The Bond Bug is a small British two-seat,
three-wheeled automobile
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods.
The year 1886 is regarde ...
which was designed by
Tom Karen
Thomas Josef Derrick Paul Karen (born March 1926) is a British industrial designer of Czech descent. He was managing director and chief designer of Ogle Design from 1962 until 1999. He oversaw design of the Bush Radio TR130 radio, the Ralei ...
of
Ogle Design
Ogle Design is a British design consultancy company founded in 1954 by David Ogle and based in Letchworth, Hertfordshire.
History
* 1954 Ogle Design was founded and produced many successful designs of industrial and household products.
* 1959 T ...
for
Reliant Motor Company
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" (or RMC for short) until the 1990s ...
, 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
Microcar is a term often used for the smallest size of cars, with three or four wheels and often an engine smaller than . Specific types of microcars include bubble cars, cycle cars, invacar, quadricycles and voiturettes. Microcars are oft ...
, with a
lift-up canopy and side screens instead of conventional doors.
History
Early beginnings
Since 1962, when Reliant Motor Company launched the Regal 3/25, the company had tried to make a more sporty version to appeal to younger buyers. Design sketches were done as early as 1964 by Ogle; these sketches are much more wedged-shaped with some rounded edges; the original name for this car was the Reliant Rogue.
The car was never put into production, as management thought that such a strange-looking vehicle might hurt the Reliant brand identity.
Bond cars buy out
Following the purchase of
Bond Cars Ltd. in 1969,
Reliant
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" (or RMC for short) until the 1990s ...
commissioned
Tom Karen
Thomas Josef Derrick Paul Karen (born March 1926) is a British industrial designer of Czech descent. He was managing director and chief designer of Ogle Design from 1962 until 1999. He oversaw design of the Bush Radio TR130 radio, the Ralei ...
of
Ogle Design
Ogle Design is a British design consultancy company founded in 1954 by David Ogle and based in Letchworth, Hertfordshire.
History
* 1954 Ogle Design was founded and produced many successful designs of industrial and household products.
* 1959 T ...
to alter the Reliant Rogue design; the car would now become a Bond vehicle. The Bond Bug was based on chief engineer
John Crosthwaite
John Crosthwaite (9 October 1925 – 5 September 2010) was an English race car designer and engineer, active in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
Crosthwaite worked with Cooper Cars, Colin Chapman at Team Lotus and Mickey Thompson as ...
's newly designed chassis,
[''Autocar'' magazine 4 June 1970 (Bond Bug)] and used a mixture of Reliant Regal parts, and running gear which had been designed for the Reliant Robin 750, which was due to be launched in 1974. The original concept was explored by chopping down a production Regal vehicle, the car's rear being shortened to end over the rear axle.
The engine is the front-mounted 700 cc Reliant light-alloy four-cylinder unit.
At launch, was claimed for the less expensive 700 and 700E models. The more upmarket 700ES incorporates a redesigned cylinder head, which permitted the compression ratio to be increased from 7.35:1 to 8.4:1.
This provided a power increase to as well as improved torque for the then range-topping 700ES.
[
The Bond Bug 700ES also offers more ergonomic seats, as well as more padding over the engine cowl, twin mudflaps, an ashtray, a rubber front bumper and a spare wheel.]
Launch and production run
The car had an upbeat launch, at which Reliant's Ray Wiggin stated: "The fact it has three wheels is quite incidental. It's a new form of transport. So now, in fact, we think it's going to appeal to a much wider section of the market than we originally envisaged."[
]
The Bug was available in a bright orange tangerine colour, although six white Bugs were produced for a Rothmans Rothmans may refer to:
* Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, a Canadian tobacco company
* Rothmans International, a former British tobacco manufacturer, founded by Louis Rothman
See also
* Rothman, a surname
* Rothmans 12 hours, a series of sports car ra ...
cigarette promotion, registration AME191H through to AME196H– one of which was also used in an advertisement for Cape Fruit of which AME191H was used as the main vehicle, Only three Rothmans Bugs are known to exist, and, according to the most recently available information, all three are registered in South Yorkshire.
In contrast to the image of three-wheeled Reliants as being slow, the Bond Bug was capable of 76 mph (122 km/h), in excess of the UK national speed limit (70 mph/112.6 km/h), and comparable to small saloon cars such as the basic 850 cc Mini
The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...
(72 mph/116 km/h) and the Hillman Imp (80 mph/128 km/h). For this, the Bond Bug would get an altered Regal Regal speedo with a top speed of 100mph, on the regal it only went up to 80mph.
The Bond Bug was sold as being fun to drive, with the low seating position giving a similar exaggerated impression of speed as in a go-kart
A go-kart, also written as go-cart (often referred to as simply a kart), is a type of sports car, close wheeled car, open-wheel car or quadracycle. Go-karts come in all shapes and forms, from non-motorised models to high-performance racing ...
.
The Bug was, however, no cheaper than more practical cars. It cost £629, while a basic 850 cc Mini, a four-seater much faster round corners but with considerably inferior acceleration, cost £620. The Bond Bug was often compared to a basic mini even though the vehicles were completely different.
Reliant launched the Bond Bug 750 in late 1973 but production ended after fewer than 200 Bug 750s were sold, as Reliant ended all other production lines so more capacity could be made open to build more of the newly launched Reliant Robin 750 to keep up with demand.
Further development
Even though the Bond Bug ended production with little fanfare, Reliant continued development into the 1970s; prototype 4-wheeled Bond Bugs were made before the launch of the Reliant Kitten, as they thought a 4 wheeled version may have more appeal to the market. The code name FW9 was used for the 4-wheeled Bond Bug design studies, later leading to a prototype of a strange coupe that looked very different from the Bond Bug. All this design was done by Ogle, but Reliant management never took it any further.
A larger engine was also in development with BRM
British Racing Motors (BRM) was a British Formula One motor racing team. Founded in 1945 and based in the market town of Bourne in Lincolnshire, it participated from 1951 to 1977, competing in 197 grands prix and winning seventeen. BRM wo ...
for the car too; this was a standard 850cc engine block with an overhead camshaft design; this engine would also gain twin SU carburettors and an electric fuel pump; the engine in standard tune would give 70hp. The engine was meant to be shared with a small production sports car that Reliant never finished developing.
Webster Bug
Mike and Gary Webster between them managed to acquire the original Bug moulds from Reliant Motor Company in 1990 with a licence for the design, and formed the "Webster Motor Company".
They decided to produce 4-wheeled Bugs as a "Kit car", so you would build the vehicle yourself. The kit asked you to buy a Reliant Robin or Rialto for the majority of donor parts, or the whole car could be supplied as one kit with a mixture of new and refurbished parts.
To allow the Bug to have 4 wheels, the ladder chassis was cut down at the front, with a Mini
The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...
front subframe welded in place. The moulds were also changed to have two large arches at the front. Different models were developed, including convertible versions that had no lift-up canopy with small screens, or a standard car which had fibreglass doors instead of the original vinyl doors, to keep the driver warm and dry.
They also produced a small number of 3-wheeled Webster Bugs
Under 30 kits were known to be sold.
Reliant Sprint
In 1994, Reliant unveiled the "Reliant Sprint"; this car was a complete redesign of the original Bond Bug. Tom Karen of Ogle design rounded off all the sharp edges of the Bug and added round headlights giving the car a totally new look; the prototype had Minilite alloy wheels, a grey vinyl interior, and was bright yellow. The Sprint used, in effect, a Reliant Robin chassis cut in half, with the rear half made to use the original suspension set up of the Bond Bug. Similarly, the interior used many of the current Robin switches and dials, to keep production costs low.
As shown in the ''Trouble At The Top'' TV show, Reliant Management wouldn't allow Jonathan Haynes to put the Sprint into production, as they had little faith that, in the 1990s, it would sell in any large numbers, even though it would cost as little as £12,500 to start production.
More developments were made on the Sprint until 1998 when Reliant would try to get it production-ready as a 4-wheeled sports car. Andy Plumb would redesign the car, now renamed/code named internally "the Clubman", in 2 different 4-wheeled models: a standard car and a convertible. These cars had huge bubble-shaped front and rear arches. Again more prototypes were produced; the chassis was redesigned once more with double-wishbone front suspension, and because the car was a 4-wheeler, the 850cc engine was redesigned to take fuel injection and a catalytic converter. Even though prototypes were promising, Reliant Motor Company wouldn't pay for further development, and the project died.
Popular culture
Tom Karen oversaw the design and production of Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the protagonist of the original film trilogy of the ''Star Wars'' franchise created by George Lucas. Portrayed by Mark Hamill, Luke first appeared in ''Star Wars'' (1977), and he returned in ''The E ...
's landspeeder
Landspeeders are fictional anti-gravity craft used through the '' Star Wars'' movies and ''Star Wars'' expanded universe. They are depicted both in civilian and military capacities, and several versions have been merchandised as toys and model ...
from '' Star Wars'' (1977): one of the models was built upon the chassis of a Bond Bug – the wheels hidden by mirrors angled slightly to the ground.
In the television series The Grand Tour, presenters Richard Hammond and James May transformed a Bond Bug into an amphibious vehicle - it was then called the 'Pond Bug' . Driven by Jeremy Clarkson, the car broke the UK Speed Record for Amphibious Cars; reaching a speed of 47.81 mph.
Appearances in games
A fictionalized version of the Bond Bug with minor visual changes appears in BeamNG.drive
''BeamNG.drive'' is a vehicle simulation video game developed and published by Bremen-based video game developer BeamNG GmbH. The game features soft-body physics, which simulates realistic handling and damage to vehicles. The game was initial ...
as the Ibishu Wigeon. A four-wheeled version based on the Webster Bug called the Wigeon Sprint is also in-game.
Gallery
See also
*Three-wheeler
A three-wheeler is a vehicle with three wheels. Some are motorized tricycles, which may be legally classed as motorcycles, while others are tricycles without a motor, some of which are human-powered vehicles and animal-powered vehicles.
Ove ...
*List of motorized trikes
List of motorized trikes is a list of motorized tricycles also called trikes, and sometimes considered cars. There are three typical configurations: motorized bicycle with sidecar; two wheels in the rear, one in the front (aka trike); and two in ...
References
External links
Bond Bugs: The Official Bug Club Website
Reliant Owners Club
Bond Bug Forum
{{Reliant
Bond vehicles
Microcars
Rear-wheel-drive vehicles
Reliant vehicles
Three-wheeled motor vehicles
Cars introduced in 1970