THE RELIANT REGAL 21E – METALLIC PAINT AS STANDARD

The year is 1967, you hold a motorcycle licence, and you want three-wheeled transport for a family of four – one with the comforts of a car and the running costs of a motorbike. In addition, you would like a certain amount of creature comforts, and your friendly local Reliant dealer has just the vehicle – the Regal 21E: https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1859984

‘21E’ stood for 21 extras, and the latest Regal was indeed a well-appointed machine. As well as the fog lights and spot lamps, there was a choice of four metallic paint finishes, chrome bumper over-riders and bonnet hinges, carpets, a spare wheel, a lockable fuel cap, an oil pressure gauge, and even a steering wheel cover in simulated black leather.

Reliant created the 21E as “showstopper” at the 1967 London Motor Cycle Show and Autocar reported the company took 60 “firm orders” at Earls Court. The firm’s Managing Director, Mr. R. W. Wiggin told the press:

We thought a luxury version of the Regal might appeal to a limited section of the public and considered the possibility of making a ten a week. Now that we have sold six weeks’ production at this rate within a few hours it is clear our plans will have to be drastically revised.

The 21E’s price was £575 2s 6d, compared with £518 11s 8d for the Regal De Luxe, with the latest Regal consolidating five years of success. At the Motor Cycle Show Reliant received orders worth more than £2 million for their three-wheeled cars and commercial vehicles.

The Tamworth company launched the 3/25 series Regal - named for its three wheels and 25bhp output - in October 1962. After so many repeats of Only Fools

and Horses, it is all too easy to forget the Regal 3/25’s sheer ambition, with its steel chassis, new all-aluminium 600cc OHV engine and an “excitingly styled, rustless, fibre-glass body”.

As the sales copy put it: “This is the new Reliant REGAL 3/25 - and there is nothing else like it in the whole wide world of motoring VALUE”. The 11th of June 1964, edition of Motor Cycle magazine found the Regal’s engine to have “plenty of zip” and:

The car has an air of individuality which no mass-produced four-wheeler can attain; after a relatively short acquaintance, a driver becomes very attached to it. Furthermore, there seems to be a camaraderie among Reliant owners even closer than that of the motor-cycling fraternity.

The following year, Reliant facelifted the 3/25; Ogle Design was responsible for the upgrade. One advertisement boasted: No 4th wheel. So?...So you’re £1 10s a week better off”. In a very 1965 touch, Reliant also told prospective buyers a new 3/25 could be driven with a motorcycle licence, which cost “fifteen bob every three years”’ to renew.

By the time of the 21E’s launch, Reliant was almost as synonymous with British three-wheelers as Hoover was to vacuum cleaners. Its closest rival, the Bond 875, never enjoyed the same success, and in February 1969, Reliant acquired the Preston-based firm. When the Robin replaced the Regal in 1973, over 100,000 examples had departed the Tamworth factory.

It would be fair to say that the 3/25 Regal line-up represented mobility for countless families. Joe Mason at Reliant Spares who is selling this 1969 example with the later 700cc engine, thinks so few 21Es survive as “so many people used Regal saloons to supply parts for ‘Only Fools and Horses’ replica vans”.

And, as all readers doubtless know, there is n

o such car as a ‘Robin Reliant’.

With thanks to Joe Mason of https://www.reliantspares.com/contact-reliant-spares for his time.

With thanks to Joe Mason the permission to use the images in this blog.