From the beaches of Brazil, we teleport to merry old England. It’s not exactly the ultimate beach destination, but once upon a time one could expect to find some interesting bodies there. Or maybe downright eccentric. The Reliant Regal Bond Minicar became one of the an icons of British low-end motoring, since its three wheels and light weight made it possible to drive with a cheaper motorcycle license. Maybe we should head south again for our next beach stop.
probably not too ‘reliant’, either. .
The Top Gear episode with Jeremy flipping the Reliant Robin over and over is still my favorite…..
Er – sorry Paul but that isn’t a Reliant, it’s a Bond. ( the tiny wheels are a giveaway)
While the Reliant used a four pot motor behind the front wheel, the Bond used a two stroke motorcycle motor mounted on the front wheel.
Since there was no transmission tunnel, it could seat three people in the bench seat.
Yikes; how right you are. I forgot that Bond used that reverse-slant rear window too. Must have been quite the fad just then.
Motor mounted on the front wheel? You mean the steering yanked the motor around too? Yikes. That’s one way to get FWD without torque steer. And here I thought only electric cars could have hub motors.
You should check out the Tempo three wheelers (CC here). They had the same pattern and haul bloody well!
Right, I’d forgotten about that one. Tempo’s engine is closer in and looks like it doesn’t swing much. Google found me a super Bond Minicar page with good photos and a video you must see. That Bond’s engine hanging out the front swings a long way back and forth.
The video there is a riot. Going down the road you really can’t see the front wheel at all. It looks like it’s continuously popping a wheely. The scottie dog at the end is thinking “WTF?”
Great pics and video. Thanks. Looks just like Oregon too.
Mike: It seems like an entire motor-scooter rear end is installed in the car. Chain, transmission, exhaust, even a kickstarter(?), all in the two-wheeler configuration The Tempo unit was at least designed for the vehicle. This…. well.
THANK YOU!
I’ve been wondering ever since Pixar’s Cars 2 was released, just what Tomber was. I’d assumed he was a kind of cross between a Reliant Regal and a Citroen Ami, but since every other caracter in the film is a definite, single model, that never sat right.
Clearly he’s a Bond Minicar!
I’m quite fond of minimalist automobiles, and my current avatar is a snapshot of a Reliant Robin that I saw during a brief stay in London during the summer of 1978. However, this Bond car? It kind of looks like a boat. I wonder if the makers of the Amphicar “missed the boat” by making it a four-wheeler? A three-wheeler would be a bit more hydrodynamic, if that’s a word…
Parking was the fun part of Bond ownership. Since it used a motorcycle engine and transmission, there was no reverse gear. The motor was a two-stroke ( Villiers) however, so provision was made for it to be stopped and re-started running backwards.Alternatively you could drive the front into a parking slot and get out and lift the back in.
The Bond was very very low ( lower than an MGB) so it was unlikely to turn over during hard driving, unlike a Reliant. The lady in the beach photo must have been less than 5 feet tall.
How was it started? I think I see a kickstarter(!) in MikePDX’s picture.
Models in car ads being small is a hallowed tradition. 🙂 At least this one is real-sized.
I have to include this photo of a 1959 Bond Minicar Mark F Family Saloon from Wikipedia. It oddly reminds me of a Nash Airflyte, and not in a good way.
‘CAr’ is an overly generous description for this thing ok so you are indoors if it rains but what if you come across a hill, a Villiers is gutless on a lawnmower never mind lugging 3 humans.
This was a product of ’50s Britain though, a country bankrupted by the war where few people had any money. a citizen who had any means of covered transportation (i.e, a step up from a motorbike) was doing well, hence the microcar boom including Bonds and various bubble cars like the Isetta, Messerschmitt etc. All cheap to buy and run.