Reliant

This article is about a motor manufacturer. For other uses see Reliant (disambiguation). For the Chrysler's "K car" see Plymouth Reliant.

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.

History

Reliant was founded in 1935 by T L Williams to take over making the Raleigh 3 wheeler delivery van which he had designed in 1933 and Raleigh no longer wished to make. It was powered by a 750 cc V twin engine to the rear wheels through a 3 speed gearbox and shaft drive. In 1939 the engine was replaced by Reliant's version of the straight four cylinder 747 cc Austin 7 side-valve engine. In 1952 a four seat car version was launched and in 1956 the bodywork was changed to glass fibre.

The company is notable for building composite-bodied specialist vehicles, such as the sports cars Reliant Scimitar (including the unusual sports estate) and Reliant Sabre; and the infamous three-wheeled Reliant Robin, Reliant Regal and Reliant Rialto economy cars.

After absorbing Bond Cars, which had also been a maker of three-wheeler cars – though in their case with more stable rear engines – Reliant used the Bond name for the iconic 1970s Bond Bug, a sporty three wheeler designed by the Ogle designer Tom Karen.

Reliant also built a four-wheeled version of the Reliant Robin called the Reliant Kitten; the forerunner to this was the Reliant Rebel and between 1983 and 1990 a utility / pickup vehicle called the Reliant Fox (this car was based on an original MEBEA development on Reliant mechanicals and was jointly developed for production by MEBEA and Reliant; it had originally been built in Greece by this Greek company between 1979 and 1983). They also made a small 3 wheeled commercial vehicle called the Reliant TW9, later sold by other companies as the Ant, which was basically a Chassis / Cab onto which a custom rear body was fitted and used by public utility companies.