RELIANT MOTOR COMPANY -- THE FOLLOWING EIGHT LOTS ARE ALL ORIGINAL CONCEPT DRAWINGS BY VARIOUS DESIGNERS
Ogle design was started by David Ogle in 1954 initially producing designs for consumer goods such as radio cabinets and household equipment. He graduated to Automobile design in 1959 by producing the Ogle 1.5 based on the then current Riley 1.5 platform. Only a handful were made, however his second design using the Mini platform and called the SX1000 was much more successful, but fatefully he lost his life while driving one. Eventually Tom Karen became managing director of the Letchworth-based Ogle Design and the next landmark in their repertoire was a design commissioned by a cosmetics firm using Daimler SP250 chassis and engine and called the SX250. Only two were made but one of them exhibited at the 1962 Motor Show attracted the attention of Ray Wiggin who was running the Reliant Motor Co. at the time. While the stable product of Reliant was three-wheeled economy cars, they had just ventured into a sports car for the Israeli firm of Autocars called the Sabra. Reliant then introduced a RHD version for the UK market called the Sabre which was only a limited success due to its body style. It just so happened that the chassis dimensions of the Sabre fitted very closely to those of the Ogle SX250 and soon negotiations were in hand between Ogle and Reliant to adapt the redundant SX250 body design to fit the Sabre mechanicals and so the first Scimitar Coupe was born and exhibited at the 1964 Motor Show. While this model (SE4) was only a limited success a derivation of it commissioned by Triplex for the 1965 Motor Show became the famous private transport for the Duke of Edinburgh for two years before ending up in the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu for eight years and is now in private hands. Even more significant is the inspiration the Triple Ogle gave to both concerns that eventually spawned the Scimitar GTE which was a landmark design by any standards and an immense success for Reliant as a production car in SE5 and later SE6 forms. Ogle were further asked to produce possible convertible and four-door versions of the GTE concept and some of these proposals, not used, are present in Lot 374.
Reliant also employed Ogle to design bodies for the 3-wheeler range giving rise to the famous Robin version. Another side of Reliant's business was producing knock-down kits for family cars exported to and assembled in Turkey. These were known as Anadols and some of Ogle's designs are also in Lot 376
Reliant's management changed in 1975; Ray Wiggin left and all connections with Ogle ceased forthwith. Sadly for Reliant this spelt doom as they preceeded to requisition designs from top Italian design houses such as Bertone, whose fees they could ill afford. Many of these concepts offered are represented in Lots 377-379 for both Scimitar and Anadol FW11, a future product none of which ever saw the light of day. Five concept drawings labelled X18 must have been unused Fiat proposals which presumably Bertone showed Reliant as examples of their art and are extremely significant. Finally Reliant employed Michelotti to design their last foray into sports cars, presumably because he had previously designed many successful British Triumph cars. There is only one piece of artwork in Lot 381 showing a very similar design, but better than the final shape chosen for their SS1 sports car introduced in 1985.
Ogle
Details
Ogle
concept drawings for Scimitar GT, Clubman, GTE, Aston Martin and others watercolour and airbrush heightened with white
16 x 31in. (41 x 79cm.)
See illustration (part)
concept drawings for Scimitar GT, Clubman, GTE, Aston Martin and others watercolour and airbrush heightened with white
16 x 31in. (41 x 79cm.)
See illustration (part)