for other uses see reliant disambiguation . this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . january 2008 learn how and when to remove this template message reliant motor company industry automotive fate finishing of production founded 1935 headquarters tamworth england key people t l williams founder products automobiles website www.reliant motors.co.uk reliant was a british car manufacturer . the company was traditionally based at tamworth in staffordshire . reliant was mainly known for producing the 3 wheeled reliant robin but in fact produced a variety of different vehicles during a production run of over 60 years including popular sports cars convertibles and commercial vehicles . around 1 to 2 million reliant vehicles were produced and were sold in at least 9 countries . for a period from the 1970s to the 1990s reliant was the uk s biggest british owned car manufacturer . reliant motor company ltd is now a dormant company and the only part that still exists is reliant partsworld which produce spares for reliant vehicles . contents 1 origins 2 car production 3 ending of car production 4 the final years of car production up to 2001 5 driving a reliant on a motorcycle licence 6 unfounded myths 7 models 8 see also 9 references 10 external links origins edit 1974 reliant robin reliant kitten estate when the raleigh bicycle company decided to discontinue the manufacture of their three wheeled vehicles in 1934 their works manager mr t. l. williams and a colleague mr e. s. thompson felt that the days of lightweight three wheelers were not over . they decided to build their own vehicle in williams s back garden at kettlebrook tamworth . the homebuilt design closely resembled the karryall van previously built by raleigh and the prototype was licensed in january 1935 . 1 it was a 7 cwt 356 kg van with a steel chassis powered by a 750 cc v twin engine driving the rear wheels through a 3 speed gearbox and shaft drive . the body was a hardwood frame with aluminium panels attached to it in the traditional manner of the time . with the obvious motorcycle front end mounted in the open in front of the bulkhead it was essentially a motorcycle fitted with a box body . from building vehicles at home the work moved to a disused bus depot on watling street in fazeley . 1 june 3 1935 saw delivery of the first reliant . powered by a single cylinder air cooled 600cc j.a.p. engine the driver sat centrally on the vehicle astride the engine much like a motorcyclist . the single cylinder engine left the reliant underpowered . march 1936 saw an update to a two cylinder water cooled j.a.p. engine and an increase to 8 cwt 407 kg gross vehicle weight gvw . the driver no longer sat astride the engine and the vehicle gained more conventional forward facing seats in the front . the first improved 8cwt twin cylinder model was delivered on march 16 1936 . in 1936 british finance minister neville chamberlain abolished as it turned out only temporarily the road fund licence an annual car tax which had not been applied to three wheelers and which had therefore conferred a major competitive advantage on reliant s three wheeled motor goods vehicle . 1 this did not dissuade the engineers at reliant . bond bug reliant scimitar ss1 in 1938 the reliant motor company started to use the 747cc four cylinder 7 hp austin side valve engine as found in the popular austin seven . the first four cylinder reliant was delivered on march 12 1938 . the austin car company then announced their intention to cease production of the 747cc austin seven engine . williams was always enthusiastic about reliant being as self reliant as possible . he was keen that the company did not buy parts which it could make in house . reliant therefore commenced manufacture of their own engine which was essentially a copy of the austin product . although appearing very similar to the austin engine the level of commonality between reliant and austin remains unclear ; the reliant side valve engine was a 747cc four cylinder unit built using smaller scale manufacturing techniques than austin . the reliant crankcase was sand cast rather than die cast . the second world war saw reliant machining parts for the war effort . in the post war years three wheeler development continued . reliant introduced a slightly modified van called the regent . still visually similar to an oversized motorcycle the first regent was completed on march 13 1946 just ten years after the first twin cylinder van was built . the regent grew to a gvw of 10 cwt and was better equipped with sliding windows in the doors rather than canvas side screens . two larger models were produced a 12 cwt regent and a prince regent . in 1953 the regent continued to be built alongside the reliant regal . the regent was eventually replaced by the regal mk ii 5cwt van in 1956 . car production edit in 1952 a four seat car version was launched initially with an aluminium body but panel by panel the company substituted glass fibre as the company s understanding of the material improved and the price of aluminium increased . 1 by 1956 the bodywork of the by now mark 3 version of the reliant regal had changed completely to glass fibre the first generation of vehicles were mk1 to mk6 with each one getting improvements and slightly different styling the car was originally powered by the austin seven engine but when production ended on that design by austin motor company reliant bought the design and redesigned it with improvements giving the 750cc engine 17.5 hp . by 1963 the all new regal 3 25 had its body completely made of fibreglass on previous generations of the regal the body was fibreglass but the floor made of hardwood which was bolted together . the engine was europe s first mass produced lightweight overhead valve aluminium alloy engine and the uk s first british overhead valve all alloy engine initially 598cc on the regal 3 25 but later upgraded to 700cc on the later regal 3 30 . at the same time reliant were working for other countries to design vehicles for home grown production vehicles would be sent over in kit form for the countries own workforce to assemble with reliant first designing a vehicle to the countries or companies requirements the first was the anadol in turkey which was based on a mix of ford parts and specifically designed chassis . the anadol was designed to be any vehicle the country needed originally it was a 2 door saloon then a 4 door saloon later the company would make commercial pick up and van versions too the pick up version carried on production until the early 1990s . another vehicle of this sort of start was the sabra which was again based on ford running gear and engine but this time a 2 door coupe or convertible for autocars co. in israel . reliant was so impressed with the design they sold it in the uk under the name sabre this was also to help reliant s company imagine from just a 3 wheeled micro car maker but the car didn t sell very well with its unknown status in the uk against competitors such as the triumph and mg . later reliant bought a prototype design for the replacement daimler dart which would later become the scimitar coupe and later would become the best selling sporting estate the scimitar gte . to power the reliant scimitar and sabre reliant first turned towards ford of britain and were supplied with the zephyr 6 and consul 4 engines . later models followed with the ford essex v6 engines . reliant bought out bond cars in 1969 after bond had gone into liquidation reliant purchased bond after wanting to enter triumph dealerships as bond s equipe sports car already had this agreement but sadly triumph entered british leyland and this deal ended . it is said that bond was reliant s main competitor in 3 wheeled vehicles with the bond minicar and the bond 875 but reliant vehicles outsold bond in huge numbers with a much larger production and dealer network . reliant did use the bond name for the 1970s bond bug which was a reliant prototype originally named the reliant rogue a sporty 3 wheeler designed by the ogle designer tom karen . the bug used a shortened reliant regal chassis and other mechanical parts but many of the new parts such as the front swing arm were a brand new design which would also be used on the new reliant robin of 1973 . the bond bug would come in 700 700e and 700es form until it was replaced by the 750 model and production ended after . reliant also built 4 wheeled versions of their 3 wheeled stablemates the original was called the reliant rebel which had three quarters of the rear chassis design of the regal but triumph herald front suspension and standard austin seven steering the engines were the same 600cc and 700cc as the regal but with higher compression and more torque because of the extra weight the rebel carried over the regal the last model came with the 750cc version when the mk1 reliant robin was introduced . the styling of the rebel was intended to make the car look unique so it didn t seem like a 4 wheeled version of the regal ; the rebel came in saloon estate and van models . the reliant kitten was the 4 wheeled version of the 1970s reliant robin designed to replace the rebel and featuring the 850cc version of reliant s own engine which was introduced in 1975 with the reliant robin gaining the engine shortly afterwards . the design this time featured very heavily on the reliant robin with only the nose of the design being different having square headlights and a black panel around them this was done mainly for cost saving reasons so the parts from both vehicles could be shared for production . after reliant kitten production stopped in 1982 the rights were sold to sipani automobiles in india which made the vehicle near exactly the same but with the name sipani dolphin . later the vehicle would be changed into a 4 door hatchback called the sipani montana the car was built well into the 1990s with exactly the same kitten mechanicals reliant would even import engines they had build for their own vehicles in the uk . between 1983 and 1990 a utility pickup vehicle called the reliant fox was produced in the uk . this was based on an original development by reliant to design a vehicle for the greek company mebea it was based on reliant kitten mechanicals with its own design of pickup body and canvas top it had originally been built in greece by mebea between 1979 and 1983 . 2 after production had finished in greece reliant decided to build it in the uk but gave the fox many design changes giving it 12 inch wheels altered suspension and the high compression 850cc engine . they also designed a rear hardtop to make the vehicle into a van or estate . tandy iondustries used foxes as a basis for a compact two berth campervan . reliant also made a small 3 wheeled commercial vehicle called the reliant tw9 later sold by other companies as the ant and like the robin licence built in greece by mebea 2 which was a chassis and cab onto which a custom rear body was fitted to create any type of commercial vehicle a road