The second day of the Concours d'Elegance was a great day for weather. Whilst the first day was wet and drizzly which forced the event to be mostly indoors, day two meant getting the cars outside and being driven with the event living up to all expectations. It is great to see a static display of beautiful cars from all ages, however enthusiasts want to see them in action, … [Read more...]
Bond Cars
This history article is about another successful microcar manufacturer of the 1950s and 1960s – Bond Cars or Sharps Commercials as they were originally called. Lawrence Bond formed the company in 1948 in the north of England – a hotbed of microcars with Reliant and Peel amongst other manufacturers up in the same part of the world. Bond formed the company because he wanted to … [Read more...]
Reliant
This weeks marque article is about the British car company, Reliant, not to be confused with the very successful Plymouth Reliant model of the 1980s. The British company was founded in 1935 when a designer, Tom Williams, left the Raleigh bicycle company to build a three-wheeled delivery van that he designed for them but they didn’t want to manufacture anymore. He set up a … [Read more...]
The Anziel Nova
The Anziel Nova was planned to be New Zealand’s first home grown car. Like many stories in the industry, it has connections to a number of other manufacturers - and a fair bit of Government obfuscation and obstruction. A New Zealand born economist in Britain during the 1960s dreams about creating a car back home and sets his mind on making it happen. Alan Gibbs was born on … [Read more...]
Autocars
Autocars was an Israeli company that was founded by Itzak Shubinsky, with the help of Reliant Cars from the UK. The company started by building kits of Reliant's three wheelers and then the Reliant Regent 4 wheeled van. The first “true” Autocars model was the Sussita – designed by Reliant and shipped from the UK in kit form with a 1 litre Ford engine originally found in the … [Read more...]