Reliant Robin Spin off Thread

[The Old Ruminator]

Mentioned on the weather thread. Oh the shame of it. This pillar box red Reliant Robin convertible was my first car.



Lorry drivers used to drive up behind and toot then fall about laughing. With the hood down it looked like a boat. Occasionally the complete exhaust system fell off and I had to walk back to pick it up. Reliant bought a batch of Ford side valve engines. The engine was in the cab covered only by a clip down fibre glass cover. Occasionally that flew off as well and you got a tad oily. Never mind the clatter of the side valve engine. I painted it pillar box red and my mum made covers for the seats. It had a plastic drivers window - fixed - with a little hinged door in it. I soon progressed to an early type Mini which I though was not much better. Somebody stole it one night but parked it back again in the morning. Got out of it once and stood up hitting my head on a metal rubbish bin on a lamp  post. Got laid out in the gutter. Sub frames rotted out after a few years. Ahh the nostalgia of early motoring.

 

[droid]

That car would be worth an absolute mint, now.

Ironically, my Robin was one of the last ones, built in Burntwood, rather than Tamworth....

 

[crickleymal]

Replacing subframes was standard on Minis up to the 80s at least.

I'd love a Reliant Robin.

 

[royfellows]

Appalling vehicles

In my youth, like early 1960s, I was doing some seriously cool stuff.
Bought a Sunbeam Talbot 90 convertible. Did the body work and resprayed it. Overhauled the engine and fitted a twin choke Solex carb  onto a welded aluminium manifold adaptor. Shaved the head etc.
Overhauled the gearbox and stripped out the column change. Turned the gearbox upright on the bell housing and fitted a floor change remote of a Hillman Husky in scrap yard.
Found a louvred bonnet of the Alpine version and stuck that on.

Eventually went belly up at an illegal speed on a motorway and sprayed all the other vehicles with oil. Maybe where they got the idea from for James Bond film.

 

[Laurie]

My idea of a decent three wheeler....

 

[Roger W]

The old Regals were quite nippy.  I had 80 more than 69 mph on the clock on the M1 more than once.  The steering was very light at that sort of speed - I'm not sure that the front whel was still in contact with the road...

But you did have to be careful going round corners. 

 

[cavemanmike]

The owner of are local chip shop (back in the 70s) past his test at the age of 40 and bought a bright yellow robin reliant and crashed it on it's maiden voyage in the mersey tunnel.
He never drove again 

 

[mikem]

What you need: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2156474/Reliant-Robin-owner-fed-Jeremy-Clarkson-declares-war-armed-tank-version-wheeler.html

Mike

 

[Laurie]

Make him an offer Droid.  :

 

[droid]

 

[Speleofish]

I'm sure Badlad used to run a reliant robin when i first met him... He was even quite polite about it.

 

[Badlad]

Yep I had three RR's..  As a biker I tried to ride up to the Dales in winter.  Once it got so cold by Birmingham that I turned around - couldn't feel any part of my body.  By the next week a mate had talked me into buying a RR which I could drive on my bike licence.  I think it cost about ?90.  It had a heater and got up to about 90mph on the motorway.  You had to be pretty focused though overtaking lorries.  I remember driving to Penwylt in it during some gales, you had to have a good half turn on the wheel just to go in a straight line.  Aye, them were the days...

 

[Speleofish]

90 in a robin? I knew you had a 'different' approach to death and disaster, I hadn't realised how different it was!

 

[tony from suffolk]

The big attraction of the Reliant three-wheelers as that you could drive them with a motorbike license, and you only had to be over sixteen. My first car was an Isetta 300+, which was huge fun. I never went far in it because the engine would cut out over 45 mph. A mate had a Bond Bug, which looked like a giant wedge of Cheshire cheese. The Reliants, like most vehicles of the period, were very simple mechanically, so for us poor student types relatively cheap to run. The engines in the later models of the Reliant Robins were aluminium, a novel development at the time.

 

[mudman]

My father swapped a car for two robins. He then drove the first one until it fell apart and then started using the second.
I have vivid memories of five of us in the car with us three kids in the back. The engine was squirting oil from somewhere that then proceeded to burn and pump huge quantities of white smoke into the interior of the car. My father just told us to wind the windows down and carried on. I've always wondered what other road users on the coast road into Brighton thought of the little three wheeler belting along with clouds of smoke streaming out behind from the windows.

 

[Mark Wright]

There were quite a few people had RR's in the TSG when I first joined in 1980. The owners just had motorbike licences.

Bograt had one that was converted into a pick-up (Pig-Up).

When I was in my early teens there was a family who lived on our street who had one. The entire family, mum, dad, 2 x twin girls and a toddler managed to roll it on their holidays and they were all killed. That put me off ever considering buying one.

Mark

 

[Laurie]

RR - Rolls Royce
      Range Rover
      Reliant Robin

....................................... :-\

 

[Roger W]

Or Reliant Regal - the one that came before the Robin, and had a pair of front wings with no wheels underneath 'em and a sloped rear window copied from a Ford Anglia 105E.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Many years ago we were changing by the road to go caving in Devon. Up the lane came puttering one of those weird bullet shaped three wheelers. One wheel at the back I think. Heinkel or something. The nearside front wheel clipped the kerb and tipped the thing over on its roof. Fearing mortal injury to the incumbent we rushed down the lane to assist. We found a resigned farmers wife covered in shopping. " Oh this keeps happening " she said. We righted the thing and she puttered happily on her way. My mate's mum had a three wheeler. You had to lift the bonnet and stick your leg inside to kick start a motorcycle engine. There is a clip in a an old comedy where a three wheeler is nudged off the road by        a " normal " car. Anyone remember ? Back to Reliant's. There was much camaraderie with drivers who always waived at each other in passing. When in Somerset dont miss the Hayne's motor museum near Yeovil. Lots of motoring nostalgia there.
Our early caving trips were by way of a Ford Popular driven by my mate a poor student ( amply rich now he is retired ). He used to buy half a gallon of petrol a time. We were told to  " f8ck off " by one garage.

 

[Wayland Smith]

Many years ago a friend has a Reliant
He reckoned it used as much oil as petrol.