1969 Reliant Regal 3/30 saloon

[mercrocker]

I've often wondered about the screens....A workmate bought one of those Regal vans in the 70s after he got wet once too often on his trail bike. It had a laughably small screen but other Mks I saw subsequently didn't seem so pillbox-like. Was all the glass on those made up just for Reliant or did they use other make stuff do you know?

[Cruiser45]

All the three wheelers had bespoke glass,they were sufficiently large to warrant triplex's business.

[mercrocker]

Cheers!

[Eddie Honda]

Regal thought for the day. (Sorry no picture)

I did have this on the road...back 1992. I think as well as the spare engine, I also had a spare gearbox. I spent a few weeks recommissioning it then had to get a MOT. Easier said than done. Class 3 testing stations were few and far between, it wasn't like there was even an easy accessible list to work from. Local enquiries turned up quite a few that used to do them, but not any more.

Eventually found one in Whiteinch, Glasgow which entailed a 24 miles trip to get there. It was also quite a windy day, so it was a bit of an experience.

The only time I'd driven this was 'round the block' from the house which probably amounted to around a mile. Having been wafting in the Wolseley, it was at the other end of the spectrum bouncing all over the place with super-light steering. I did wonder to myself: "What the fuck did I buy this for?" on that drive, but it also didn't put me completely off.

[Eddie Honda]

I'm must of made two white-knuckle drives to the MOT testing station. Here's the VT30 failure sheet from trip one on the Mon 6th Jan. (I've learnt since not to piss about and have/do MOTs in the middle of winter)

20201229_MOT_VT30_SKR_679H_1992.jpg (1.8 MiB) Viewed 2776 times

and the retest on Wed 15th Jan (with a mileage difference of +51 miles)

20201229_MOT_VT20_SKR_679H_1992.jpg (1.21 MiB) Viewed 2776 times

Never got stopped by the filth on either occassion driving to/from the test. But then again ANPR didn't even exist in the olden days and they had burglars and rapists to catch. There weren't even any scameras to worry about.


(irrelevant historical note: The Vehicle Inspectorate (VI) (1988-2003) was the first executive agency of The Department of Transport. It became the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) from (2003-2014), then subsequently the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) (2014 on)

[AMCrebel]

I came across the aftermath of a smash on the motorway once. It looked more like an aircrash where almost everything is in tiny unrecognisable pieces - except there was part of the side of a Robin left. It looked like the Reliant version of Lockerbie. I can't imagine the poor driver survived - although stranger things have happened I guess.

[Eddie Honda]

Looking it up, the maximum price for a Class III test was £16.65 back then (and £20 for Class IV).

[Eddie Honda]

MOTs are piss-easy, but back in the day they were really piss-easy.

IMG_20201229_145421_6_resize_1.jpg (468.86 KiB) Viewed 2732 times

A job I never got round to was sorting out the passenger side exterior door handle. Untested item back then. Passengers were either let in by myself or instructed to use a finger in the hole to release the catch.

Eagle-eyed readers will spot the two shades of green (edit: Paint!). The outer darker shade was apparently a Fiat colour used for the respray it had before my time and underneath is the paler original which I think is Reliant Greenstone.

[Eddie Honda]

20201230_exhaust_receipt_a.jpg (1.92 MiB) Viewed 2708 times

3 piece (Bosal?) exhaust cost me a whopping £25 including the 17.5% VAT from a local garage. I fitted it myself IIRC. Things used to be so much easier to obtain locally, even in a small town.

[AMCrebel]

20201230_exhaust_receipt_a.jpg

3 piece (Bosal?) exhaust cost me a whopping £25 including the 17.5% VAT from a local garage. I fitted it myself IIRC. Things used to be so much easier to obtain locally, even in a small town.

Indeed they did - I bought an exhaust for my Polo in my lunch hour and fitted it at the weekend in about 1986 - it was £35 as I recall.