1966 Reliant Scimitar SE4

The Reliant Motor Co. made less than 300 SE4 GT’s from 1964 to 1966 and with a 2553cc Straight Six triple carbed engine these cars easily outperformed all their rivals at the time. The chassis and suspension performed well after some early modifications and were developed from the rallying Sabres that had considerable success in the early 1960’s. The SE4 was a very pretty car and had a level of equipment that was superior to many more expensive sports cars.

CanD as we know the car is very simply the SE4 with the most detailed history we have ever seen. It starts with the original owner John Hartley corresponding with RW Wiggin MD of Reliant some 11 months before ever actually getting a car. There are hand drawn torque curves with calculations for different rear axle ratios and subsequent discussions on their merit. Luckily for us Mr Hartley did not seem to ever use the telephone so everything is detailed in letterform. It must have kept Ray Wiggin’s secretary very busy. Once the car was delivered there followed the most detailed history of his ownership over the next 16 years which included numerous problems reported to Reliant (by letter of course) and logging every expense for the car down to a gallon of petrol and pint of oil in a hand written notebook. Subsequent owners including well-known RSSOC members obviously felt obliged to keep up the standard and recorded their ownership and the exploits of their car in events in great detail. CanD regularly appeared in the RSSOC club magazine, classic car magazines, and road tests. We purchased CanD some 5 years ago in a somewhat sorry state. (Don’t ever store a SE4 outside all year under a car cover!) We have finally finished restoring this unique example and CanD is now ready for more adventures.