A RARE RELIANT
“Wiggin tasked his team at Tamworth with developing the SX body to fit the Sabre chassis”
Reliant can trace its roots to a motorcycle-engined three-wheel van built by engineer Tom Williams in 1935. By 1937 a deal had been struck with the Austin Motor Company over the use of their tiny 747cc sidevalve engine. However, the arrangement was to be short lived for the following year Austin terminated production, leaving Williams no alternative but to design and make a suitable engine in-house.
After the 1939-45 hostilities, Reliant began manufacturing vans again in 1946. In recognition of the broadening market, in 1953 they launched the Regal, an open-topped three-wheeled passenger car. The Regal MkII introduced in May 1954 saw not only a saloon variant, but also increasing use of GRP instead of the traditional aluminium over ash, eventually the body becoming all fibreglass (but still on a hardwood frame) with the launch of the Regal MkIII in 1956.
In 1959 a deal was agreed with the Itzhak Shubinsky's Autocars company in Israel over the design and sale of a four-wheel utility car. This was called the Regent Four by Reliant but the Sussita by Shubinsky. Meanwhile, back in Tamworth Reliant appointed Ray Wiggin as Deputy Managing Director. Under his tutelage Reliant then ventured into commercial vehicle and saloon car programmes involving GRPbased CKD kits exported across Europe and Africa.
The route for Reliant to move into sports car production also came through Itzhak Shubinsky, who had grand plans to export Autocar production to the USA.
