Reliant Scimitar SE5A
Technical Specifications, History etc.

The Scimitar was the first car to introduce the idea of separate folding rear seat-backs, allowing the owner to change the carrying capacity, between four-seats plus a reasonable amount of luggage, three seats and more luggage, or two seats and a large carrying capacity, all accessible through the rear top-hinged glass tailgate, supported on gas-struts. They are built on a very strong steel backbone chassis, with glass-reinforced-plastic bodywork, and together with a very torquey engine, the Scimitar is a very strong and long lasting vehicle. A very high percentage of the Scimitars built are still in regular use, having achieved very high mileages in the meantime. The Scimitar also has an advanced suspension design (unequal-length wishbones at the front, six-link rear with Watts linkage, coil-springs all round), traditional rear-drive layout, excellent weight distribution (helped by theV6 engine being set well back in the chassis). This makes a car that is both fun to drive on twisty A roads, and still capable of travelling extremely long distances at sustained high speeds. The relatively simple design & construction of the car make the Scimitar relatively easy to repair by the home mechanic without need for special tools. These are the reasons that I chose my Scimitar and as I have done everything on the restoration myself I think this just goes to show that they must be easy to work on..