Rolling a Reliant Robin - Top Gear - BBC

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Rolling a Reliant Robin - Top Gear - BBC

Jeremy takes the extreme sport of Reliant Robin rolling to the streets of Barnsley, aided by a string of celebrities who just happen to be on hand to help keep the fabled three-wheeler upright.

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Reliant was a British car manufacturer. The company was traditionally based at Tamworth in Staffordshire, England, but in 2001 it moved to nearby Cannock. It ceased manufacturing cars shortly afterwards.

Origins

When the Raleigh Bicycle Company decided to discontinue the manufacture of their 3-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 far from over. The enterprising pair decided to build their own vehicle in Mr Williams's back garden at Kettlebrook, Tamworth.

The homebuilt design closely resembled the Karryall van previously built by Raleigh and this prototype was licensed in January 1935. 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 looked like nothing more than a motorcycle fitted with a box body, which essentially was what it was.

From building vehicles at home the work moved to a disused bus depot on Watling Street in Fazeley. 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 the vehicle astride the engine, much like a motorcyclist.

The single cylinder engine left the Reliant underpowered. March 1936 saw an update to a twin 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 machine which was built with 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 used 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. Mr Williams was always enthusiastic about Reliant being a self-reliant business as much 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. Whilst appearing very similar to the Austin engine the level of agreement 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.

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