Reliant Motor Company was a British car manufacturer based in Tamworth, Staffordshire, England. It was founded in 1935 and ended car production in 2002, the company had been known as "Reliant Motor Company" until the 1990s when it became "Reliant Motors" and then finally became "Reliant Cars LTD" after production had ended of the Robin as the company was restructured to be a car import business. It is now a dormant company and the only entity left is a separate parts company created called "Reliant Partsworld" which produces parts for Reliant vehicles.
Allard Motor Company Limited was a London-based low-volume car manufacturer founded in 1945 by Sydney Allard in small premises in Clapham, south-west London. Car manufacture almost ceased within a decade. It produced approximately 1900 cars before it became insolvent and ceased trading in 1958. Before the war, Allard supplied some replicas of a Bugatti-tailed special of his own design from Adlards Motors in Putney.
Microcar is a term often used for the smallest size of cars, with three or four wheels and often an engine smaller than 700 cc (43 cu in). Specific types of microcars include bubble cars, cycle cars, invacar, quadricycles and voiturettes. Microcars are often covered by separate regulations to normal cars, having relaxed requirements for registration and licensing.
Zeta is a marque of automobile which was produced in Australia from 1963 to 1965 by South Australian manufacturing company Lightburn & Co.
The Isetta is an Italian-designed microcar built under license in a number of different countries, including Argentina, Spain, Belgium, France, Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Because of its egg shape and bubble-like windows, it became known as a bubble car, a name also given to other similar vehicles.
Berkeley Cars Ltd of Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, England produced economical sporting microcars with motorcycle-derived engines from 322 cc to 692 cc and front wheel drive between 1956 and 1960.
Sharps Commercials Ltd was a British car maker based in Preston, Lancashire. It was founded in 1922 by Paul Sharp. It changed its name to Bond Cars Ltd in 1963. The company was taken over by the Reliant Motor Co Ltd of Tamworth, Staffordshire in February 1969, who eventually closed the Preston factory at the end of July 1970, transferring the spare parts business for the Bond Minicar, 875 saloon, 875 Ranger van and Equipe models to a firm called Bob Joyner & Son in Oldbury in the English Midlands. Reliant nevertheless continued to use the Bond name until 1974 on Bond Bug models made at their own Tamworth plant.
The Reliant Robin is a small three-wheeled car produced by the Reliant Motor Company in Tamworth, England. It was offered in several versions over a period of 30 years. It is the second-most popular fibreglass car in history after the Chevrolet Corvette, with Reliant being the second-biggest British car manufacturer for a time.
Panther Westwinds was a manufacturer of niche sports cars and luxury cars, based in Surrey, England between 1972 and 1990.
Goggomobil was a series of microcars produced by Hans Glas GmbH in the Bavarian town Dingolfing between 1955 and 1969.
The Messerschmitt KR175 microcar (1953–1955) was the first vehicle built by Messerschmitt under its 1952 agreement with Fritz Fend. In concept, although not in actual design, it was, in principle, a development of the Fend Flitzer invalid carriage. Approximately 15,000 were built before it was replaced by the Messerschmitt KR200 in 1956.
S E Opperman was a tractor manufacturer in England. After he saw the Bond Minicar he decided to build his own four-wheel microcar at a factory in Elstree, Hertfordshire.
Bond Minicar is a series of economical three-wheeled microcars which were manufactured by the British car manufacturer Sharp's Commercials Ltd, in Preston, Lancashire, between 1949 and 1966.
The Bond 875 was a small three-wheeled car partly designed by Lawrence "Lawrie" Bond and manufactured by Bond Cars Ltd in Preston, United Kingdom from 1965 to 1970. There was also a van version from 1967, known as the Ranger.
The H-M-Vehicles Free-Way was a three-wheel microcar manufactured in Burnsville, Minnesota, from 1979 to 1982.
The Lomax is a British kit car based on mechanical components of the Citroën 2CV. It has been in production since 1982 when it was introduced by the Lomax Motor Co of Willoughton, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. In the late 1980s the production was transferred to the Mumford Motor Co. of Gigg Mill, Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, where it was produced until the early 1990s. From then it was built at Cradley Motor Works in Cradley Heath, West Midlands. By 2009 the car was being made by Cradley Motor Works of St Leonard's-on-Sea, East Sussex. It was designed by Nigel Whall. From the early 1990s the Lomax has also been sold in the Netherlands and Germany.
John Crosthwaite was an English race car designer and engineer, active in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
The AC Petite is a three-wheeled British microcar with a rear-mounted 350 cc (21 cu in) Villiers single cylinder, two-stroke engine. The car has a single bench seat seating two adults, and was said to be capable of 60 mpg‑imp to 70 mpg‑imp and 40 mph (64 km/h).
The Bond Bug is a small British two-seat, three-wheeled automobile which was designed by Tom Karen of Ogle Design for Reliant Motor Company, who built it from 1970 to 1974, initially at Bond Cars Ltd factory, but subsequently at Reliant's Tamworth factory. It is a wedge-shaped microcar, with a lift-up canopy and side screens instead of conventional doors.
Martin Motors S.p.A. was an Italian company headquartered in the Quinto de'Stampi district of Milan. It was established by Giuseppe Martinelli to manufacture automobiles, buses and commercial vehicles. The manufacturer's assembly plant was located in Tunisia.
