderful car, and if they still made them Sheila would have another one tomorrow," he said, before adding that he had a "sickening" story to tell me about an accident that befell her and the Renault. I had visions of tangled wreckage, but in truth the bump was minor and Sheila's only concern was how John would react. "So while she was at a piano lesson I completely filled the car with flowers."

In September 1977 Peel and Sheila were in possession of an "off-white Volkswagen van" and started off on a road trip taking in parts of The Midlands and the North-West of England. The trip proved less satisfactory than anticipated, however, as the "Deutschekamperwagen" turned out to be unreliable and required "tuning every 250 miles or so". The van was eventually left "languishing" in a garage in Bradford. (see Sounds column)

Automotive romanticism was clearly a speciality, for when Sheila was taken seriously ill after the birth of their first child he decided to make a grand gesture:

"I thought, what can I do? The only thing she'd said she wanted was a Morgan, so I went to a dealership in north London. They showed me some four-cylinder cars, and then I saw this V8 in the corner. 'You wouldn't want that,' they said, because it had the minimum amount of bodywork required to aim the engine, but I bought it and gave it to her in a dramatic and well-staged presentation in a lay-by outside Bury St Edmunds."

During his spot on the Janice Long show in 1985, John Walters tells of how Peel had purchased a car manufactured by the Portuguese company UMM, so that when people asked him what car he owned he could just say "ummmm..". As such vehicles were built mostly for agricultural use, Walters tells of how, much to his annoyance, Peel was unable to get it insured for use on the road.^[1]

Peel's Chevrolet — Peel with his Prius car

Recently before he died, Peel drove a "tyre scalding" 3·2-litre Alfa Romeo 147, which he described as "an old man's last raging against the dying of the light", and something quite different - a petrol-electric Toyota Prius. Despite his penchant for automotive heavy metal, he saw the advantages of the hybrid Toyota:

"We've come to quite like it, even though there's too much technology in it - as there is in our Chrysler PT Cruiser. We took the Prius on our annual trip to Barcelona, and it's amazing how much money you save: we got there on about £10 worth of petrol."

Of course the Prius also had to perform a duty shared by all his cars, namely to act as a mobile auditioning room for the endless stream of demo CDs he received from young bands. Over the years he developed an ingenious filing system for them:

"The ones I'm going to play go in the door pocket, the ones I'll keep but probably won't play go on the floor on the passenger side, and those I'm definitely not going to play go on to the floor behind me."

Peel's TV Car Highlights[]

"I've always imagined I'd die by driving into the back of a truck while trying to read the name on a cassette, and people would say, 'he would have wanted to go that way.' Well, I want them to know that I wouldn't."

Peel often used the above quote on TV programmes such as the Sounds Of The Suburbs and Room 101, but he also narrated TV programmes on cars, such as Classic British Cars, where Peel would narrate the story of vintage cars, which he himself owned.

Mentions In Shows[]

19 July 1967 (Transcript) (Advertisement: Radio London racing driving course) JP: Actually, I’ve done that myself, I must admit, and it was faintly superb. It was a slightly sort of erotic sensation driving very fast around Brands Hatch, which is kinky, you know...
26 January 1969: Peel says he has to go up to Birmingham that evening, but his van “has been destroyed”. Asks “Richard”, who’s promised to drive him there but hasn’t turned up, to get in touch. Later in the show he thanks listeners who’ve called in to offer him lifts and asks them not to do so as it jams the switchboard and “the situation is under control"
03 December 1985: Peel mentions his car was broken into whilst in Amsterdam, Netherlands the previous week.
05 May 1986: Peel admits that he had to borrow a car to drive into London to present the programme because he didn't trust his own vehicle not to break down on the way.
13 February 1988 (Radio Bremen): Peel mentions his car being broken down so many times.
06 June 1988: Peel mentions his high point of the weekend was driving an Edsel car on Friday afternoon at a deserted ex-airfield and says he would love to own one, but admittedly says it's probably unlikely.
02 April 1990: Peel reveals that he came perilously close to missing the evening's broadcast following a mechanical problem with his car on the drive in to London ("a bit fell out of the engine").
05 December 2002: "I still want a pickup but... ach, not allowed."
07 May 2003: Peel asks for the listeners' help finding someone who can repair his 1963 Chevrolet Impala SS, so it can be used as a wedding car.
30 September 2004: "Always wanted a Maserati actually, less of a footballer's car I think than a Ferrari."