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When you've been driving them 27 years nothing Scare's me I have even been on the m25 a few times when I lived Kent.I'm just surprised anyone would dare to drive such a contraption in the aggressive English traffic...?
Not much protection in a collision...
The number of accidents I passed almost daily driving up A3 onto M25, or along M4 taught me to drive German autobahn tanks.
Worst traffic of all was probably in Guildford, where I worked for many years...
It felt really strange moving back to rural Sweden after 10 years in that traffic with suddenly hardly any cars at all on the roads if you compared?!
I wouldn't mind having a Reliant just for fun and dropping a Hayabusa engine in it, with a custom drivetrain!
0-60 in a couple of seconds - if one could keep it on the road... hehe...
I still drive British today but the opposite to a Reliant Robin, the biggest Range Rover I could find!
I'm sure your car consumes less fuel going full speed than mine does parked, but that's part of the game I guess...
But now I live in the west country where its not so mad
The nearest continental car to the Reliants is probably the Trabant; I was in Germany shortly after re-unification, all the East Germans seemed to bring their Trabants to the west to go shopping, and every few kilometres there seemed to be a wrecked Trabby, where they'd pulled into the overtaking lane at 80 kph and been wiped out by a BMW or Merc doing 2 to 3 times that speed.I'm just surprised anyone would dare to drive such a contraption in the aggressive English traffic...?
Not much protection in a collision...
The number of accidents I passed almost daily driving up A3 onto M25, or along M4 taught me to drive German autobahn tanks.
Worst traffic of all was probably in Guildford, where I worked for many years...
It felt really strange moving back to rural Sweden after 10 years in that traffic with suddenly hardly any cars at all on the roads if you compared?!
I wouldn't mind having a Reliant just for fun and dropping a Hayabusa engine in it, with a custom drivetrain!
0-60 in a couple of seconds - if one could keep it on the road... hehe...
I still drive British today but the opposite to a Reliant Robin, the biggest Range Rover I could find!
I'm sure your car consumes less fuel going full speed than mine does parked, but that's part of the game I guess...
I always wanted a Reliant, preferably the 3/25.
Pete
Are they still selling aircraft kits Rick?. Last time i looked in there it was mostly model railway stuff.
There is a new owner and he has started stocking Tamiya, Airfix and some Revell stuff. It's still fairly limited but apparently there are three floors of stock rooms above the shop. I asked if he had this kit and off he went to fetch one of two he had in stock.
G
Just got this off John (Scale Model Shop). It’s an old girl but what a gorgeous kit it is. Detail and fit are superb. I will have to get the one with the towed gun as it is such a pleasure to build.
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View attachment 293598
I bought this a few years ago pete , superb book , a true british hero and a gentleman who sadly passed away last year , in fact it was reading this that spurred me to do a martlet ( current build in progress, although a different mark to the one winkle flew)
I was at Stansted on a job today and stopped off at Hannants in Hendon on the way home, I did well and resisted buying plastic. I've seen a few members mention Alclad gloss and have been wanting to give it a go so I picked this up
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View attachment 293611
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G
Please report back what you think of it?
I've just stumbled upon Alclad II products and I'm a real convert!
G
Trabants on autobahn... Horrible thought...?!
Whereas the Robin Reliant was a somewhat "well made" vehicle the Trabant was made as cheap as possible, with all the problems that comes when doing that... Just having a 2 stroke engine to begin with is such a dumb idea - but cheap and simple to maintain.
During the communist era in Sweden (mostly the 70's) some wanted to import the Trabant to Sweden but luckily they failed miserably!
I actually think it's impossible to MOT a Trabant here today?
In Sweden we've got another phenomena that's legal to drive from the age of 16 instead of 18 which you have to be in order to get a driving license, and that's the EPA, or A-tractor.
It's basically an ordinary car with the rear seat removed and the roof cut and a flat bed replaces everything behind the front seats.
The gearbox is locked so you can only drive 30 km/h (~18 mph) and the suspension is replaced by a solid bar, i.e. no suspension.
You are no longer allowed to register a new vehicle as an A-tractor so the ones on the road are old relics (chassis) from the 60's, 70's and 80's.
The almost always sport a second illegal gearbox to allow speeds up to 80-90 mph and you can imagine how well they handle with no suspension... sigh.
You never find these in urban areas, only rural, and they are a pain on the roads! (and the kids driving these are of a, well, certain type...)
We do have a small Robin Reliant fan base in Sweden but that's mostly out of necessity for those who are disqualified from driving a normal car for medical (or other) reasons, but many they aren't and with the new EU (moped) cars available to the kids both the A-tractor and similar non-car-cars are disappearing fast.
Myself has always been a fan of large block V8's and German hi-tech turbo engines - the faster the better, but nowadays I swear by my Range Rover but it's getting astronomically expensive to own due to "green taxes" and the new diesel ban...
End car OT
G
Trabants on autobahn... Horrible thought...?!
Whereas the Robin Reliant was a somewhat "well made" vehicle the Trabant was made as cheap as possible, with all the problems that comes when doing that... Just having a 2 stroke engine to begin with is such a dumb idea - but cheap and simple to maintain.
During the communist era in Sweden (mostly the 70's) some wanted to import the Trabant to Sweden but luckily they failed miserably!
I actually think it's impossible to MOT a Trabant here today?
In Sweden we've got another phenomena that's legal to drive from the age of 16 instead of 18 which you have to be in order to get a driving license, and that's the EPA, or A-tractor.
It's basically an ordinary car with the rear seat removed and the roof cut and a flat bed replaces everything behind the front seats.
The gearbox is locked so you can only drive 30 km/h (~18 mph) and the suspension is replaced by a solid bar, i.e. no suspension.
You are no longer allowed to register a new vehicle as an A-tractor so the ones on the road are old relics (chassis) from the 60's, 70's and 80's.
The almost always sport a second illegal gearbox to allow speeds up to 80-90 mph and you can imagine how well they handle with no suspension... sigh.
You never find these in urban areas, only rural, and they are a pain on the roads! (and the kids driving these are of a, well, certain type...)
We do have a small Robin Reliant fan base in Sweden but that's mostly out of necessity for those who are disqualified from driving a normal car for medical (or other) reasons, but many they aren't and with the new EU (moped) cars available to the kids both the A-tractor and similar non-car-cars are disappearing fast.
Myself has always been a fan of large block V8's and German hi-tech turbo engines - the faster the better, but nowadays I swear by my Range Rover but it's getting astronomically expensive to own due to "green taxes" and the new diesel ban...
End car OT
As a former owner of a Reliant Robin, the estate version which took me hill walking and camping without a single problem, it always amuses me that it has become almost universally known as the Robin Reliant.....:smiling5:
Yes, strange that isn't it Graham! Nobody speaks of a "Rialto Reliant", or "Sabre Reliant", "Scimitar Reliant", etc, but the poor old Robin gets mis-named.
Pete
Pete
somewhere ive still got the Radio 2 desert island pod cast of his
been given this.....1000 piece airfix jigsaw
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You like your Tonka's then Joe
Joe is going Tornado crazy.
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G
Eggcellent :tongue-out3:
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