Reliant Rebel

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The Reliant Rebel is a small four-wheeled

car that was produced by Reliant between
1964 and 1974. It was designed by Reliant
to be a market test to push Reliant into
other parts of the market instead of just 3-
wheelers.
 Reliant Rebel

Rebel registered January 1969

Overview

Manufacturer Reliant

Production 1964–1974
2600 made

Body and chassis

Body style 2-door saloon

2-door estate car
 van

Related Reliant Regal

Powertrain

Engine 598 cc/700 cc/748 cc

Straight-4

Transmission 4 speed manual

Dimensions

Wheelbase 89 in (2,261 mm) [1]

Length 138 in (3,505 mm)

Width 58 in (1,473 mm)

Height 55.5 in (1,410 mm)

Curb weight 538.8–-603.3 kg

Chronology

Successor Reliant Kitten

It was marketed as the smart alternative,
because it had a rust-free glass-fibre body,
a robust chassis and frugal fuel economy.
Many models were produced from 600cc,
700cc, and 750cc with saloon, estate and
van variants. It was considered a niche
rival to the Austin Mini and Hillman Imp.

Development
The Rebel was the brainchild of Reliant
Managing Director Ray Wiggin[2] and was
developed after the death of T.L. Williams,
the founder of Reliant. Wiggin believed
that people in the future would be less
likely to drive three-wheeled vehicles, such
as Reliant's Regal, so Reliant engineers,
after working on the development of the
four-wheeled Sabra Carmel with Autocars
of Haifa, Israel[3] decided to modify the
then-current Regal 3/25 to create a four-
wheel vehicle.

They built a rolling chassis using many

parts from other countries, with a
conventional front engine, steering and
suspension. It was however felt that
Reliant's 598cc engine wouldn't pull the
weight of a finished car; consequently, the
engineers skimmed the cylinder head and
fitted larger valves, giving it better torque
to cope with the car's extra weight. The
engine was specific to the Rebel.

Reliant asked Ogle Design to design the

Rebel, with the idea that it should look
completely different from the Regal, but
should save production costs by retaining
some of the Regal's parts such as its
doors and windscreen. The resulting car
was 138 ins.(3505 mm) in length, 58 ins.
(1473 mm) in width, with a wheelbase of
89 ins. (2261 mm). The kerb weight of the
Rebel depending on the model was
between 1185 lbs. and 1327 lbs. (539 kg
to 603 kg).[4] The Rebel made its public
debut at the Earls Court Motor Show in
1964.[2] The show cars were pre-
production models, built in Turkey and
driven to Earls Court to test their durability.

Rebel production was always low since

Reliant hadn't expanded its factory yet to
give the Rebel its own production line.
Reliant had already spent a lot of money
making a new production line and factory
building for the new Scimitar Coupe which
was launched alongside the rebel in 1964.

If Reliant had wanted to build a batch of

Rebel vehicles, they would have had to
stop production of their very popular Regal
3/25; this was the reason why there was a
big marketing push when the Rebel was
launched with very few cars being
produced thereafter.

The Rebel didn't get its own dedicated

production line until 1971 during Rebel 700
production. It then lost it in 1974 along
with the Bond Bug in order to increase
production of Reliant Robins to keep up
with demand after its 1974 launch.

Not having Rebels readily available at

dealers after its launch and for several
years thereafter, are the main reasons why
production numbers were so low
compared to the Regal 3/25 and 3/30
which sold over 100/000 cars over same
period. Ray Wiggins had developed the
Rebel as a marketing exercise for Reliant
to push the company into new parts of
market. He wanted people to become
aware that Reliant was in this segment of
the market, but he did not push the Rebel
to sell in huge numbers as expected.
Management were more concerned about
3-wheeler production rather than Ray
Wiggin's longer term view.

Models
The Rebel launched in October 1964 as a
saloon with the same 598cc engine as
used in the reliant regal 3/25 and only one
trim level, but with an accessory list.
These vehicles were only produced in two
production batches in the Tamworth
factory in November/December totaling in
only around 100 original Rebel built. These
vehicles are mostly seen as pre-production
as they were built for dealer
demonstrations only and the specification
changed between each vehicle as the
factory tested different fabrics and
materials for the interior. The main
differences in these early models were the
interior which used the dashboard and
steering wheel from the regal 3/25, bonnet
hinges hidden in the body work, the spare
wheel that was fitted under the bonnet and
the interior having minimal carpeting and
black gel coat.

Rebel prototypes had a larger front grille,

after testing it was found to make the cars
run too cool so on early cars the grille was
not cut out of the molding leaving a
"dummy grille" as some people call it.

600
Only 6 months after the Rebel's launch in
1965, it was relaunched as the Rebel
Deluxe (but never actually using this name
again). The car was updated with a new
dashboard design using different
instruments, thicker seats for greater
comfort and five leaf springs in the rear
instead of seven for a softer ride. The top
half of the grill was deleted completely
and filled in smooth, orange front
indicators replaced the original clear units
and a unique steering wheel was added.
This model in later years was simply
named the Rebel 600.

700
The Rebel 700, introduced in October
1967,[2] had several major changes from
the 600, including a full chassis redesign
using stronger steel and construction, a
new engine of 701cc, a move to negative
earth and many other specification
changes. At the Earl's Court Motor Show
the estate model was shown for the first
time and also announced it was on sale
now. The estate used longer rear windows
and a large side hinged rear door.
Combined with the new fold-flat rear seat
this made the Rebel estate incredibly
practical, and within two years it was the
best-selling model.[2] Later, side windows
that slid open could be ordered. In 1971, a
van version of the Rebel was introduced
after many Rebel estate buyers' enquiries.
The van model was basically the estate
but without windows. Rear seats could still
be ordered in the van with a rear window
DIY kit offered by Reliant dealers - thus
meaning you could buy a Rebel van make
it into an estate avoiding a large amount of
tax.[2] Both the estate and the van offered
46 cu. ft. of load space, which increased in
the van to 60 cu. ft. without the optional
front passenger seat.[5] Not many Rebel
700 Vans were produced as production
was in development for the 750, many
more 750 vans were produced.

750
The next evolution of the Rebel was the
750 model, introduced in October 1972.[2]
This car gained some parts with the three-
wheeled Reliant Robin that was due to be
introduced in 1973, parts gained were:

The new 748cc engine

Rear light clusters
Modified version of the 4 speed all sycro
gearbox
Radiator

The Rebel 750 was the most popular Rebel

as Reliant gave the Rebel a big marketing
push in magazines and newspapers
including full-page colour ads, because of
this many people were only discovering
the Rebel for the first time now with its
large range of models. The interior also
had a large change, fatter more
comfortable front seats were used with a
soft touch padded dashboard, all the
interiors now used black vinyl seats and
black carpets. Van production saw a short-
lived effort to produce more as Royal Mail
needed a replacement for its fleet of
Morris vans, they had already trialed the
Reliant Supervan but thought the more
conventional Rebel van would be a good
replacement, only as little as 10 vans were
trialed. In early 1974 with the new Reliant
Robin proving to be so popular production
on all other models including the Rebel,
Bond Bug, Reliant TW9 ended so more
Robin models could be made. In 1975 the
Rebel would be replaced with the Reliant
Kitten.
 Reliant Rebel saloon

Reliant Rebel estate

Estate legacy
The Reliant Rebel estate was the first time
reliant would build a small estate vehicle
using a large side hinged door with fold-
flat rear seats. Owing to the popularity of
this design, Reliant would carry on using
this formula for the Regal, Robin and Rialto
models until 1998.

Engines
The rebel used all of Reliant's own all
aluminium OHV engines, except for the
850cc version that was launched in 1975.

The car was launched with a 598cc engine

producing 28 horsepower, this was 4 more
horsepower than standard 600cc from the
regal 3/25, this was done as the car felt
sluggish with its extra weight.

After the introduction of the 70 mph speed

limit on British motorways the new speed
limit was seen as a target, any vehicle with
a top speed lower than 70 mph was seen
to be slow, with this Reliant increased the
engine size to 701cc and 31 hp, the new
engine was then used in both the Rebel
and the Regal.[2] The latter model was then
named the Rebel 700 in time for the
October 1967 London Motor Show.[6] The
larger engine gave the Rebel a top speed
of 70 mph and would later be fitted into
the Regal three-wheeler becoming the
regal 3/30.

By 1972 reliant fitted the 750cc engine to

the rebel, this was to test the new engine
before the launch of the new reliant robin
the next year, the same was done with the
bond bug 750. At the 1972 Motor Show
Reliant launched the reliant 750, with
35 hp it gave the Rebel 750 a top speed of
80 mph[2] but also gave better MPG of up
to 65 the gallon.

Rebel engines were always of higher

compression[4] and higher horsepower
because of the car's additional weight
compared to the three-wheeled variants.
Reliant always introduced a new engine
size in the Rebel first, before the Regal or
the related Bond Bug received it. All rebel
engine numbers end with a capital R to
signify it is a rebel engine with its
modifications.

Chassis, suspension and

steering
The chassis from its center back is similar
to that of the three-wheeled Regal, but the
Rebel features a conventional four-wheel
configuration with the front chassis
section containing conventional steering
and suspension. In the Rebel's case, this is
the steering box from a Standard Ten with
wishbones, trunnions and ball-joints from
the Triumph GT6 / Vitesse and Triumph
Herald models. The Rebel's standard 12-in.
steel wheels have a PCD of 4 x 4 in. (4 x
101.6mm)[4] and the car rides on 5.50 X 12
in. tyres.[3] The leaf springs on the rebel
are not Regal as many people believe as
the rebel leaf springs are longer.

Gearbox
The Rebel was introduced with a four-
speed gearbox which features
synchromesh on the top three ratios.[4]
There is no synchro on first gear. The
gearbox was based on that of the Regal,
but had an extended tailshaft with a
linkage for the gearstick.

By 1972 synchromesh had been extended

to all four forward speeds as the gearbox
was now based on the Robin gearbox. The
gearstick was no longer on a linkage but
"projects forward from the front of the
transmission tunnel".[5] "The light-weight
body material and the aluminium engine
block meant that the car was some 15%
lighter than the (slightly shorter) Mini and
35% lighter than the early Renault 5", which
was also introduced in 1972.[4]
Production numbers

first registered September 1964

A total of 2,600 Rebels were made in

saloon, estate and van variants. Most were
sold in the UK but many were sold in the
Caribbean islands.[4] Of the approximately
900 Rebels which were exported, a
number of them were in left-hand drive
form to suit some of their export market.[7]
As above most of the reasoning behind
the low production numbers was Reliant
didn't give the Rebel its own production
line until 1971, before this if a batch of
Rebels needed to be produced then Reliant
had to stop production of its popular Regal
3/25, something which Reliant didn't want
to do very often.

Rebel 1600 GT prototype

During the Rebel's production run, Reliant
had been experimenting with a more
sporting variant to complement the
Scimitar GT and forthcoming Scimitar
GTE. Whereas the existing Rebel was
powered by 598-748cc engines with 25-
35 hp, the Rebel 1600 GT prototype [8]
codenamed FW6 had been fitted with the
80 hp and 92 ft-lb (Net) / 91 hp and 102 ft-
lb (SAE) 1599cc Ford Crossflow engine
from the mk2 Ford Cortina 1600E. Reliant
had a relationship with Ford using their
engines in Reliant sports cars with Reliant
building Ford's fibreglass truck cabs in
return. The Rebel 1600 GT was a working
road legal prototype and had it been given
the go-ahead would have been launched in
around 1968, but was never put into
production as Reliant Management found
out the Rebel 1600 GT could not only out
perform the bigger Scimitar models
(around the factory as Engineers had been
racing them), but also reputedly featured a
power-to-weight ratio of 204 bhp per ton
which would have exceeded that of many
modern sportscars.

References
1. Cardew, Basil (1966). Daily Express
Review of the 1966 Motor Show.
London: Beaverbrook Newspapers Ltd.
2. "Reliant Rebel (1964-1974)" . The
Official Website of the Reliant Motor
Club. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
3. Culshaw, David; Horribin, Peter (1997).
The Complete Catalog of British Cars
 1895-1975. Dorchester, England, UK:
Veloce Publishing PLC. p. 241.
ISBN 9781874105930.
4. "Reliant Rebel" . Motor-Car.net.
Retrieved 18 December 2018.
5. "Reliant Rebel 750 5CWT Van" .
Commercial Motor magazine archive.
24 November 1972. Retrieved
17 December 2018.
. "Exhibition Stand 105 Reliant".
Autocar. 127 (nbr 3740): 45. October
1967.
7. "The Reliant Kitten Register" . The
Reliant Kitten Register. Retrieved
2 January 2019.
 . Lockton, Daniel (2003). Rebel without
Applause. Minster Lovell: Bookmarque
Publishins. p. 145. ISBN 1870519647.

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