For over 45 years Reliant cars have been entered in many grueling rallies, road tests and hillclimbs. It all started back in March 1962 when Peter Easton suggested to Raymond Wiggin, Managing director of the Reliant Motor Company that he should enter a Reliant Sabre into the Tulip Rally which was fast approaching. Remarkably within a few days Wiggin had made the necessary arrangements for a Sabre to be prepared and entered into rallying. Their main aim was enter the car into the rally was for research, testing and publicity.
A prototype fixed head Sabre 4 was chosen to enter the modified with a 1962 Tulip Rally. The car was registered 15 CUE and had a curious round rear window (which were later changed on the production versions, along with square rear wheel arches).
The Sabre was standard other than a stage 2 Alexander tuned 1.7 litre Ford Consul engine (which was already an optional extra for the road version) and the interior was fitted out with the necessary rally instrumentation which included a Halda trip meter, stop watches, map reading lights and an extra oil temp gauge.
Wiggin approached his trade sales manager Arthur Rusling to manage the new competition department. Rusling happily agreed and soon they entered their works Reliant Sabre in the Tulip Rally (May 1962). Rusling volunteered to be Peter Easton's co-driver as he had previous experience in rallies and knew the Sabre inside out.
Although the car performed quite well, there was plenty of room for improvement, but sadly Peter Easton picked up a stomach bug and had to stop numerous times, due to sickness and they retired from the rally. Although their rally had finished, Peter was able to recover after 24 hours he and Rusling got special permission to complete the stages to prove the Sabre could make it to the finish.
In 1963 Reliant used their new 2.6 litre Sabre Six cars in the Alpine Rally. Bobby Parkes and Gerry Cooper were in car 649 GUE and Roger Clark was given his first ever factory drive along with navigator Bob Aston in car 650 GUE. They managed 1st and 2nd place after the Austin Healey 3000 works cars both retired.
More info here. A nice little read.
A prototype fixed head Sabre 4 was chosen to enter the modified with a 1962 Tulip Rally. The car was registered 15 CUE and had a curious round rear window (which were later changed on the production versions, along with square rear wheel arches).
The Sabre was standard other than a stage 2 Alexander tuned 1.7 litre Ford Consul engine (which was already an optional extra for the road version) and the interior was fitted out with the necessary rally instrumentation which included a Halda trip meter, stop watches, map reading lights and an extra oil temp gauge.
Wiggin approached his trade sales manager Arthur Rusling to manage the new competition department. Rusling happily agreed and soon they entered their works Reliant Sabre in the Tulip Rally (May 1962). Rusling volunteered to be Peter Easton's co-driver as he had previous experience in rallies and knew the Sabre inside out.
Although the car performed quite well, there was plenty of room for improvement, but sadly Peter Easton picked up a stomach bug and had to stop numerous times, due to sickness and they retired from the rally. Although their rally had finished, Peter was able to recover after 24 hours he and Rusling got special permission to complete the stages to prove the Sabre could make it to the finish.
In 1963 Reliant used their new 2.6 litre Sabre Six cars in the Alpine Rally. Bobby Parkes and Gerry Cooper were in car 649 GUE and Roger Clark was given his first ever factory drive along with navigator Bob Aston in car 650 GUE. They managed 1st and 2nd place after the Austin Healey 3000 works cars both retired.
More info here. A nice little read.