And my Dad had one of these 
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When I was much younger and living with my parents, the football pools guy, can’t remember if Littlewood’s or Vernon’s,used to have a Regal! Resplendent in a nice red colour 
IIRC, 700cc side valve four cylinder engine? One of my brothers who never mastered riding a motorcycle, had combinations, as my dad did. Brother moved to a Rialto and also had a 700ES Bond Bug! At that time, again IIRC, Reliant had taken over Bond, the chassis on his particular one was shot but he sourced a brand new one from Reliant, how good was that? He owned that for over 30 years and only sold it a few years ago. Matching colour camping trailer with it, double core radiator built by Marston radiators in Leeds, oil cooler fitted etc as they had a tendency to overheat a bit. It’s original reg number was WAJ 23J until he retired to Co Mayo and had it re registered on Irish plates. Happy days indeed.
Barrie
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my old Dad had a yellow one for years, it was the newer shaped one rather than the original one which looked blooming orrible.
Didnt Reliant have something to do with the rather nice Scimitar cars?, I know they had a glassfibre body.
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They did indeed! Think Princess Anne owned one? Quite different to the three wheelers!
Barrie
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I went to the auction on 22nd November 1990 when they sold the factory contents, the last few GTE’s, body moulds etc. Quite a sad sight
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Bond 875
Being an ardent Imp fan in the 60/70’s, 998cc replacement engine, radiator moved to the front etc.etc. etc. I just had to try the Bond with a Imp 875cc engine.
The Bond 875 weighed 400 kgs, 0-60mph 16 secs, top speed 95 mph, 50mph on 2 star petrol, leaded of course.
If my memory serves me well John Surtess lapped Brands at 100mph, I believe the engine in this Bond missile was a 998cc Frazer Imp engine, 300bhp/ton, attaining some sort of record.
Nostalgia; even today at Classic car shows I am always drawn to Imps & their owners.
Around £12/15K buys a fully restored Imp.
Keith
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Reliant Scimitar
I had a new scimitar in 1972 ,Princess Anne also owned one,with its Ford V.6 engine went like stink and handled amazing,lovely finished off inside,but ioverall quality not 100% as it used a lot of bits and pieces in construction,my headlight dip switch went up in smoke when all four powerful headlights were on,appt5 the switch came from vauxhall car could not handle power,cure was never to use full beam to long,final thing i decided enough the gear kever came oiff in my hand,the two bolts holding the conversion to the gearbox came undone.
Appt so i have read Princess Anne still owns one of the last ones ever produced.
All best Simon
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The Reliant Scimitar (and Bond Bug) were both designed locally here in Letchworth by OGLE. Tom Karen, OGLE boss at the time, is a highly amusing speaker whose talks on the company’s history I have heard on several occasions.
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The really classy Scimitar was the coupe which preceded the GTE . Straight six Ford power , sometimes with triple Webers , and lovely styling .
Its predecessor the Sabre Six was tasty too - and I enjoyed watching a pair of Sabres circulating Mallory Park in 2018 , in a CSCC race .
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A friend of ours owned one some years back, he had a few problems with it, and let the bodywork go a little so it always looked a bit on the tatty side , but we all liked it, he then got married and moved right away with his work, last I heard he still had it in his garage 
Boz
I was born and bred in Two Gates, 200 yards from the reliant factory so a lot of people worked there and many drove a reliant (free hooky parts). I remember three main things, one, seeing a three wheeler go up in flames outside a mates house, took about ten minutes all in. Two, I was in the guard of honour as a Cub Scout when princess anne visited, I think she was collecting her new scimitar. Three, reliant assembled the Ford RS200 group B rally cars in the eighties. The homologation was done at the factory and the sight of 200 of these incredible cars all lined up in the car park was a sight to behold.
Now it’s all gone and a housing estate sits on the site. One or two cars still around the village, but not many these days. A pal of mine still has the white scimitar GTC his mum drove when she was a secretary at the plant, still a very nice car.
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