The Reliant Sabre (also "Sabre Four") and the Reliant Sabre Six were small two-seater sports cars produced by

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 w ...

between 1961 and 1964.

History

Developed in collaboration with the Israeli motor company

Autocars Autocars Co. Ltd. ( he, אוטוקרס) of Haifa, Israel, was Israel's first car manufacturer. History Autocars Ltd, founded in 1957, made fiberglass-shelled cars that were popular in Israel during the 1960s and 1970s. Government agencies were ...

, as a result of the Managing Director Itzhak Shubinsky visiting the 1960 London Racing Car Show, where he saw the

Ashley 1172 Ashley is a place name derived from the Old English words '' æsc'' (“ash”) and '' lēah'' (“meadow”). It may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ashley (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name ...

fibreglass body and also a Leslie Ballamy-designed chassis, the EB Debonair, exhibited on the LMB Components stand. Autocars obtained licences for both parts and contracted Reliant to develop the Sabra for Autocars. Reliant introduced a right-hand drive version for the UK market and renamed it the Sabre. At Reliant, David Page redesigned the chassis and the bodyshell was redesigned by Eddie Pepall to meet US requirements. Launched in 1961 as two-door convertibles, front-engined, rear-drive, with four-cylinder

OHV An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located bel ...

Ford Consul The Ford Consul is a car that was manufactured by Ford of Britain from 1951 until 1962. The name was later revived for a model produced by Ford in both the UK and in Germany from 1972 until 1975. Between 1951 and 1962, the Consul was the four-cyl ...

(later "Zephyr 4") engines of . They had front

disc brakes A disc brake is a type of brake that uses the calipers to squeeze pairs of pads against a disc or a "rotor" to create friction. This action slows the rotation of a shaft, such as a vehicle axle, either to reduce its rotational speed or to hol ...

, rack and pinion steering, and a ZF all-synchro gearbox. The front suspension was an unusual leading-arm set-up. Power output was giving at least . Coupés were introduced in June 1962, and total production reached 208 cars. At

Earls Court Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...

in October 1962 the Sabre was shown with a redesigned, "less bizarre" front end. A

six-cylinder The straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine balan ...

Super Sabre SE2 prototype was also shown, which then became the Sabre Six. In 1962, the Reliant Sabre Six was introduced, with a six-cylinder Ford engine of , capable of and 0-60 mph in 12.2 seconds. The nose of the car was different from the earlier Sabres, and all but the first 17 Sabre Sixes had more conventional suspension, taken from the

Triumph TR4 The Triumph TR4 is a sports car produced by the Triumph Motor Company from 1961 to 1965. As the successor to the TR3A, the car was based on the chassis and drivetrain of the previous TR sports cars, but with a modern body designed by Michelot ...

. From a production total of 77, 75 were coupés and just two were convertibles. The Reliant competitions department modified three factory cars and three privateer cars for entry into a number of International rallies. Modifications included a

Raymond Mays Thomas Raymond Mays (1 August 1899 – 6 January 1980) was an auto racing driver and entrepreneur from Bourne, Lincolnshire, England. He attended Oundle School, where he met Amherst Villiers, leaving at the end of 1917. After army service in ...

alloy head with triple twin-choke

Weber Weber (, or ; German: ) is a surname of German origin, derived from the noun meaning " weaver". In some cases, following migration to English-speaking countries, it has been anglicised to the English surname 'Webber' or even 'Weaver'. Notable pe ...

carburettors and independently-branched exhaust manifolds. Between 1963 and 1965, the cars participated in the

Alpine Rally The Alpine Rally, also known by its official name Coupe des Alpes, was a rally competition based in Marseille and held from 1932 to 1971. In the 1950s and the 1960s, it was among the most prestigious rallies in the world and featured an internat ...

RAC Rally Wales Rally GB was the most recent iteration of the United Kingdom's premier international motor rally, which ran under various names since the first event held in 1932. It was consistently a round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) calen ...

, Welsh Rally and

Monte Carlo Rally The Monte Carlo Rally or Rallye Monte-Carlo (officially ''Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo'') is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. The rally now takes place along the French Riviera in Monaco and southeast ...

. 1964 Reliant Sabre 4.jpg, 1964 Sabre Four 1964 Reliant Sabre 6.jpg, 1964 Reliant Sabre 6 Reliant Sabre 6 interior.jpg, 1964 Reliant Sabre 6 interior

Appearances in films and books

Modesty Blaise ''Modesty Blaise'' is a British comic strip featuring a fictional character of the same name, created by author Peter O'Donnell and illustrator Jim Holdaway in 1963. The strip follows Modesty Blaise, an exceptional young woman with many talent ...

had a Sabre Six in the book ''I Lucifer''.

References

;Footnotes ;Sources *

External links

Reliant Sports Car Index

Reliant Owners Club

Reliant Motor Club
S Cars introduced in 1961 Rear-wheel-drive vehicles Coupés Sports cars Convertibles {{Classicpow-auto-stub