The Reliant Kitten is a small four-wheeled
economy car
Economy car is a term mostly used in the United States for cars designed for low-cost purchase and operation. Typical economy cars are small (compact or subcompact), lightweight, and inexpensive to both produce and purchase. Stringent design const ...
which was manufactured from 1975 to 1982 in
saloon,
van and estate variants by the
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 ...
in
Tamworth, England
Tamworth (, ) is a market town and borough in Staffordshire, England, north-east of Birmingham. The town borders North Warwickshire to the east and north, Lichfield to the north, south-west and west. The town takes its name from the River Ta ...
. It was Reliant's second attempt at selling in the small car economy market after the 1960s Reliant Rebel.
The Kitten is based around the design of the original 1970s Reliant Robin and was the first production car to use Reliant's 850 cc engine.
Even though UK production ended in 1982 the whole production assembly was sold to Indian firm Sipani Automobiles where production ran until the mid 1990s.
Development and history
The Kitten was Reliant's second attempt to sell into the general small car market, the previous attempt in the 1960s was the Reliant Rebel and Reliant at the time told Ogle design to make the Rebel look completely different to the Reliant Regal 3/25 it was based on (but keep the same doors and windscreen) but for the new Kitten design Reliant told Ogle to keep as much of the Robin as they could to keep down production cost from parts sharing as Reliant knew sales would be lower than the current Robin.
The Kitten was originally going to use the 750 cc Reliant engine that was currently fitted to the Reliant Robin but after driving prototypes, it was soon decided the 750 cc engine was not acceptable, so it was decided to tune the engine but after engineers researched this they found changing the crank and rods the 750 cc engine could become a 850 cc engine without changing the liners or pistons which again saved production costs. This new engine 850 cc engine developed and could also be used in the Robin as an upgrade.
The chassis design of the Kitten from mid section backwards is essentially the same as that of the three-wheeled
Reliant Robin
The Reliant Robin is a small three-wheeled car produced by the Reliant Motor Company in Tamworth, England. It was offered in several versions (Mk1, Mk2 and Mk3) over a period of 30 years. It is the second-most popular fibreglass car in history ...
using leaf springs and a solid rear axle, from the middle forwards the car is significantly different, with the engine moved forward and instead of using suspension from another manufacture Reliant-designed (but
Lotus-inspired)
double wishbone
A double wishbone suspension is an independent suspension design for automobiles using two (occasionally parallel) wishbone-shaped arms to locate the wheel. Each wishbone or arm has two mounting points to the chassis and one joint at the knuckl ...
front suspension. Moving the engine forward increased driver and front passenger room, compared with the three-wheeled cars.
Prototypes of the Kitten were shown to the public in 1974 with some criticism that the Kitten looked like a "4 wheeled Robin" and because of this the car had a quick front end redesign with the round headlights replaced with the square lucas headlamps shared with the Austin Allegro and a black light panel and black bumpers front and rear. This earlier front end design would be used later on for Van models as the 7" round headlamps were significantly cheaper than the square lucas lamps.
The Kitten launched in 1975 as a Saloon and Estate model with a large range of optional extras and a choice of black or tan interiors, it was also one of the first small UK cars to be sold as standard with radial tyres.
In October 1976 a new de luxe version of the Kitten, branded as the Kitten DL, was announced.
Improvements included revised springs and dampers and a different
anti-roll bar
An anti-roll bar (roll bar, anti-sway bar, sway bar, stabilizer bar) is a part of many automobile suspensions that helps reduce the body roll of a vehicle during fast cornering or over road irregularities. It connects opposite (left/right) whee ...
. But mainly the DL model was an interior improvement package. It included more comfortable seats which reclined and tilted - and were available in brown or black cloth
- a stronger door design with chrome interior handles, vinyl door cards incorporating map pockets, a parcel shelf, volt meter and oil pressure gauges. The car also had a radio with twin speakers, Gemini alloy wheels, additional carpets, front and rear fog lights and in some cases rear reversing lights, the biggest claim was the Kitten DL was the first UK small car to come with a rear wiper as standard, something car journalists noted at the time similar to the Kitten's bigger brother the Scimitar GTE.
![Reliant Kitten Estate Utrecht](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Reliant_Kitten_Estate_Utrecht.jpg)
On 1 December 1977, a van version of the Kitten was announced. It shared the profile of the Kitten Estate but used the prototype nose of the original Kitten saloon, which had Lucas round headlamps. The new car had blank panels in place of the windows behind the
B-pillar
The pillars on a car with permanent roof body style (such as four-door Sedan (automobile), sedans) are the vertical or nearly vertical supports of its window area or Greenhouse (automotive), greenhouse—designated respectively as the ''A, B, ...
, thus making a van. Other changes included a black vinyl interior with an optional rear bench seat which folded flat.
The van could be had with or without a front passenger seat. With the seat, the van had an interior volume of ; without the seat, volume increased to . A number of the vans "ended up with windows fitted as it was cheaper to buy
he vanthan the estate".
After production problems with the Robin caused a drop in sales and loss of staff, Reliant decided to close down the Kitten production line and focus on Robin production, this meant after 1978 the Kitten because a "special order" vehicle only. If a customer wanted a Kitten they would now need to order at a Reliant dealer and wait for the car to be built by taking staff off the Robin production line, it also meant Kittens were no longer made in general batches and kept in stock at dealers.
![A rarity in Britain these days!](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/A_rarity_in_Britain_these_days%21.jpg)
In 1982, after selling 4551 Kittens,
"small numbers" of which had been built in left hand drive for export, the last Kitten rolled off the production line. It was "not replaced" by a new car
but "The all new Reliant Fox" went into production in 1983. The Fox had similar mechanicals to the Kitten, but was a four-wheeled pickup with hard tops available to also make it into an estate or van type vehicle.
A number of Kittens were still sold in 1983 and 1984 from dealer built kits, lots of spares were left in stock at Reliant and since the Reliant Fox used the same chassis as the Kitten a number of vehicles were built by dealers for customers as the Fox didn't appeal to the same market since it was a van, these cars are easy to spot as they use the Fox's 12 inch wheels and are usually registered on Q registration plates.
Though Reliant had ended production of the Kitten in the UK it was expected to sell the imported Sipani Dolphin in the UK but this plan was quickly scrapped after Reliant saw the quality of the vehicles Sipani was producing.
The Sipani Dolphin and Montana
1982 was not the end of production of the Kitten, though, as large numbers were built as CKD kits in
Bangalore
Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...
by
Sipani
Sipani Automobiles Ltd. (known as SAIL unrise Automotive Industries Ltd.until 1978) was an Indian car manufacturer established in 1973, located in Bangalore. They mainly manufactured subcompact cars with fibreglass bodies. They also took over A ...
Automobiles Ltd. Renamed the Dolphin, these cars had only slight changes, such as front grille and wheel trims. However, two-door cars were not particularly popular in India as laws restricted the sale of such vehicles in half of the country. As a result, Sipani produced the Montana, a larger five-door hatchback with a more modern appearance.
The cars were successful rally cars in India and were seen as a popular home-grown choice of vehicle. Sipani carried on producing vehicles built around the Kitten design and mechanicals into the 1990s.
A preservation society exists called the
Reliant Kitten Register
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 ...
.
Journalists impressions
''
Classic and Sportscar'' magazine noted that the car's speed and fuel economy gave it real kitten-like performance, with a taxi-like turning circle" but that it was more expensive than rival cars from other manufacturers, which could build larger numbers of vehicles.
In a letter to the editor of ''Motorsport'' magazine in 1976, a Dr Robert Elliot-Porter wrote that he had driven his Kitten on a round-trip on a motorway and averaged . He called it "a car of which the British can be proud," adding that he had driven his Kitten more than in 10 months of ownership. Both he and his wife owned Kittens. Automotive writer Craig Cheetham opined that Reliants in general appealed to "the older generations among Britain's population" because of the car's durability and that "the average buyers" of the Kitten "were well into their sixties".
References
External links
Reliant Kitten RegisterReliant Kitten OnlineReliant Owners ClubReliant Motor Club{{Reliant
K
Cars introduced in 1975
Cars discontinued in 1982
1980s cars