Dan Lockton
Specialist in British Automotive History - and rather more...
Rebel Without Applause covers Reliant from its insecure inception, as a 1930s cyclecar-type manufacturer, operating on a shoestring, through a period in the 1950s where it was seen as just another player in the overcrowded three-wheeler economy car market, to the years of dynamic expansion when this innovative, if idiosyncratic, company became the second-largest British-owned car maker, producing vehicles ranging from high performance luxury sportscars to economical small cars, with both three and four wheels. Reliant used its unique experience in plastic body construction to set up the first indigenous motor industries in Israel, Turkey and Greece -- as well as offering services to industry and other car manufacturers and developed an amazing degree of self-sufficiency, designing and producing its own high economy aluminium alloy engine which found applications not only in a long line of small cars, but also in low-cost motor racing and a variety of industrial situations.
Lockton, D. Rebel Without Applause: Reliant from inception to zenith, Bookmarque Publishing, Minster Lovell, 2003 (ISBN 1870519647)
Rebel Without Applause
Elsewhere Dr Dan writes (2005):
"The MG Rover debâcle was current whilst this paper was in preparation, and
central to what was a tragedy for many—employees, enthusiasts and those who see a
David crushed by many Goliaths—was the desire of two Chinese companies, Shanghai
Automotive and Nanjing, to gain control of technology which they need to build and
mass-produce their 'own' cars, with Shanghai's aim production of around a million cars
per year [1] initially, rising to six million per year by 2020 [2].
Now, whether or not China's car market in the short term can absorb such vast
volumes, especially as Beijing introduces measures to “slow the booming economy” [3],
the bigger picture is that in the coming years, China's contribution to global warming
and atmospheric pollution through many millions of extra cars could be very significant
(alongside its heavy—and increasing—usage of coal-fired electricity generation): it is the
"rousing giant of global warming"[4].
http://www.danlockton.co.uk/transport/MotorVehicles_805.pdf
(Passenger vehicle sales surged from around seven million in 2008 to 21.4 million units in 2020. ~ statista.com)
Bio: danlockton.com
