[TR] Top Gear Reliant Robin

[Michael Marr]

Back in the 60s, when I was still a schoolboy in England, one of my friends 
had a Bond Mark C:

http://home.clara.net/peterfrost/bond.html

Bond were later to make the Equipe, which we are all familiar with.  The 
Bond had a 200 cc Villiers motorcycle engine mounted as a unit with the 
front wheel, which could turn through a 180 degree arc.  To start the 
engine, he had to lift the bonnet and put his foot inside the engine 
compartment to operate the kick start!

As Brian pointed out, license grades were very specific.  You could drive a 
three-wheeler with a motorcycle license, which made these cars very popular 
in the 50s and 60s.  They may even have paid motorcyle road tax, which would 
have been quite a savings in those days.  I remember the tax discs for my 
cars back then as being about 10 GBP, which was about a week's wages for me.

Another interesting license wrinkle was that you could not drive a 
motorcycle greater than 250 cc if you were under 17, unless the bike was 
equipped with a sidecar.  This led to a bunch of 16 year old Rockers on my 
housing estate buying older 500s and 650s and fitting them with a sidecar 
chassis upon which a very small box was mounted, to meet the letter of the 
law.

Fun days in retrospect...

Mike
Plainfield, IL

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brian Jones" <tr4zest at gmail.com>
To: <triumphs at autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2010 6:12 PM
Subject: [TR] Top Gear Reliant Robin


> This 13 minute episode of Top Gear is one of the funniest things I have 
> ever
> seen.
>
> http://www.wimp.com/reliantrobin
>
> -------------------
> Bill - that is a funny clip, but they were not unusual to see when I was
> young, in the UK. I hitched a lift in one, once (1976), into Wales, driven
> by a fireman! The Wheelie Bin on my driveway today is more robust that 
> that
> Robin seemed then. As mentioned in the clip, the market for these
> contraptions were men without a full driving licence. 'Full' as in, for a
> CAR. A mere motorcycle licence, gained on a moped (another item of 
> ridicule)
> would suffice, then. Brits are very specific on what licences cover which
> cars. To this day, take a test in a car with an automatic gearbox, and 
> that
> is all you may drive. No stick (manual) for you laddie!
>
> While the Robin was, and is, a figure of fun, these three-wheelers were
> another matter entirely: *http://tinyurl.com/322dov8*
>
> ... and it look like Morgan is to relaunch them ...
>
> http://www.morgan-motor.co.uk/sales/three_wheeler/three_wheeler.html
>
> Brian in Valley Forge
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