Fantasy Reliant Museum

[drcdb15]

I was watching homes under the hammer the other day. There was a derelict mill building comprising multiple floors with several thousand sq foot of space, located in Staffordshire and sold for 50k.
That would have suited the purpose. Has to be somewhere close to Tamworth.

Can't have a Reliant museum without the MK1 Robin. Iconic shape of the 70s penned by Ogle and seemingly of course the namesake for all Reliant 3 wheelers.

My research suggests an initial funding of around £2 million would be needed for a suitable place to house around 40 cars. This includes initial staffing, fitting out the building, display materials, barriers, flooring, lighting etc. The car exhibits would be extra. I reckon around £200K for 30-40 cars, depending on what apsect you are trying to demonstrate. Sabre could be around £25K but a good 'typical workhorse' Regal might only be around £700.

So, next topic is 'special' exhibits. Obvious candidates are the various prototypes, but also homers like the pick up Scims, and for the three wheelers ... well, I understand that Beaulieu has the Top Gear "rocket" Bug, but there's the Robin that Clarkson rolled, Only Fools and Horses (so lots of BBC sponsorship potential), the Bond Bug that Clarkson got a water speed record with on Windermere a year or so ago, and there must be some motorsport Scims that are famous (not my area but I guess Dave Poole would know if anyone would). And what about the RS Mexico parts (Ford sponsorship?). Any others? Reliant-based trikes? Reliant fire engine pump engines?

And we simply *must* have a special section for the Robin Reliant...

The Forum is open ...

[Dcrosby13]

Blue Thunder

[Dcrosby13]

Most museums have exhibits loaned from owners too so not every car would need to be purchased.

[MikeyBikey]

Red Rocket, the Booze bus. Richards Black thing. Because they helped influence me to go racing. (note an avoidance of pointies - sorry, no bad meant. Just the way I'm made up.)

[erikscimitardemon]

I'd be happy to put on a car or regalia up for the museum.

[drcdb15]

Red Rocket, the Booze bus. Richards Black thing. Because they helped influence me to go racing. (note an avoidance of pointies - sorry, no bad meant. Just the way I'm made up.)

Sorry, but these and Blue Thunder mean nothing to me. Can you/someone explain please? I presume these are various members' race/rally cars?

[scimmy_man]

no one mentioned the RS200

[philhoward]

Why only ten?

Sabre/Sabra prototype
66 OGLE
ARF109D
Ogle GTE
GTE prototype
4WD prototype
C prototype
SS1 number one
SST
Sabre mk2

You’d need space for 40 or more cars to do it justice as the original vans and cars, the later economy range, The Bug, RS, etc. would all need to be represented, as well as non-cars.

[scimmy_man]

missed that

[scimjim]

Red Rocket, the Booze bus. Richards Black thing. Because they helped influence me to go racing. (note an avoidance of pointies - sorry, no bad meant. Just the way I'm made up.)

Sorry, but these and Blue Thunder mean nothing to me. Can you/someone explain please? I presume these are various members' race/rally cars?

Blue thunder

1AA11720-B331-48FB-A55A-1251C5A70A28.jpeg (175.3 KiB) Viewed 800 times

Booze Bus

26141C5B-AB83-4142-AF02-DD4153C14EDC.jpeg (200.38 KiB) Viewed 800 times

Red rocket

D03ED561-7F85-4AF1-AF4D-A282C5BD6F8A.jpeg (223.2 KiB) Viewed 800 times

[Old and Slow]

Get with the 21st Century, pleeeeze!!!
We could set up a virtual Museum for 100th of the cost, just need well-produced clips of each vehicle - interior, engine bay, engine sound, some circuit coverage etc. Then Dave Poole could certainly be the custodian, or chairman of the committee that decides on what gets in and what gets left out!!!
All paid for by advertising ?

[drcdb15]

Get with the 21st Century, pleeeeze!!!
We could set up a virtual Museum for 100th of the cost, just need well-produced clips of each vehicle - interior, engine bay, engine sound, some circuit coverage etc.

Brilliant idea - and we wouldn't need to actually look at any of the AI imagery because we'd send along our avatars to look at the pretty pictures for us...

'point' and 'missing the' springs to mind Nice try for a troll though

[drcdb15]

Red Rocket, the Booze bus. Richards Black thing. Because they helped influence me to go racing. (note an avoidance of pointies - sorry, no bad meant. Just the way I'm made up.)

Sorry, but these and Blue Thunder mean nothing to me. Can you/someone explain please? I presume these are various members' race/rally cars?

Blue thunder

Booze Bus

Red rocket

Oh, *those* cars - I didn't know their popular names. Yes, of course I know them now. In fact, I once overtook the Red Rocket heading south along the M6 (iirc) about 5 or 6 years ago. It was on a trailer so doing a sedate 60mph at the time (the trailer, not the Red Rocket...). But to the point: I don't know that these particular cars belong in a museum just yet do they? Aren't they all being actively used in competition at present? Maybe earmarked for future exhibits? But thinking of racing of yesteryear, were there any Reliants famous in things like hill climbs in the 1930s? Didn't Dellows (Ford?)/Liege/Tempest (the original ones, not Joe Mason's current generation) achieve some degree of fame in that sphere?

[scimjim]

Any of the ex-works cars could be there - but most are still being used

[Roger Pennington]

But thinking of racing of yesteryear, were there any Reliants famous in things like hill climbs in the 1930s? Didn't Dellows (Ford?)/Liege/Tempest (the original ones, not Joe Mason's current generation) achieve some degree of fame in that sphere?

Depends how wide you want to cast the net - the 750 Formula was originally built around Austin 7 engines, but when they became too old and valuable, they changed to using Reliant engines. They've now moved on to Fiats (presumably with the disappearance of Reliant). Reliant engined ones still race in historic series