I Bought a Reliant Robin!

This little blue suppository next to me is a Reliant Robin, it has three wheels and is made of fiberglass, named after a bird, made in England, mid-engine, windshield wipers, and it belongs to me. I

bought

a Reliant Robin and yes I have seen that episode of Top Gear so please. don't tell me about it oh shit this is the internet now everyone is going to tell me about it for those of you not familiar with the Reliant Robin. Here is your intensive course. Maybe I shouldn't say Crash. The Reliant Robin was a car produced in Tamworth. in the north of England by the British car company Reliant, the original Robin was produced from 1973 to 1981.

Then in 1982, Reliant launched a new car called the Rialto, which was basically the same as the original Robin, but with a slightly bodied different. The Royalto was produced until 1997. Then in 1989, Reliant decided to bring back the Robin nameplate. This new and improved Mark II Robin was basically the same car as the Rialto, but with slightly different bodywork, and the Robin and Rialto, which were basically the same car with different faces, were produced and sold at the same time for eight years. , from 1989 to 1997. The Mark 3 Robin, which is mine, was introduced in 1999 and had such stunning changes as some new body panels. and headlights from a voxel corsa my

robin

is a model 99 the

robin

mark iii was manufactured until 2001 when

reliant

went out of business.

There were also some robins made under license by a plastic company in 2002, but they only made like 40, so I mean, by the way, the company called bn plastics modified the inside of the robin and added things like power windows that They had never been seen in Robin before, but again they only made about 40 of them, whatever the robin's body. fiberglass Fiberglass is what Reliant was known for making silly little three-wheeled cars that turn corners. The Reliant Robin is the second most produced fiberglass car in history, second only to the Corvette or so Wikipedia says. I couldn't find any. production numbers to back up that claim, I couldn't even find how many Reliant robins they produced in total, so it could be a myth, as far as I know the frame is made of galvanized steel, in the case of the Mark III there is only the fourth wheel in your dreams, they are all front mid-engine, rear-wheel drive, have an aluminum block four-cylinder engine made by Reliant and a four-speed manual transmission and yes, that four-speed manual transmission has reverse, apparently some people They think he doesn't have it. a reverse gear makes it from 73 to 75 the engine in the robin dependent was a 750 cc engine that made 32 total horsepower from 75 onwards the engine in the robin was a four cylinder engine with a single carburetor 850 cc making 40 horsepower now There were variations of this engine over time, such as one made with lower compression for better economy and one made with hardened valve seats for unleaded fuels.

How advanced, but it was the same basic 850cc single carburetor engine that was used in every Robin since 1975, all through 2001. Now the Mark III Robin can supposedly get 60 to 100 miles per gallon. I've read about it in a few places but as it's such a big range I don't think so, maybe I'll try it myself at At some point this car was imported several years ago by a fish and chip shop in New York where It was used as a delivery car. They also wrapped it in a silly Union Jack vinyl wrap and a bunch of silly stickers on this t-shirt.

This is this one. it's that car but yours didn't come with a shirt, that fish and chip shop closed at some point and this robin was then sold to a bloke and then that bloke sold the robin to another bloke, a fellow trobot owner in Tennessee. who we'll call ron funk master mr funk master had his phone in this car for a few months and then decided to sell it at which point he called me and now i have a dependent robin yes as far as i know this is the only. Mark III Reliant Robin throughout the United States and owned by me, the leading collector of unusual, slow and poorly made death traps.

When I brought it home it had a small gas leak in one of the fuel lines and had a small amount of coolant. link from a small hole in one of the coolant lines, both things were very easy to fix and the car has had no problems since other than a little overheating, but it is hot and yes, if you are curious, it is. Motorcycle license. I have a small plaque that proves it. I've been driving around my little blue suppository a lot lately, so I feel qualified to answer the question. You may all be wondering what a dependent robin really is.

It's terrible, but that's how it is. Well because it means I like it, let's forget about three wheels for a minute. This is a 1999 car that has no power windows, no power locks, no power steering, no ABS, no power drum brakes, no air bags, no air conditioning, no fuel injection. With no automatic choke and no place to put your left foot when not on the clutch pedal, this is an extraordinarily basic car, having evolved very little since its debut in 1973, apart from bodywork changes that are fairly irrelevant and cosmetic. if you compare it. For a basic economy car from 1973, it looks good when you compare it to a basic economy car from '99.

Well, it's a little like comparing a proper desk to a sheet of plywood on top of two sawhorses. It will work, but something is missing. features and stability, I mean, forget about the whole three-wheel thing for a moment. Can you imagine a 99 Corolla with a carburetor and unassisted drum brakes? Anyway, would you like to take a tour of this three-wheeled marvel? Of course, you would start with the landing gear, which is. an obsolete term, isn't it landing gear? Look at the bottom of my horseless carriage anyway, here it is. I already mentioned this as front mid engine and that's why they needed all that space in the front for the wheel so they had to push.

The engine back here, as you can see around the front wheel, is a bunch of nothing, it's a big void of fiberglass lower parts. You can see the huge funny steering linkage up here and it's not a rack and pinion it's a pitman arm assembly just a big old giant link that goes all the way to the front wheel here in the middle is the engine and transmission, the engine It was already covered in oil and then I went through some dirt, so now it's covered in dirt, as you can see this. The automobile is the very definition of body-on-frame.

It has a galvanized steel ladder frame chassis and a fiberglass body bolted right on top of it at the rear. It's got its Ford Pinto style gas tank mounted all the way to the rear and its live rear axle, that's it, not that interesting of a car, pretty simple, this robin is an estate with a hatchback. Robins and Rialtos were available as sedans, hatchbacks, estates and station wagons over the years, but the Mark III Robin was only available as an estate and a station wagon which is basically the same thing, the Vengeance panel had no windows and no rear seat. , this is the rear wiper, it works extremely well, this is the rear washer jet and opposite the rear washer jet, for a simple look of symmetry, there is the radio antenna, okay, in front you can see the beautiful nose Rounded headlights and elegant Voxel Corsa apparently this was the first robin designed on a computer, it doesn't really mean much.

I could draw something in Microsoft Paint and say I designed it on a computer, but it looks good, so I won't complain. This flimsy fiberglass flap up here is the part of the car that steals from the rich and gives to the poor with its band of merry men, which doesn't make any sense if you call this a hood and there's not much sea Underneath most of what you can see here is the heater core and the duct hoses that go to the cabin there are also various fluids the world's smallest radiator the battery that falls on the hood several hoses the fuse box that It has all four fuses and only the front of the engine, most of the engine is tucked into the dash of the car, if you want to play with the engine you will most likely do it from inside the car, pressed to the right.

Against your leg in either front seat is the engine access hatch on the driver's side, you have access to things like the starter motor oil filter, fuel pump and distributor. You can clearly see the Reliant engine block with the proud branding. The passenger side hash is where you have access to the exhaust carburetor and Lucas electric alternator. Note that the engine access hatch on the passenger side gets very hot because you know the exhaust is right there and there is no heat shield. I have to imagine there was some kind of heat protection from the factory, but I'm sure now maybe that fish and chip shop put their food deliveries right next to that hatch.

It's like a furnace but with a carburetor, like I said, there's just one wiper and it's pretty adequate, except it misses this corner here, which happens. being right in front of my face maybe I'm too tall for the car, I mean my knee also hits the butt of the flashers so the lens creates that theory, but the advantage is that I can honk with my knee , the dash here is straight out of the 70's it's comparable to say a Mark One Golf but cheaper the only thing on the passenger side is a glove hole in the middle is the radio obviously aftermarket there are two dials a voltmeter and a clock and yes, the clock works, you just can.

I didn't set the time because the knob is broken and in the middle there is a fresh air vent, at the bottom right, above the gear lever, is the most important ashtray and above it there are two cable pulls, the one on the right activate. the carburetor choke and yes it is a manual choke the one on the left is the heater valve this knob pulls the wire that controls the heater control valve which controls the amount of engine coolant that flows through the heater core the Fan speed control is logically all on this side of the dash, nowhere near the heater control and is not labeled.

I have to assume it was tagged at one point, but it's not tagged now. Side note: my heater fan is not working, there is power going to the wires but the fan is not. Working second side note, I still have heat in the car despite this because the air running in the front still goes over the heater core and enters the cabin through the heater vents. This is how I discovered that there is no way to turn off the defrost vents. four vents that go into the car there are two vents that have little flaps under the dash and there are the two defrost vents that naturally point to the windshield.

You can close the two heater vents with the little flaps over them, but there will always be fresh air flowing into the cabin through the two defrost vents and the only control you have is how hot the air is, not You can turn off the gauges, it's a stupidly spelled word and it's about the only thing that changed in the oven from '73 to 2001. This is what the instrument panel looks like on a Robin Reliant Mark III if you're wondering what they all mean. the idiot lights without a label, they are the flashing ones, yes, there is only one light for the shining ones.

Low oil pressure warning and alternator warning light on a classic Porsche 911. They placed this indicator right in the center of the indicator group. Right in the center of your attention is the tachometer because that's what Porsche considered most important to the driver. Every time you looked down at the gauge cluster, did you notice which gauge was right in the middle of the Robin's gauge cluster? It is the temperature of the coolant. Do what you do. These switches on the left do several things with the lights, there are the headlights, the fog lights. Behind you, the fog lights and hazard lights, the switches on the right, which are arranged in a completely different pattern, for whatever reason control the rear window defroster, rear wiper, heater fan and something else , I don't know what this switch does, it comes on when I press it I don't know what it does on the left side of the steering column is the lever that controls the flashers on the horn doesn't work oh there goes the cylinder head on the right controls the wipers As I already mentioned there are no airbags here, but at least you have a nice soft rubber pad in the middle of the steering wheel.

I mean, your head is going to hit the edge of the steering wheel long before it hits this soft rubber pad, but it's thethought. They could have put a spike coming out of the middle of the wheel that would be worse the front seats are fine they are front seats I don't know if they are correct for the

reliant

robin but they seem to fit apart from this piece of wood that holds the seat cushion they are supposed to Robins have a back seat, mine doesn't, probably for the better, although it doesn't seem like this back seat is useful unless you're one of those people who are.

I'm not burdened by having bones, these side mirrors are not suitable for the car, but at least they don't work. The guy who sold me this car told me that all I have to do for these mirrors to work is reach out the window and tilt them slightly so I can see how they are, but if I do that, all I see is my arm, so that device was as useful as these mirrors, here is the door panel and yes, these doors do not have detents and the only thing that keeps the door from opening too much is a leather strap, the back of the car It's surprisingly spacious, that's partly because there aren't any back seats here like there should be, but I'm still impressed that there's no spare tire in the spare tire well because the spare is too big and there currently isn't any. speakers in the car because when Mr.

Funk Master had this car there was a built-in box back here that spanned around this space, they had like 20 speakers, a couple of amps and 15 subwoofers or something like that and he took it out. Which I'm grateful for Because this is totally the wrong kind of car for that kind of setup, I mean I would say any car is the wrong kind of car for that many speakers, but that's my opinion man, and that It's pretty much a pretty simple car if I can call it a car now, as I've said many times, this whole thing is made of fiberglass, the whole body, which makes it very light.

The whole car engine and everything weighs less than a thousand pounds, just under a thousand pounds, that's 450 kilograms if I come from the land where pounds means money and Robin means local production and I think that's the end of the tour. You should know that I wrote the script for this entire video. Let's take this for a spin now. I'll start with the subjective. I love driving this. Which makes me happy in the few weeks I've had this car. I've been driving every chance I get. I have been going to the supermarket with chicken food parts.

Whatever. I've been driving it as much as possible. Because I would do? Don't I have a guttural little motor sitting here, basically hugging my leg? I have a direct and notched gear shift with the lever going directly to the transmission. Down here it gives me all those old car feels and sounds that I like even though it's not that old. a car that everyone else on the road loves because it's small and adorable and has one less wheel than the car they drive. It has a top speed of 85 miles per hour, so I can drive it basically anywhere I can take it on city streets.

I can take it on the highway, I can even take it on the interstate if I'm feeling especially brave, although I have to admit the engine is a little weak so I have trouble going up hills and try not to go over 65 miles per hour. hour because above that speed the engine starts to hum a little, but really those are minor complaints and when I drive cars like this I like to see myself as a kind of caretaker in addition to just a driver now if I can discard the subjectivity on the side for Take a moment and try to look at the driving experience of this car from the perspective of a normal person.

For starters, this thing is terrible to drive, it has the wonderful combination of being narrower than most cars and mid-engined, so I'm sitting on it. here in the driver's seat, wedged between the door and the engine hub, the engine, um, has very little insulation, basically all you get is the carpet around it, so it's as hot and noisy as a volcano during mating season, my feet run. Up to a certain point in the footwell there are very few safety features and I am in almost constant danger of the door becoming the new bottom of the car.

Now, naturally, I consider all of these things to be a plus because they add character. and entertainment while driving, but to the average person I imagine these aren't exactly bonuses and that would make for a terrible driving experience. Let's talk about stability. I have more because I'm on antidepressants and a robin. There's more to it than you imagine, you know, that episode of Top Gear with the robins falling, yeah, it was funny, but it was also a bit misleading. Robins don't fall so easily. The cars they used to do that episode were modified. He installed two different sized wheels on the rear axle, welded up the rear differential, and added a lot of extra weight to the driver's side for added roll.

As for how they made one make a wheelie, I don't really know, they must have added an elephant. to the trunk because as it stands there really isn't any weight behind the rear axle except maybe the gas tank, the engine is all the way up, in reality the robin doesn't flip over as easily as they made it seem, obviously it doesn't it's hard. I mean, just look at the front wheels like a damn rocker, but it's not comically easy either, the steering is pretty heavy and the rear axle has a pretty strong stabilizer bar given the size of the car and has an open differential. which is useful because if you put the car on two wheels, all the engine power will be sent to the free spinning wheel that is not on the ground and the car will decelerate and stabilize again, which is something I actually experienced when taking a curve.

It was just a little hot, I put it on two wheels and the inside wheel spun freely and the car slowed down because no power was being sent to the ground and I was basically saved by the open differential. It would have saved me if I had. I know I didn't take the corner too fast, but whatever the car saved me from, the reality is that I'm constantly aware of the danger of rollover, I'm not constantly afraid of it and that's the difference, yeah, that's it. Now I have a Robin like As far as plans go, I don't really have many plans for this thing, it's not in the best shape cosmetically, there are quite a few cracks around the gel coats and the inside is a little worn so maybe maybe take it with her and get better.

In the future, whatever I do with this thing, I'm going to have a blast. It's in very good mechanical condition so I don't have to worry about it at least for a while, maybe I'll change the oil, I don't know, I'll have a lot of fun with it and probably get up to some shenanigans like testing how easy it is to roll a robin or at least lift it up on two wheels, so anyway, thanks for watching. have a reliable steal and I'll see you in the next video