The Cars

Understated classics

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The Reliant Motor Company was founded in 1935 and was very successful in building three-wheeled cars which it continued to produce until 2001. The first four-wheeled car it produced was the Sabra, built for Autocars in Israel in 1961. Reliant were so impressed with the car that it started to sell it in the UK as the Sabre. At the 1962 London Motor Show, Ray Wiggins, Reliant’s managing director, spotted a limited-production car built by Ogle on the chassis of the Daimler SP250. He quickly measured its dimensions and realised the body would fit to the Sabre chassis with minimal redesign. This became the Scimitar GT (Coupe SE4) which was launched in 1964 and produced until 1971. Capitalising on their success, Reliant then started to design cars for other markets, the first being the Anadol A1 which went on sale in Turkey in 1966.

 

The sporting pedigree of the early cars produced by Reliant continued with the GTE (SE5/5a & SE6/6a/6b), the GTC (SE8) and finally the Small Sports range (SS1, SST and Scimitar Sabre).

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In the late 1980s Reliant decided to stop production of the GTE/GTC and concentrate on 3-wheelers and the smaller Scimitar Small Sports models. The entire production of the GTE and the convertible GTC models was sold to Middlebridge Scimitar in Nottingham.

 

Unfortunately Middlebridge Scimitar soon got into financial difficulties and did not survive. The company was ultimately sold to Graham Walker Ltd. in Chester who has committed himself to keep the marque alive and is able to build a new GTE.

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Sadly, Reliant’s fortunes never recovered and after several company incarnations production of the Scimitar Sabre ceased in 1995, mainly due to technological advances and loss of engineering technology due to an earlier receivership. Although the company continued to make three-wheelers, it finally stopped trading in 2001.

 

Graham Walker Ltd and Queensberry Road Garage (QRG) are the major traders associated with the Club. They give support to owners with both the continuing supply of original pattern parts and the remanufacture of rare parts and are therefore companies with which the Club has remained closely associated.

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