A garage find,1970 Reliant Scimitar GTE SE5

This was a rare find that came by way of a phone call from a friend,he had seen an advert on the local Cape Argus newspaper,it was for a Reliant Scimitar GTE sports car.My daughter Janet and I made the trip to Constantia to find a restored car in parts,the purchase deal was done over the next day or so,this was due to the actual owner still being out at sea on the ship he worked on,his brother was renting his home and wanted the car out of the garage,as the owner was unaware of the attempt to sell his car by his brother,agreement was first required.

We already owned a later model 1975 Reliant Scimitar SE5a GTE,we then had one of each model,Princess Anne of the British Royal Family had owned a silver 1970 GTE model,that had been painted silver,imagine my thoughts when I took this blue car home to discover that this car I had just bought had also been silver,I wonder?

We owned Reliant Scimitars for fourteen years (14) and as members of the Reliant Scimitar Club in the UK we became South African conatacts,seems we still are,as from time to time I still recieve requests for information and asked for cars for sale.

The original design came from a car penned by Tom Karen,a car that had a lot of roof glass,Triplex Glass had it designed and made and gave it to HRH Prince Philip,it was from that forward thinking design that the Reliant Group made the Scimitar,with its 3liter Ford V6 engine and front suspension from Triumphs TR range,with a solid chassis,it was a great car to drive and service work was easy too.