Reliant

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Reliant Motor Company
legal form
founding 1935
resolution 2001
Reason for dissolution since 2001 only active as an importer
Seat Tamworth ( Staffordshire )
management TL Williams, founder
Branch Automotive industry

Reliant Regal Supervan III, from the TV series Only Fools and Horses
Reliant Robin (1974)
Bond bug
Reliant Scimitar SS1 1300 (1988)

Reliant is a former British automobile manufacturer that operated from 1935 to 2001. The company was in Tamworth ( Staffordshire founded) and produced more than 65 years mainly tricycles . The experience in the production of plastic car bodies in composite construction made Reliant an important supplier to various other automobile manufacturers. 2001 Reliant gave up vehicle production. The company has been an importer at its headquarters in Cannock ever since.

history

prolog

In 1921 the tax law of the United Kingdom created a special position for motorized tricycles. With an empty weight of less than 8 cwt (cwt = British hundredweight, approx. 50.8 kg), the annual fee was four pounds, regardless of engine size and power. While passenger transport vehicles were initially not very popular, there was a market for courier and delivery vehicles for which models like the "Ivy Karryall" were intended. It consisted of the front fork and drive unit of a motorcycle, which were connected to a closed cabin structure. The driver sat upright between the front fork and the cab, covered, but hardly protected.

Raleigh Light Delivery Van

The necessary motorcycle parts for this vehicle came from the Raleigh company , which in 1930 secured the rights to the vehicle and developed it further. Tom Lawrence Williams, who joined the company in the same year, played a leading role in helping the vehicle to achieve greater engine performance and a higher payload. The "Raleigh Light Delivery Van", available from 1931, came up with different body variants; from 1932 it was also available in a version for passenger transport and in 1933 the handlebar was replaced by a steering wheel. Williams was also responsible for the "Raleigh Safety Seven", also presented in 1933, a three-wheel convertible with a rear axle driven by a shaft. In 1934 a closed version was brought onto the market, but in the same year Raleigh decided to withdraw from the production of motorized vehicles of all kinds.

Reliant

Williams left the company and set up a design office in the garden of his home in Tamworth, Staffordshire. His colleague ES Thompson followed him and in autumn 1934 they revised the "Light Delivery Van" to become the "Reliant" (English for "the reliable"). It differed from its predecessors in that it had a closed driver's cab and aluminum cladding on an ash wood frame. In the spring of 1935, Williams, Thompson and employees set up their workshop in a former bus depot and were able to deliver the first vehicle to a customer in June of that year. While sales increased over the summer, they began to decline in the fall. Williams and Thompson responded with an additional model. Its payload was increased from 7 cwt (approx. 350 kg) to 10 cwt (approx. 500 kg), the chain drive was replaced by a drive shaft and the driver's seating position was moved from the center to the right. Also new were an electric starter and water cooling for the engine, as well as the option to order a pickup body. In 1936 the "Reliant Engineering Company" produced three to five units of the various models per week, and in the following year the number rose to eight to ten units. From 1938 onwards, the fully assembled four-cylinder engine of the " Super Seven " was purchased from Austin and the additional space freed up in-house was able to increase production figures again. The new engine also made it possible to increase the payload for both Reliant variants, by 1 to 8 cwt for the smaller model and 2 to 12 cwt for the larger model.

Second World War

When it was foreseeable in 1939 that the production of the "Super Seven" four-cylinder would no longer be continued, the company began to build its own engine production. Thomson, who had done most of the development, was heavily based on Austin. The new engine was ready for series production shortly before the start of the war, so that 80 units could still be built. Vehicle production was discontinued in 1940, instead various armaments were produced as suppliers for other companies. The UK government's rationing measures included driving bans on motor vehicles. Tricycles were excluded, however, which maintained the interest in used vehicles of this type.

regent

Even after the end of the war, the economic situation in the United Kingdom was still tense, so there was still a market for three-wheelers. In 1946 the production of the smaller Reliant model was resumed and from 1947 the variant with the higher payload was also produced again. 1950 Reliant introduced the " Regent ". Its appearance largely matched that of its predecessors, but instead of spoked wheels, it was the first vehicle in the company's history to be equipped with steel disc wheels. Apart from smaller, technical innovations, the biggest change was the reduced payload, which was now 10 hundred weights again, the small Reliant remaining in the range was even downgraded to 6 hundred weights. This gave it the same payload as a newly added, smaller version of the "Regent", which was offered under the name " Prince Regent ". The "Regent Mk. II" was the last incarnation of the former "Ivy Karryall", his motorcycle fork was now placed under a bonnet that made it look more like an automobile. Its production continued until 1956.

shelf

After passenger transport had not played a role so far, Thompson took up the idea of ​​the "Safety Seven" again and in 1951 presented the prototype of the shelf . This design was also a convertible and had an aluminum body with an ash frame. It was not designed as a two-seater, but intended for four passengers. With smaller dimensions, it went into series production in 1953 as the "Regal Mk I" and was replaced in the late 1954 by the improved "Regal Mk II", which should now offer space for four adults. Originally only available with a convertible top, from 1955 the Mk II was also available with a hardtop, bonnet and tailgate made of fiberglass-reinforced plastic. The new material proved its worth and the body of the "Regal Mk III", which was built from 1956, consisted entirely of GRP, the engine block and cylinder head were made of aluminum. The successor "Regal Mk IV", available from November 1958, was the last model to be available with a convertible top. His electrical system was converted to 12 volts and the chassis and steering changed. As early as June 1959, the "Regal Mk V" appeared with modest innovations, such as a trunk in the rear and a second windshield wiper for the passenger side; the instruments were now placed in the center of the dashboard. From November 1960 it was replaced by the "Regal Mk VI", which differed from its predecessor in that it was larger in size.

Other models

From 1962, in cooperation with the Autocars Company Ltd. from Haifa a sports two-seater called Saber (sold in Israel as Sabra Sport ) with a body made of glass fiber reinforced plastic and a 1.7 liter engine that came from the then Ford Consul . From 1964 to 1970, the sport coupe was Scimitar GT (.:; Dt Simiter say scimitar ) prepared from 1968 was offered to the so-called shooting-brake counting Scimitar GTE with a Ford V-6 engine (3 L) at. At least five different versions and a total of around 14,000 copies were built by 1986. In 1970 the competing three-wheeler manufacturer Bond Cars was taken over. The modern Bond Bug was taken from its range into its own range. 1975, started production of a four-wheeled small car on which the name Kitten (dt. Kittens , kitten ) wore.

Because of the significantly lower investment costs for the production of plastic car bodies compared to body production from deep-drawn sheet steel, Reliant, as a pioneer of this construction method, was at times a sought-after partner for countries in which an automotive industry was to be established. The Anadol was designed and manufactured for Turkey , an independent vehicle. In India in the 1980s the kitten was produced under license as the Sipani Dolphin in small numbers.

In England, until the late 1980s, sports coupés and convertibles were manufactured in composite construction based on series vehicles in close cooperation with Ford . In 2001 the company headquarters were relocated to Cannock and automobile production was discontinued. Since then Reliant has concentrated on importing special vehicles.

Others

Some of the company's models have gained prominence in films, TV series and books, such as the light blue Reliant Regal Supervan III, which appears as a running gag in several episodes of Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean and is regularly thrown off track by Mr. Bean's Mini becomes. There is also a Reliant Regal Supervan II in the Trotters and a Supervan III in Alan Bennett's book The Lady in the van . Furthermore, as part of a Top Gear episode , a Reliant Robin was mounted on a self-made rocket and shot into the sky, but the resulting "shuttle" did not separate from the launch vehicle and was rammed into the ground together with it and completely in the explosion destroyed.

Models

Reliant Scimitar GTE, the British Shooting Brake par

Web links

Commons : Reliant Vehicles  - collection of images, videos and audio files