#bond bug

Reliant Motor Company 1970 Bond Bug

Bond Bug component drawing, Tom Karen:

I was still working in the aircraft industry in 1953 (having studied aeronautical engineering) when I started to build a compact, two seat, three wheeler with an aluminium body. The windscreen folded forward to provide access. It wasn’t pretty but highly original.

Reliant bought out Bond and needed to put a new model in their range. We were given a chassis, a shortened version of the one destined for the Robin, to produce a sporty two seater. We developed the package around this. The challenge I set myself was to create a body of utmost simplicity: the fewest possible number of panels to build the body, all of them to come out of moulds without undercuts […], a single ‘door’ with a flat windscreen. The prototype, called Rogue, achieved all this and the enthusiasm for the project at Ogle was palpable. Reliant approved what we had done but sensibly asked for some boot space and widening of the front end. They also hit on the inspired name ‘Bug’.

Bond Minicar 3-Wheeler In production 1948-1965 English

Bond Minicar poster 1953

At the end of the war cars were at a premium so engineer Lawrie Bond came up with a budget three-wheeler Britain could afford. The Bond Minicar was poverty motoring in the extreme: no roof, no doors, brakes only at the rear and precious little suspension. The 1-cylinder two-stroke 122cc motorcycle engine started life with just 5bhp but gave 40mph and a claimed 104mpg. Minicars gradually became more refined and powerful until production ended in 1966. The final Mark G had a roof, doors and hydraulic brakes (Wikipedia).

There is a minicar club in England and they hold rallies for all types of minicar, including my first ever car, the Bond Bug (see below). The Bond Bug had a 700cc Reliant engine sitting between the two seats, was made of fibreglass, and had fabric windows offering now protection to side impact at all. The car was so low, and you entered and exited by raising the roof of the car that was supported by a pneumatic strut. I had so much fun in that car, blew the engine on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall one trip away. Stuck for 3 days before friends drove down from London with a Transit van, took the doors off the back of that, heaved the Bug up into the back, and drove back to London!

Bond Bug 1970-1974 English

Bond Bug ...

Bond Bug ...