That reminds me -Top Gear last Sunday

[DavieB]

Someone I know used to work in a garage. A customer left them in a Reliant Robin to get the exhaust welded. My mate reversed it over the pit but forgot about the three wheels and continued reversing until the front end dropped into the pit.

The key word there is used to work in a garage lol.

 

[Smokin Joe]

My first car was a Reliant Regal. I used to aspire to the posher Robin, but never made it.

 

[Over The Hill]

Should these cars now be called a 3x1

It was a fun piece, but being a bit pedantic it was spoilt for me when the front wheel drive car did a wheelie at the end.


When I was about 12 I really wanted one of these-
Bond bug was cool!

 

[Globalti]

Reminds me - I was entertaining a Ghanaian visitor last summer so took him for a drive around the valleys and out to Hebden Bridge, ColinJ's neck of the woods. On the road out to Howarth there was a Robin parked outside a cottage, my visitor was amazed to see a 3 wheeled car and insisted we stopped for a photo. Just as we walked back to my car the owner emerged from his cottage looking quite upset, presumably he doesn't see many black men and to have one ridiculing at his car in a deep baritone voice was more than he could bear. I had a bit of a job explaining to the bloke that my friend had never seen a 3 wheeled car before, he looked as if he thought we had been trying to steal it so we jumped in my car and drove off smartish.

 

[JtB]

When I was about 12 I really wanted one of these-
Bond bug was cool!

Me too, along with a bubble car.

That was all forgotten though by the age of 14 when what I really wanted was an E-Type (which is still my favourite ever car).

 

[mark barker]

It was a fun piece, but being a bit pedantic it was spoilt for me when the front wheel drive car did a wheelie at the end.

Front wheel drive?

 

[Over The Hill]

Front wheel drive?

I stand correctd - they are rear wheel drive - upside down one shows drive shaft and axle

for some reason I had in mind (and would have bet money) on them having an engine tied to the front wheel sort of arrangement.

 

[mark barker]

for some reason I had in mind (and would have bet money) on them having an engine tied to the front wheel sort of arrangement.

I think the old Bonds (not the Bugs, they were built by Reliant) and some of the other microcars had the engine mounted directly over the front wheel and the engine turned when you steered!

 

[DavieB]

Me too, along with a bubble car.

That was all forgotten though by the age of 14 when what I really wanted was an E-Type (which is still my favourite ever car).

And how annoying is it to think of all the ones sat in garages being eaten away by rust and forgoten about. My grampa was a gardener for a surgeon in glasgow for a while he had an E-type in his garage with a blanket over it was probably a good idea for maybe a year, when it does not turn a wheel for 20 years its a waste!

 

[tyred]

I think the old Bonds (not the Bugs, they were built by Reliant) and some of the other microcars had the engine mounted directly over the front wheel and the engine turned when you steered!

The microcars which used motorcycle engines and gearboxes tended to use this arrangement as it was simple and cheap and avoided the need for a differential. The original Reliant engine was based on the Austin 7 engine, I believe and it was always a proper car (and there were mini-lorry versions called the Ant).

The interesting thing about Reliant is that it began life as Raleigh's brief move into motor vehicles and when they sold it and lots of spare parts and un-assembled vehicles, many of the nuts had the enamled "R" logo like the original cotterpin nuts on old three speed bikes. The new owner needed a company name starting with R to match the nuts.

 

[Arch]

Oh, be ashamed...
They're like a cheap Renault, only not as good at cornering.
Or accelerating.
Or anything, actually.

To be fair to us, we were slowing to turn into our hotel for the night....

I was just excited to see one for real!

 

[montage]

watching a repeat of this right now!
Brilliant!

 

[potsy]

I just watched this tonight,I was laughing out loud at the antics of Clarkson in the RR and the stabilizers were genius can see Bent Mikey fitting some of those now

 

[Foghat]

That was a banging riff that Richard Hammond knocked out on the bass, too. Didn't realise he knew what he was doing with a bass guitar in his hands......

 

[ufkacbln]

TRouble is this type of abuse is exactly what the TopGear team are infamous for.....

They routinely trash cars. It is a well known fact with reviewers that if you are after TopGear in the line your chances of having a working car to review is not good!

One classic car (C type Jaguar worth about a million and one of three in the world) was trashed and needed a loaned and they turned the tyres to bald, destroyed the gearbox and the driveshaft. Excellent care of a classic vintage car, and parts are not easy to get.