The story
History
Reliant had built three-wheeled vans since 1935 (more in micro vans), and in Britain a light three-wheeler paid the motor tricycle’s tax, and a motorcycle licence was enough to drive it.source 1 In 1970 Reliant’s managing director, Ray Wiggin, set the tricycle’s £10 road tax against £25 for a car.source 2 The Supervan grew out of the Reliant Regal saloon. When the Regal 3/25 arrived in 1962, Reliant took the van out of the Regal range, and from 1963 sold it as the Reliant 5 cwt, named after its payload of five hundredweight, about 250 kg. It had the 3/25’s curved bonnet with ten horizontal slots across the nose, and Reliant’s new all-aluminium 598 cc four of 24 PS.source 3source 4source 5
Contrary to popular belief it is often assumed that the first Supervan was based on the Regal 3/25 with a slatted front end. This is not the case, the 5cwt van version of the Regal 3/25 was called just that, ‘Reliant 5-cwt van’.
Super, II and III
In 1965 the saloon was given a restyled front and became the 3/25 Super, while the slatted car carried on as the standard model. In May 1966 the van was given the same front and longer side mouldings, and the name to match: Supervan.source 3source 1source 4 In September 1967 the Supervan II had a revised cylinder head and exhaust manifold and a new carburettor, raising the power from 24.5 to 26 bhp. Its body was so little changed that Reliant used almost the same photographs in both brochures.source 3source 1
In 1968 the Regal became the 3/30, with a new 701 cc engine, and the van became the Supervan III. It gave 29 bhp (22 kW) at 5,000 rpm and would do about 113 km/h (70 mph).source 3source 6 It was a glass-fibre van on the Regal’s steel box-section frame. The single front wheel, on a leading arm strengthened for commercial use, did the steering; a live axle on leaf springs at the back drove two wheels; and one large door, hinged on the right, opened onto 1.4 m³ (50 cu ft) of space for its 5 cwt.source 1source 6 The van was 3,430 mm (135 in) long.source 1source 4 From April 1969 the 21E trim came across from the saloon: carpets, a body-coloured dash, chrome bezels and trim, mirrors on both front wings, bumper over-riders and fog lamps above the front number plate.source 3source 1 In 1970 the Supervan III was outselling its saloon sister, and Reliant gave the vans a “Scimitar look” in black vinyl.source 3 A Supervan III cost £437 in 1971.source 6 Reliant itself never formally put the van in the Regal range, though Beaulieu and many books call it the Regal Supervan.source 1source 6
What a Supervan could carry was tested at Mallory Park in 1968, when one was driven round the circuit with 16 people crammed in the back.source 6 The Reliant dealer Two Strokes made its own version, the TS Safari, in 1967, with an amber plastic skylight and vents in the rear sides, and a Safari 2 with a folding canvas sunroof in 1973; neither was a factory model.source 3 The Supervan was built at Reliant’s Two Gates works, with engines from Shenstone, until 1973, when a 5 cwt van styled like the new Reliant Robin replaced it.source 7source 3
The Royal Mail’s trial
In 1971 the Royal Mail, looking for something to follow its Morris Minor vans, bought 50 Supervans for a road trial; no more were ordered after it.source 1 That figure rests on a single photograph caption cited by German Wikipedia. Like the saloons, the vans could tip over if cornered fast or badly loaded.source 1 An anonymous recollection posted on a forum in 2012 remembers eight Reliant vans in Royal Mail livery arriving at the post office at Betws-y-Coed in 1971 or 1972: their single front wheels struck rocks on the crowned farm tracks, broke steering parts and dropped into potholes, cracks appeared, one or two tipped over in the hills, and within a year the trial was given up. The writer calls them Robin vans, but the Robin came only in 1973.source 8
New York, Paris, Peckham
The van’s second career began in 1981, in the episode “Big Brother” of the BBC’s Only Fools and Horses: yellow, signwritten “Trotters Independent Trading Co – New York, Paris, Peckham”, and driven by Del Boy and Rodney Trotter (more in microcars on screen).source 3source 9 Its original registration was APL 911H. Action Cars, which supplied the vans for the second series, reportedly said several were used: buying another old van was cheaper than repairing one, so the plates and signwriting were moved across. From the third series the plate was DHV 938D, a number believed to be made up; the last van supplied to the BBC, in 1987, was really NJB 33L.source 3 In the episode “Dates” the van takes off over a humpbacked bridge, and by the club’s account it virtually fell to bits on landing, so a stand-by van took over. The writer, John Sullivan, nearly had it blown up in “Danger UXD”, then thought better of it so that he could keep using it.source 3 The BBC is believed to have used about six vans over the show’s 22 years, and many more people claim to own one than can prove it.source 10source 11source 3
Possibly the nation’s most famous three-wheel vehicle, this Reliant Regal Supervan III (often mistakenly referred to as a ‘Robin’) featured in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses.
Mr Bean met his in the very first programme, broadcast on ITV on 1 January 1990 and watched by 13.45 million: driving his Mini to a maths exam, he causes an accident with a blue Reliant, and in the end credits he meets it again, turns down a dead end and crashes.source 12 The car was a light-blue 1972 Supervan III, and having it toppled, rammed or pushed out of its parking space became a running joke that lasted into Mr. Bean: The Animated Series. In one scene in a multi-storey car park, Bean’s driving makes the Reliant swerve and fall on its side. Several vans were used, and at least one was later scrapped.source 9source 1 At the closing ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012 a Reliant fell apart and “Batman and Robin” climbed out, re-enacting the Only Fools episode “Heroes and Villains” of 1996. Tomber in Pixar’s Cars 2, on the other hand, is drawn from a Regal saloon, not the van.source 9
