Peerless Green Dragon History

The Green Dragon was a Peerless racing car designed by the company's chief engineer Louis P. Mooers in 1904 and campaigned by the era's most famous American driver, Barney Oldfield. With its bright green paint and Oldfield at the wheel, it became one of the best-known race cars of the brass era.

Oldfield used the Green Dragon to set a number of early world automobile speed records, generating exactly the kind of publicity a young luxury marque needed. In 1905 a 35-horsepower Green Dragon ran in the first 24-hour endurance race, held in Columbus, Ohio, finishing third.

The racing success cemented Peerless's reputation for engineering and performance just as it was establishing itself among America's premier carmakers — an early demonstration that motorsport could sell road cars.