If you’ve always quite fancied the idea of following in the footsteps of the British Royal Family, but have never had the social connections to do so, then maybe your search is over. I have to really thank Barn Finder Paul for referring this classic to us, as it is a make and model of car that has had some pretty illustrious owners. Princess Anne, Princess Margaret, and the Duke of Edinburgh have all owned a Reliant Scimitar, and now you can follow in their footsteps at a very affordable price. This 1969 Scimitar GTE SE5 is located in Yreka, California, and has been listed for sale here on eBay. The owner has set a BIN of $3,950 for the Reliant, but the option is available to make an offer.
Reliant became renowned the world over as the producers of basic and inexpensive cars such as the heavily lampooned three-wheeled Robin. The Scimitar was far more conventional, but it still contained some innovative thinking. The frame is steel, but bolted to that is a body made of fiberglass. In fact, this was a common theme with Reliant, and at one point in time, Reliant was the world’s second-largest manufacturer of fiberglass-bodied motor vehicles. Number one was held by Chevrolet, with the Corvette. Naturally, body rust isn’t an issue, although the bodies can be prone to flexing over time, resulting in cracking of the paint and the fiberglass itself. This Scimitar is showing signs of this sort of flexing, but only a personal inspection will determine how severe the fiberglass cracking is. The steel frame of this Reliant looks to be quite good, with only some minor surface corrosion in evidence. Having said that, there are some spots on the frame that can deteriorate, and these need to be inspected carefully. The tops of the main frame rails can be trouble spots, as can the area at the bottom of the main roll-bar, and the radiator support. There are some other areas as well, but these seem to be the main ones. The glass is all present, and apart from a crack in the rear hatch glass, is in good condition. There are a few pieces of external trim and chrome that are missing, so finding replacement pieces might take some work. Thankfully, the bumpers are both present and are in good condition. These are made from what I would term “Unobtainium.” In other words, finding replacements, particularly for the rear bumper of an SE5, is incredibly difficult. The wheels aren’t original, but swapping the originals for something aftermarket was a pretty common practice, so that doesn’t surprise me.
At 2,620lbs, the Scimitar GTE was by no means a heavy car, so the fact that it was powered by the 2,994cc Ford Essex V6 engine meant that it was quite a spirited performer. Backing this engine is the only transmission available in a Scimitar at this point, which is a 4-speed manual unit. It wasn’t until 1970 that an automatic option was made available. The performance wasn’t “muscle car fast,” but a Scimitar could still top 120mph. This Scimitar doesn’t run, but the engine does turn freely. Obtaining parts for both the motor and transmission is both easy and relatively inexpensive. Provided the car is maintained properly, the drive-train in a Scimitar can last for many years, but the engine needs to be serviced correctly. The transmission can be susceptible to wear over time, and the first sign that work may be required is when it starts to show a tendency to jump out of 2nd and 4th gear.
Tackling the most obvious thing first, and that’s the fact that the steering wheel is on the wrong side! Yep, the Scimitar is right-hand-drive, and there really is no option than for it to remain that way. Reliant did manage to export the Scimitar, but to the best of my knowledge, the car was never available in left-hand-drive form. If I’m wrong on that point, then I have no problem being corrected. The interior looks reasonably tidy, but the seats that are fitted to this Scimitar are not original. They are too heavily sculpted, and the standard upholstery in 1969 was black vinyl. The interior is showing some wear around the edges, but the vast majority of what can be seen in the way of wear and fraying would seem to be repairable. The edge trimming around the door frames is probably beyond this sort of help, as is the carpet. However, replacements for these are readily available, but the new owner will need to be prepared to source these directly from the UK. Apart from the seats, the most obvious non-original item fitted to the Scimitar is the Pioneer radio/cassette player. Thankfully, it doesn’t appear as though the dash has been cut to fit this, so if a genuine radio can be located, swapping it back in should be easy.
The royal connections with the Reliant Scimitar make them an interesting car, and it would seem that they are also a car that has the ability to endear themselves to their owners. The Duke of Edinburgh owned a couple, but Princess Anne proved to be a real champion of the Scimitar, and she owned no less than eight of them. If the frame of this car is solid, then obtaining all of the mechanical parts to return it to a completely sound mechanical state should be pretty easy. Restoring the body of a Scimitar is no more complicated than restoring the body of a Corvette. One big advantage that the Scimitar has over the Corvette is that if you rock up at your next Cars & Coffee in a Scimitar, there isn’t a lot of chance that you will find another one there. You probably couldn’t say that about a Corvette.
Would make a cool postal delivery for those so inclined. Dear lord 120 mph in a flexible flyer. Would take a lot of guts or sheer stupidity. All kidding aside it makes sense to use fiberglass due to the rot conventional steel bodies suffered at the time. Pull the 2.9 and install a 4.0 from a Ford Exploder. You might pass ludicrous speed on your way to plaid!
This is a 3 liter v6 famous for powering the ford capri. In stock form it has as much horsepower as a mustang king cobra 2 (130ish) and I’m sure the Brits have tons (tonnes?) Of speed parts for it.
“Exploder” engine would be a downgrade
Nice lines on this one. Definitely deserves a different set of wheels.
Looks like a rh drive Vega
Somebody is obviously going to go out and find their double axle trailer sitting up on blocks.
The world can always use another “Quirky Brit” vehicle.
Never heard of this car but nice looking. Convert it to LHD and put in a Ecoboost engine.
A neat little car- I like it, but… a little off. Looking at it, I realize that it reminds me of some of the “bread-van” conversions of cars like Corvettes, mustangs, and etc. I’d drive it :*)
Driving a right hand drive car in the US really is not a big problem. I had an MG with steering wheel on the right, but the accelerator roller/pedal was on the right, then the brake, then the clutch, just like US cars, shift was in the middle, as was parking brake (which functioned well as an emergency brake when hydraulic lines failed). If you have driven a big vehicle, like a medium sized truck with no view through the back window you can drive this. You rely more on the outside left mirror than you would otherwise. Did you not ever wonder how the engineer in a steam locomotive saw up the track from a window in the cab behind the boiler? It worked.
There are tens of thousands of right hand drive cars in the US. For the last couple of years there has been a big boom for Japanese Domestic Cars, people pay big money not only for Key cars and skylines but even for RHD mazda miatas
Neat car, but a money pit with modest post restoration value. It would definitely be a labor of love.
For the royal connection, Princess Anne seems to be pretty famous for getting speeding tickets. There even seems to be a web page dedicated to her exploits, including the story of being pulled over twice in 1 week, at the same location, by the same police officer. It’s good to know that an English car is good enough to go that fast!
I see front half Corvair rear half Volvo
That or a bizarro world Volvo 1800ES in the Bizarro Jerry Seinfeld episode.
Makes me kind of uncomfortable to look at it. But then I’m a sensitive fellow.
Boy am I easy ,I have never heard of one of these, and now I want it!
a french car made in britain, no, I think not (awful rough shape too) – for city & toll rd drivin (RHD) it’s definatly out…sorry. Motor’s all I’d want.
I am way behind on my email/Barn Finds from travelling a lot lately. So I am bummed about just seeing this now. I was through Yreka yesterday, and would have loved to see this in person. I like it! Lower it an inch or so and install real chrome wire wheels (along with prettying it up a little) And I think it would be stunning. I also think the addition of the 4.0 would be easy and make an improvement in the horse power department. Cool car!
The only thing that the 2.8 Capri engine has in common with this one is the bell housing bolt pattern. (see: distributor location and thermostat location just to name 2 items)
MiYoure being confused, nobody said this is a 2.8 capri engine. This is a 3.0 capri engine also known as the Essex (the 2.8 was only available in The third generation capri and its the german Cologne v6).
This engine (essex 3.0 v6) was widely used in motorsports since the late sixties. All kinds of speed parts are still available for it. To swap this with a 4.0 explorer suv engine with fuel injection and electric intank pump and all the associated mods plus OHC JUST TO HAVE A SUV ENGINE INSTEAD OF A FAMOUS (AND ORIGINAL TO THE CAR) SPORT ENGINE is insanity!!
In fact our cars can be driven rather quickly around bends – unlike the usual offering from your side of the pond!
Being “reliant” on my now sometimes foggy memory (sheesh), I believe these appeared on either “Secret Agent Man”, it’s spin-off “The Prisoner” or that other wonderful Brit series, “The Avengers”. Not as the primary vehicle, as Lotus and Caterham seemed to hold those spots, but as secondary cars. I’ve seen these at auto shows that had lots of British Makes & honestly, I have always liked the “Shooting Brake” or “Breadvan” body style.
About the only thing useful on these are the rear taillights, which are the same as a mid-1970’s Aston Martin V8.