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Although they have four wheels I was surprised to see five Reliant fox camper vans all sitting in a row, these things usually hunt alone or at most in a pair but to see five at once was most unusual and great to see. Once all the cars lined up there was a superb line up of 3-wheelers; these included five Bond Bugs (4 orange and 1 green), A whole collection of Reliant Rialtos and Mk 1, 2 and 3 Reliant Robins, a rather superb Reliant Regal Mk 6 and an early Reliant Regal 3/25 owned by Phil Riley. The 3/25 was in superb condition and pleasingly provided me with some great photos for my book. There was also a few Regal 3/30s and interesting oddities like a Robin pick up truck, "Rialtopless" (A topless Rialto that was the splendid result of a crash victim), a 3-wheeled garden and even an old Heinkel owned by Malcolm Dodd. Wo there, I can hear you shouting, a 3-wheeled garden! Well OK it was a "Garden Robin", a Reliant Robin that had been taken to pieces and rebuilt with superb wrought iron hand work, a garden bench as a seat and then covered in artificial plants. Near the bottom was an ornamental squirrel clinging on for it’s life. This brought much amusement to my brother every time he saw the car.
Once the maneuverability competition got going I just had to have a go in my Regal, and it was great being able to use my own car as usually I always borrow one of Kerry Croxtons (who this year had four of his Reliants present). The maneuverability competition this year involved two canes being moved closer together and when you think that’s the width of your car you say stop and drive in between them. A measurement is then taken from the widest point of your car to the cane. As I squeezed in between them there was 0.5" of space between my driver door handle and the cane and 1.5" between the passenger door handle and the cane. “Fantastic” I thought. You then drive forward until your front wheel is on a rubber mat on the floor (this mat having earlier being swiped out of my Rover) this I just about managed to park on. So far so good. The car is then reversed into a garage made of three canes. The ideal is to park as close to the back cane as you can whilst the side canes are of an equal distance each side of your car. Aha, now here is the first problem with a van, having no windows I couldn’t even see the canes. I drove into them by guess work and whilst I was only 3 " away from the back cane there was a gap 12" wider one side than the other, this wasn’t good. I then drove forward into another 3 caned garage and had pretty much the same results. I tried again in Malcolm Norris' Reliant Fox campervan and then in my Rover. In my Rover I had guessed the width about 1" too much and both my wing mirrors hit the canes scoring a 40 point penalty - which was especially terrible as I parked the front wheel on the mat and got no penalty points when I reversed into the garage - exactly 9" each side and less than an inch from the back cane. Oh well.
The whole afternoon was extremely busy talking to folks and my brother, when not judging the maneuverability, almost acted as Ambassador standing next to my car answering people’s questions as I flitted here there and everywhere taking photos.. As a result the afternoon soon passed and it is the first time I’ve not really had time to go into the marquee to look at the photo competitions etc. As my Reliant is a "rescued Reliant" that was saved from sitting on a driveway looking blankly at a garage, I entered it into the Car of the Day "rescued class". Finally at the end of the awards, came the prize for the rescued class and a couple of people tapped me on the shoulder saying "this is yours" to which I didn’t really acknowledge as I never like to count my chickens before they hatch ... especially as they usually come frozen from Sainsburys. Third prize for a rescued Reliant was announced for Kerry Croxton and then second prize announced to me with first prize awarded to Ian Gibson who has green but rather grand Bond Bug. Suddenly a shocked mumour went up behind me saying, "no way, that Bugs been on the road for a few years now" and they all looked at me. I hadn't said anything so didn’t have a clue what to say and figured what ever I did say may sound like I’m a sore loser so just smiled and commented, "Second place is pretty good". Amazingly despite my 40 point penalty with my Rover on the maneuverability competition I still managed to come third in the "Non-Reliant class" and also third in the "4-wheeler Reliant class". As far as 3-wheels are concerned though I still came now where - I guess I need far more practice driving 3-wheelers. Awards over it was time to pack up and head for home, the Reliant sat back on the trailer resting after it’s busiest day for 25 years - clocking up almost 1 whole mile in 1 day.
Elvis Payne
May 2005
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