Re: Robin - Alive and Well
Originally Posted by
Uncle Joe
->
the 'Reliant' is a 'death trap' because, being built of fibre-glass it is too light and can be blown off course in strong winds, and its rigidity is severely compromised by being built of fibre-glass. If it crashed or were involved in a serious collision, the passenger and driver would stand very little chance of survival.
Not technically correct Joe, any 'stability' problems with the Robin were more down to having
only three wheels, which is one more than millions of motorbikes by the way.
Fibre-glass (Or GRP as it's normally refered too) is actually an extremely strong material and furthermore it is flexible, so absorbs an impact better than steel. They use it in some aircraft wings so there's no disputing it's strength.
I have owned and restored both a
Reliant Scimirar SE6 and the latter
convertible SE8, both brilliant 'concept' cars, made of fibre glass (With an immensely strong steel chassis) and in the case of the SE6 for a while very popular (Princess Anne had one) sadly let down by some flaws in execution of the concept e.g. although the body could never rust (being GRP) a lot of the bits were plain steel e.g. the window frames and similar parts, not even galvanised just plain steel and rusted faster than you could imagine. Had they used
stainless steel the car might well have been in production today
I have also owned a Reliant Kitten which weighed about the same as the Robin but having
four wheels never suffered from stability problems.
I was considering buying a Robin but Mrs. Losos wouldn't consider being seen in one (Only Fools was at it's most popular at the time
)