Reliant Robin | Three Wheeler | British Cars | Drive in | 1973
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- Опубликовано: 20 июл 2019
- Tony Bastable takes the iconic Reliant Robin for a spin to see what this new British car has to offer.
First shown: 29/10/1973
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What people forget, is they were aimed at people coming from motorbike and side cars (outfits) Normally with a small family or fed up with getting cold and wet. With that in mind they felt luxurious.
My dad did just that. Had an outfit. got fed up with travelling to London and having to stop in cafe's to thaw out. Bought a Robin and thought it great. As did us young kids.
tell us your full story
I love the idea that you buy a Reliant Robin and then keep “valuable objects” in the boot.
Like the keys to your VW perhaps.
Tortinwall
Or that you might own a light aircraft?
Yeah cos that back window looks real secure! Thank fully there is a tonneau to safely secure your valuable away from dreaded prying eyes.
@@sportshatch Steady on there, I had a Reliant Robin and an ocean going luxury yacht ... but not at the same time.
Phil Gray
Please tell me the yacht was after the Robin.
I hate sad stories.😎
"Well .....that's the Reliant answer anyway" - Tony Bastable doesn't sound convinced!!
Neither does the Reliant rep.
Tony was the best at dismissive comments which still sounded polite.
I read this comment as he said it!
Bastable had his head firmly up Ford's backside. He could see no wrong with them, anyone else though and he didn't have much positive to say about them.
@@therealbettyswollocks as a Canadian, I've noticed brits are especially good at making dismissive comments that sound polite. Over here, I find we're more direct, or say nothing at all.
Was mot'd till 2009 so 37 years is definitely value for money!
oh look, it must be the 70's as everything is filmed in glowing "Beige-O-Vision" !!!!!!
Even Shaw Taylor was in biege
that and a fuckton of cigar/cigarette smoke
@@nickm5419 in the late 70s i had to sit in my bosses MK4 cortina with him chugging on a pipe. some early mornings i nearly threw up smelling that crap. Thankfully pipe smoking seems to have completely disappeared nowadays
@@insertnamehere5146 ..for that Condor moment
@@stevedickson5853 after "hotboxing" in his car for a few months i passed my driving test. I then drove to work free of the smell of cows dung. God knows who bought his car. it stank to high heaven and the head lining was a special nicotine brown
Always laughed at those cars in the eighties but when I see them today, I really like them. Folks that own them certainly love them. 👍
I would love to have one.
Been there done that back in the 70's. They used to say that if you could drive a reliant robin you drive anything. Had loads of fun 2 wheeling round roundabouts and even got stopped by police on the A1 in Yorkshire who said "I didn' t know they went that fast" and then let me off and told me to be careful 😁
Wow synchros on all 4 gears, getting treated like royalty.
For once, a sensible and practical test and comprehensive report on these iconic and fun little cars.
People sneer at these cars but I have had immense fun in the 7 years I had my MK2 Robin. Its quick off the lights, can do the national speed limit with ease, 70+mpg and cheap tax/insurance and many parts from the humble Lucas/BL bins means keeping it running ain't savage either. Its 1950's British car tech having a last gasp before surrendering to modernity and designed flaws of todays joyless tin boxes, you can carry the engine and gearbox yourself and yet it can carry four adults and still have room in the boot.
Would hasten to add that the tipping problem all but disappeared with the addition of anti-roll bars at the back, if you saw the problems the BBC had to get Jeremy Clarkson's one in the sketch actually tip over, as long as you treat it with respect and go in like a lamb and roar out like a lion, its almost like driving a 1960's sports car round bendy roads.
@@dodgydruid Apparently Top Gear tinkered with the differential to make it prone to topple over; also I think they had a roll over cage inside the car that would alter the centre of gravity.
@@dodgydruid they welded the diff
No more death traps than a mini of the era. It is the early 70's and it was a small car ... designed to be frugal and cheap to run to the shops ... so generally unlikely to run over 40mph by most drivers.
Martindyna Jeremy Clarkson was very good at arranging "accidents" for comic effect; ambushes as well, as in being run out of Alabama.
His roll neck is the same shade as the car. Brown pants-another 70's essential.
He's stolen John Shuttleworth's outfit
So long as they were Farah's
Forward thinking on his part. If I were ever to drive one of those, I'd just wear a nappy and a paper bag on my head.😱
@@Mugofbrown In 2020/21 you are wearing the nappy on your head
A lot of Reliant Robin drivers had brown trousers
Can't wait for brown and mustard to be back in vogue. Remember the 4 wheeled 'Kitten' model
Do you mean " Baby shit brown" ???
@@safarieten Various shades of - seemed to suit everyone admirably
Personally I miss diarrhoea coloured Allegros. Fantastic cars to go raping in back in the 70s. Good times.
@@mjstefansson7466 i hope that that is a typo
Great memories of pretty terrible cars😀 I did have Bond Bug for a while; in it's own way that was a lot of fun......
That colour was SO popular back then. An awful lot of BL cars in ' Harvest Gold'. Some even had the beige vinyl roof.
My Grandad had a two tone light blue over dark blue Reliant Regal Supervan III. As a kid I used to ride in the back with the dog! No seatbelts. One time he had to do an emergency stop and I ended up in the front cabin nudging the gear lever! I LOVED that van! It was a 1969 model on a 'G' plate if I remember correctly.
Same here! I remember tumbling around the back of one in the 1970s, when my dad cornered hard as he often did. The only place to sit was on the wheel arch, which made the bones in your backside ache. Oh and yes I remember ending up going into the front on some occasions too! I have to say I was much happier, when his next car was a Vauxhall Viva 3dr in orange/red, which I used to clamber in and out of the window, imagining I was in the General Lee :-D
EgoShredder 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞. Are we related 😈😈😈😈😈😈 I took my mates for a run, and every time I cornered they were bouncing off the sides !!!
@@californiadreamin8423 Haha! Who knows maybe we are. My dad even used the Reliant to tow a small trailor! After the Viva car he had a long succession of VW Passat cars and one Audi 100, before getting a Skoda Yeti and some other car that he has now.
George - I too had a light blue Regal van. My biggest irk with it was the almost non-existent suspension, you felt every small bump! However, it's main advantage to me (a motorcyclist at the time) was protection from the weather.
@@brucemaclennan9879 My dad was similar in that he passed his car driving test late on in life; he was mid to late 30s and before that he had a bike licence since his teens.
"the glamorous new body shape"
Sorry, what?!?
The backglass is very glamorous, that is what Bastable was thinking, I reckon.
Compared to some of the crap designs coming out of the likes of Leyland at the time it was a decent looking design....
This is beyond funny!
@@ANYTHING-AND-EVERYTHING. I agree,its a very good looking car,a big jump from the Regal.
Take a Hillman Imp and file off the straight edges and there you have it.
I've got a 1981 Super Robin 850 estate and I bloody love it! So does everyone walking or driving along! Petite & cosy little things, the windscreen wash is a manual pump in the dashboard, amazing!
I am planning to buy a 1979 version of this car. Do You think it could be reliable? Or I would just repair it every time I drive? 😄
@@karlisrerihs566 No I think you should buy it! The repairs are a hobby, if you don't like repairing things maybe don't buy one lol
5:38 You can tell the guy wasn't even there when he thanked him in the next shot lol
@yossarian true :)
Ecosse brilliant observation! That’s incredibly funny to watch.
I thought I was the only one to notice that.
@@skeletoncrusader It's a completely place for a start lol. A country road surrounded by trees and bushes, then suddenly he's on an airfield.
Known in the trade as a “Noddy”
Nice to be reminded of time when motoring programmes showed ordinary cars that people could afford, and didn't indulge in the wanton destruction of vehicles thought to be beneath the presenters. I don't think any production staff ever got assaulted by the presenters either.
So true. When car programmes used to about cars and not just another opportunity for Clarkson and co to disparage the British car industry.
In case you haven't seen it yet, have a look at the "hubnut" RUclips channel. He reviews loads of ordinary cars and is overall a great channel.
@@joshharley5397 thanks Josh, yes I do watch these good reviews and nostalgic everyday classics.👍
@@beaufighter245 Except TG didn't disparage the British car industry - that's why they filled the Mall with UK built vehicles for example. The British car industry of the 70s doesn't need TG to disparage it - there are plenty of other people to do that.
@@malthuswasright no, I have to disagree but all entitled to opinions.
Seeing four robins driving down the track brought tears to my eyes 😂
Me too!!
back in the day I had an Austin 1300 gt and my mate had a Robin ( 850 i think ) . I could not keep up with him round the country lanes 🤷🏼 I can tell you from experience they will go round corners without turning over .
This was the real heyday of Reliant - the Regal had been selling very fast indeed in the preceding year.
8am on Sunday morning is a great time with this channel.
Lane Hogger ha ha! You’re so right! Although it’s 8.30am with me!!!!
8:46
8.59am
9.03 , I'm so behind.
5pm here in Sydney
I owned 2 of these, the 750cc car and the 850 cc estate. also had the wobble steering problem which required a factory 'fix' got stopped at 96 mph going downhill on the M1 outside of London, didn't get booked the copper said no-one would believe him, got a very severe warning though.
Buy the gear ratio the engine would have to be doing 9000 RPM... So in other words you wasn't
I had one between passing my motorcycle test and passing my car test, I drove it through the winter in 1981/1982 and it was reliable and economical, also it was warm and dry. Of course they seem stupid now, but they filled a gap in the market and had quite a following. You have to compare it other cheap early 1970’s cars.
Good old Shaw Taylor,,as a youngster saw him at Brands Hatch in the 70s,,my friend's father had a Reliant Regal then a Robin in Kermit Green, he could drive them really well and was a military despatch rider years back,,no joke in the right hands it was sprightly,,Thanx for a great upload and trip down memory lane,,
Keep em peeled 😉
INSPECTOR FROST ,, For sure,you too,he was at the Brut 33 stand as was Henry Cooper,was great and so was Barry Sheene but was away from the stand,really wanted his autograph but didn't get it,,Have a Super day,,,
I was between Saabs, and bought a Reliant Robin from a guy who didn't know he was selling it (he was going to do it up as a project, but his wife hated it and stuck it in the Freeads paper). I loved that Reliant, although it had a tendency to overheat. I got another Saab shortly after, but kept the Robin running for five years.
The Saab was comfort, but the Robin was fun!
We drove to Wales in one of these..Four of us and a tent .How we all managed to fit in is now a mystery..😂😂
I remember driving down Twickenham high street in the early eighties and witnessing a Robin embarking on a emergency stop and it spun like a weeble
The only reason that would happen is if the brakes were badly adjusted.
I locked all three wheels on mine a number of times . The car would screech forward.in a straight line.
Graeme Morris
Right
Never seen a four wheel car spin?
@@jamescooke3763 well I am not lying 🤥
🤣🤣 most unstable cars
It's the film work I like. So watchable. You may not know but they gave a brown leather jacket to the first 100 buyers of the Robin. And the 1000th sold was personally delivered by Tony Bastable. He loved his cars didn't he. He'd be well into electric vehicles I'm sure. Lady driver car market anyone!
The jacket was worth more than the car
@@CARLIN4737 And the number plate.
INSPECTOR FROST If you find one at a car and boot sale, buy it! The jacket that is.
ICouldBeWrong ICouldBeRight 1973 must have been the high point of brown and beige in the U.K. It was everywhere. Carpets, curtains ..
@@philipcurnow7990 Beige masked all the nocotine stains
Interesting to see a serious review of the Robin for once, even if they did get it up on two wheels. It was actually a pretty popular car despite its many shortcomings.
I had a rialto. Was sceptical at first. But it was an amazing little car. 👍👍
Great seeing footage from when they were new.
Tony bastable and his very expensive squeaking leather jacket
Collapsable steering column must make it one of the safest cars on the road.
Ray Wiggins .... a man who thought 3 wheels were better than 4 . Apparently died in a wheelbarrow.
No he didn't say that, he said it was better to steer through one wheel if you are going to have a three wheeler. The point about three wheelers was , low road tax, cheap to run and you could drive them on a motorbike licence
@@rgwholt This is firmly disproven by Morgan, whose threewheeler handles briliiantly when you learn the knack. With any of the Reliants, there is no knack, they just fall over.
@@1258-Eckhart Don't forget a Morgan was never a 4 seater family car
@@1258-Eckhart I wonder what I did wrong then? I ran Reliants from 1990 to last year and never managed to tip one over......maybe I just drove mine properly.
If a reliant had one wheel at the back, when carrying 4 people all the weight goes on that wheel when accelerating which reduces its stability. And also accelerating in corners would be just as bad. No matter where the wheels are. If you drive like an absolute retard it will tip over
Why , for some inexplicable reason I want one......?
It really is fun though lol
It looks fun tbh
To see if you can tip it over, like Jeremy, of course..
My Grandad had the Regal Supervan III. They are a HOOT!
@@dan_6915 he had concrete under the driver seaf
It took me ages to spot Bastable with that camouflage jumper in front of the Robin
That was the perfect Grattan Man look of '73 !
John Shuttlewoth style
@@randyrhodes7137 Hopefully next Sunday I'll wake up to a clip of Bastable reviewing the Austin Ambassador
I had one for 18 months loved it but it was shunted from behind, twice. Well fit for lane 3 on the motorway, cheap Vehicle Excise Duty, and very good on fuel.
"Folding mini-tonneau which clips to the back and covers up valuable objects from the dreaded prying eye"
Yeah. Like Ming vases, Faberge eggs and works of art - the usual pickings from a Reliant Robin in 1973....
Best comment, muahahaaa XD !!
I used to visit & tour the Reliant factories in the late 1980's. There was a shrine to Princess Anne in the offices on Watling Street, now its a housing estate :(
73mph in that thing, sod that for a game is soldiers
I was in one being driven at 60mph once......thankfully it had brown seats!!!
It would do closer to 85, although you would end up with lock jaw and white knuckles for the rest of your life
@@aidenajarvis6808 I had 98 showing on clock in mine, downhill of course, but still showing it 😂😂😎
I've had my MK2 Robin up past the 90 mark, some with tuned engines have gone close to the ton.
@@dodgydruid Indeed. i tuned my dads to 86 mph. Front goes a bit light. I swear the front lifted.
Unless you've owed one of these you can't criticise .they are brilliant fun, economical and quiet fast for a 850cc engine
Omf I was marveling at the incredulity of Ray Wiggin lying through his teeth about the 'features' of this shitty car and their insane and inane design decisions, not even Tony Bastable the most 70s man ever born was fooled by that but the cut straight after where Tony appears to have been talking to a plane the whole time blew me away completely. They don't make tv like this anymore. Very enjoyable vid.
Sounds like a modern day MP explaining brexit.
We called them the Plastic Pig..
@@josephking1947 I know, and a cx500 was a plastic maggot
I had the preceding Regal Reliant. It was old when I bought it, and the one eyed mechanic who kept it alive for me used to curse and tell me to get something else when I brought it in for repair. I think it was 750cc, but it flew down the motorway.
It was a pleasure to have owned the pinnacle of British automotive engineering. Strange that I never pulled any birds though.
I reckon Bastable got it up to 80, I love how he almost rolled it! I was -1 in 1973, however Tony's voice was sort of childhood soundtrack, super TV presenter.
Keep them peeled said Shaw Taylor
"At least that's the Reliant's answer"
This man...
I love the fact Tony had a matching jumper to hand for this review
Some things really were best consigned to history.
As a long term ( 30 years) Reliant owner I predicted the usual sneers and vitriolic comments. They don't turn over on corners unless you drive like an idiot, and in those days the roads weren't ruled by Audis and BMWs, most cars were much more basic. I've always thought it should be compared with a Mini ( a proper one not the thing now thats bigger than the Austin Maxi was). They too were cramped, very bumpy and not terribly comfortable, but practical-and rusted. Reliant bodies didn't rust, though the chassis did eventually, and were cheaper to run. The worst point to me is the poor access for servicing, some jobs involve interesting contortions! They were also amazingly practical the amount of stuff that could be loaded in the vans was considerable for its size. Both it, and the Mini, eventually became too expensive, around £10000 when production ceased in 2001 - both finished within around 6 months of each other.
Sorry, we only compare it to a pile of shit which comes closest to this abomination they insist on calling a "car". :-)))
@Steve Terry If you put four wheels under it, it get's even better. :-)
@Steve Terry Missing the point much? :-)
@Steve Terry The point is, no matter who makes use of that abomination it is and will always be a piece of English SHIT and i wouldn't like to be found dead in it. :-)))
@@taunteratwill1787 I personally would like to drive this versus a whole litany of modern cars, thank you kindly.
2:55 literally everything in this still is beige
Love the shape of these little cars
I nearly spat my tea across the room with laughter when i witnessed the Robin at the end, rear wheels off the ground and frankly looking very unstable! That would never pass the "elk' test! How the comentator at the end wasnt laughing his head off ill never know!!!😂😂😂😂😂 the elephant in the room question, i guess when it snows you leave the Robin at home as i cant see how it would cope with snow on the middle of a road!???😂😂😂😂😂
£801 in 1973 would equate to about £16,000 (US$24,000) in today's terms.
Think about that for a moment.
Ian Rivlin
£801 in 1973 → £9,607.05 in 2019
So much fun to drive.
cant wait for the launch of these new robins, after brexit we will be able to buy british cars again :-)
I saw one last night on the road in Gorbals Glasgow was a funny sight not seen one for decades almost shouted out in excitement 😂
robin also made a luxury version of this automobile called the robin regal which is one of the favourite cars of the queens sister , princess Ann :-O
I've had Loads of Plastic Pigs over the Years and Great Fun they have been to. Then I went back to motorcycles for awhile. I hurt My leg and could not do the Gears properly anymore. So I thought I would get another Robin. So I went on line looking for one for sale. I came across Loads of them, The owners claiming they had used It to pass the CRT so now selling for a Motorbike. So I found a real beauty all re-done everything there and was only a bus ride away. So I went Into the local Insurance Office to get some on It. And they wanted twice what the Robin was worth. The Girl doing It didn't understand why this was because Her Boyfriend had one the Year before and It was Pennies to Insure. So with a little more digging We found that the Government had change the Tax rating on the Robin In April 2017 and Now classed It as a Car. So Now If You want one You have to have a Full Car License. Who the hell would want one of these when You could have Four Wheels on the ground for half the price. They were designed to get the Miners off of Bikes and Into Cars that was there whole Idea of them. Just another Government scam to get every penny from the Poor.
Tony Bastible’s creaky heavy leather jacket making the interior sound more expensive there 😂
Missed one of the best things about these Reliants back in the day, incredibly high residuals.
Not so good if you’re a hedgehog positioning yourself in between the headlights to avoid getting squashed.
David Matthews pop a wheelie off it👌🏻
Hedgehogs what are they ?
Didn't Jasper Carrott do that one?
🤣🤣🤣
@Pro Huawei Wasn't that a Jasper Carrott joke?
Notice how the interview went from country lane to runway
Yeah, I noticed that. 😄 He said "thank you very much" to him and the camera pulls back to reveal the car completely the other way round and in a different location. 😄 Very poor continuity.
AWESOME....I sold my beautiful ....BSA Bantam FEK939F ...so I could buy a VAN !! I was given a quick lesson before driving it from Leyland to Freckleton. That evening I went for a run...and stalled on tiny ....repeat tiny...incline. I kept stalling trying to pull away....and in my rear view mirror , in a JAG !!.....was an absolutely drop dead gorgeous young woman.....POLITELY smiling !!
Still....it enabled me to take EVERY stitch of clothing I possessed to last out each 10 weeks term at Lugaboro, for my final year, and make up with study ( no washing ) for the fun I'd had in my previous 3 years.
And I passed with a respectable engineering degree, infinitely better than the doss subject studied by our about to be Prime Minister, Boris, and I didn't cheat. ( sorry to bring politics into my story )
Edit: I discovered the fuel tank was leaking. I was at Warton , on the Provost production line, ( undergraduate apprentice ) and when I mentioned this to the technician I was working with....he wrote out a "chitty" to get what turned out to be a tin of sealant from the stores. He gave it to me saying ...if it fixes leaks in Lightning wings, it will fix your Reliant !!! And it did....so I reckon I had the most expensive Reliant ever
I worked for Weber Aircraft. I had a duel carbureted 1966 MBZ.
The linkage between the two carbs broke. I took the pieces to the machine shop. The guy made me a new one out of a block of aluminum. He even stamped it with:
Weber Aircraft. I had the only Benz with custom aircraft parts. It worked very well.
3.00 STEERING COLUMN COLLAPSIBLE IN THE EVENT OF AN ACCIDENT I THINK THE ENTIRE CAR IS COLLAPSIBLE IN THE EVENT OF AN ACCIDENT!
😂😂
@@therealbettyswollocks GLAD IT MADE YOU LAUGH UNFORTUNATELY THIS CAR IS TOO FAST FOR ME I SHALL STICK TO MY BUGATTI VEYRON
Thanks. Best comment!
Hehe XD Good comment!
I saw one of these last week here in Canada, he was just rolling along in traffic surrounded by v8 pick up trucks. Brave man indeed.
Reliants brilliant in snow
I seem to remember Reliant done a 4 wheel version called the Kitten
I'm in love with these videos .
I had a neighbour who had a Reliant Regal, and before that a BMW Isetta .
Tony was a superb television presenter
Its reliant robin not robin reliant......
You can see where VW got it's styling cues for the mk1 Golf.
I have just discovered this channel (or, rather, video time capsule) and I have to say that the gentleman testing the Robin is the most suave and classy car show presenter... ever! Hallowed be the Gods of youtube algorhythms, for they have presented me with a treasure of TV history!
That's Tony Bastable and I think he owned an Aston Martin V8 in the 70's. So yes he was very suave indeed!
Notice the seat belt getting stuck in the door at 4:25, the insane edit at 5:38 when we go from an interview around some trees in the "countryside" to an aircraft in the background and the pretence that the interviewer is still talking to Ray from Reliant. The nonsensical discussion about the positive aspects of a car being designed around 3 wheels at 4:44 is so 1970's. You've got to love all of this!
I can't put aside how much this car resembles a wheelbarrow with doors.
I remember hitting 80 on the mad mile near Sutton with a friend in a Robin.
£801.39? That extra 39p was a bit cheeky! And that cut away when he thanked Ray Wiggins... who clearly wasn't there anymore... plus the car had miraculously switch from a lane to an airfield... pure Alan Partridge!
Lovely Jubbley!!!
When your most attractive feature is the rear glass.......
I'd always assumed they had two wheels at the back to allow some luggage space. Nice to see a proper report rather than a comedy sketch.
Kind of crazy how humble people were(or maybe still are) in England, to buy something like the Reliant Robin. I was car shopping a year ago, could afford something like a brand new Mazda 3(kind of an upscale compact in the US market). Test drove one, liked the way it drove, just could not pull the trigger. Didn't even bother to shop less expensive alternatives like cheap brand new Fords, Chevys, Hyundias/Kias, those really scream "I'm poor" here in America. Ended up buying what I really wanted all along, a huge pickup truck(7 year old Toyota Tundra, same price as a modestly equipped new Mazda 3 lol)
my grandad had 1 of these,i was passenger once,what a horrible,uncomfortable noisy place to be.I rather go with my dads Austin maxi 1750 at the time-1975.Grandad upgraded to Skoda estelle in bright yellow,what an improvement
Hard to tell if the creaking is coming from the Robin or from Tony's leather jacket.
Love that they state the price including the exact penny amount!
Wow I really love that "glamorous new body shape" ... especially in that flat bogie beige colour! Very suave.
Bet that car must have been a real fanny magnet back in its day. NOT.
The really crazy bit is that health and safety laws allowed this highly unstable death trap to remain in production for nearly 30 year!
You certainly wouldn't want to be hit by a proper car in one, and as we can see it's accident avoidance abilities are minimal at best..
I want to BUY one!!!!!!!!!
73mph and synchromesh on all four forward gears. Reliant, you're spoiling us.
my granddad had a fuscia pink one, loved it
£801.39p! 😃
And thus a generation of stand up comedians were given priceless material to keep punters rocking in the aisles 😅
73mph in a wheel barrow. Jees thats hardcore.
Lovely hangover viewing
Jeremy Clarkson was a 13 year old boy when Reliant replaced the Regal with the Robin. I have never been in a Robin, but could tell by the sound of the engine a Robin was going past my bedroom or indeed many other cars such as Beetle, Minor, Mini, Fords etc. The Robin had Mini wheels, the previous Regal had Austin A40 wheels.
6:10, driving this car would be more practical than driving a motorcycle!
Keep em peeled, Shaw 👀
I guess that would be as good a way as any to die - 70mph in a Robin Reliant. I saw one which crashed into an ambulance near Woodville road in Cardiff in 1974. The bodywork just crumbled and fell to the road. Luckily no one was hurt, the ambulance continued on to deal with its callout - no real damage there.
I owned a Robin as a young fellow.
I got it as a wreck and fixed it. The engine was a joy to work on - when removed from the car. A very easy engine to rebuild.
The car was actually impressive, it had surprisingly sprightly performance and excellent economy , but was a bumpy and noisy ride.
I found that it didn’t do my street cred any favours at all however. People were horribly bigoted against it . I even got accosted by Reliant hating morons in a street just after parking it .
There came a time when I could take the abuse it accrued no longer, sold it and went back to riding motorbikes.
In recent times , I saw what appeared to be a brand new one , in China . Unless the Chinese have copied the Robin surreptitiously, I assume that the jugs and the design have been sold off to them.
Went in one owned by a colleague in 1984 in Malvern as a passenger. An unnerving lurching 4 mile journey at whiteknuckle speeds touching 30mph was enough to convince me perhaps walking might be safer.
My first job was body repairs on these cars, 50% of the damage was caused by them flipping over at high speed or wind! And god help anyone who had a head on crash in one of them 😔
Let’s shine a light directly into the face so he squints. Great lighting!
RMC 1L Registration now on a Scimitar GTC September 1981
That entire engine compartment doesn’t even contain the engine...