Purchase of Hazel

Many people, when they find out how much time and effort I have spent on the car generally ask two questions:

1) Why a scimitar?

2) Why not just buy a car that works?

Its difficult to explain the first one, you either like them or you don't. For many they are not seen as pretty or desirable, suffering from associations with the "plastic pig" 3 wheeler that reliant produced. Not many people are aware of the sporting heritage of Reliant cars and how they were the first to produce the sporting estate. To me the SE5 series of cars represent the purer and most attractive of the GTE's that Reliant produced, along with lower maintenance fiberglass bodies and reliable ford running gear they represent very practical and easy to restore classics. The other big bonus is that due to their relatively low popularity prices are relatively low making it a cheap hobby if you ignore the tax and insurance costs.

The second question takes a lot more to answer, for some the pleasure of a classic car lies in looking different and standing out from the crowd, the polishers amongst us spend weeks during the summer getting their seldom driven cars ready for shows. For me the mechanicals and refurbishment is far more important as well as using the car on the road. Everything involved in getting the car repaired and kept on the road I have done myself, this is where my fun comes from, stripping down and rebuilding an engine, gearbox or other parts. The satisfaction you get from the first test drive is far better than trailering a car to a field for people to look at. The other big attraction for me was that the engineering was so much simpler, in the days before EFI and engine management cars were fixed and maintained with skill and ingenuity, modern cars seem to rely on sensors and computers with little left to the experience of the mechanic. As a result modern cars seem soulless and bland with little left that the home mechanic can practically maintain.

Having bought my first house complete with a shed for storing spares and an off street drive for working on (changing brake pads by the side of a road really isn't fun) I started to scan Ebay for suitable cars. If anyone out there is thinking about buying their first scimitar I would recommend doing your research beforehand, the RSSOC has a really good website which has several pages dedicated to buying your first car and what to look out for, this can be found HERE.

I spotted mine on Ebay and paid £550 for a running car with an MOT and some history. Unless you are looking for a donor vehicle I would recommend buying something with an MOT that you can at least drive home, this way you have at least some indication that it may be roadworthy. Although the body is fiberglass the chassis is steel and prone to rust just as much as any other car. The images that were on the ebay page are below.

One of the downsides to GRP bodied cars is that from a distance they look great but close up the paintwork can be poor. This was the case here, to be fair, the seller hadn't claimed that the car was in fantastic condition but was honest enough about what was wrong with it and what needed doing.

This was one of the cheaper cars I was watching so a tentative £550 maximum bid was entered which ended up being the highest. I then had the problem of collecting the car from Southampton when I was living near Leeds, a very long drive...