Jeremy Clarkson drives a red Isetta on Top gear

[Bob Purton]

So will I though I fear it will just be curlyperm turning over three wheelers.

[marcus]

I feel a sense of unease, but will keep an open mind....

[Bob Purton]

Trident is wrong on both counts! I think he is confusing me with P50, Firstly I just have a high forehead and a wide parting and secondly my Isetta is not a BMW, it was made by Isetta of Great Britain, there is a difference! He must be getting his "facts" from TopGear!

[marcus]

No Isetta on TG, a Morgan F (4 cylinder enclosed engine) and a Reliant being repeatedly toppled and crashed, quite funny really, if you like wanton destruction.

[Bob Purton]

By EckyyyThump!!! That were funny!!

[marcus]

I must admit the bit when the A Team music started and immediately ended as he drove the front wheel into the inspection pit made loud out loud.

[Stuart Cyphus]

Such a film could only have been made after the end of Reliant production. During, it would have been good grounds for a libel case which I feel Reliant would win hands down. Admitidly I found the basic houmour funny, but for the subject itself, I am deeply saddened. The Reliant always desrved objectivity, but it was never allowed to have it, & this short ten minites has suerly destroyed any dignity the Reliant Company was allowed to have in recent years. Sadly, it seems none are left who care anymore. Those Reliant owners featured are not worthey of my respect. If they came from either the ROC or R£W or indeed both, then my feelings that this is no longer a fit country for Reliant's to live in are fully justified & those two organisations are just as guilty as Clarkson, Top Gear et al.

 Top Gear asked if I would provide my Bamby for filming at Leeds Castle, Kent, on July 16th. I was more or less adimant not to supply until a couple of folk said much to sway my possible opnion just for a short while, but, my answer now as ever it will be, is an unflinching  NO!

[P50]

I thought it was quite amusing.

One wheel at the front is a recipe for death when an extreme manouver is possibly required...! 

[marcus]

I thought the three pin plug stood up to all those rolls surprisingly well. Obviously they were just "roll and slide" accidents rather than impact collisions. JC was obviously turn suddenly to get the car to roll, and quite a few light 4 wheelers can be toppled this way, but it does show clearly that placing one wheel at the front with an engine above it is not a stable design. Obviously, driven properly (as described by the Reliant owners) will prevent this, but if you do have to swerve violently to avoid something then you can be in trouble. Squeak has been in her Grandad's plastic pig when it went over on a corner over a bridge, fortunately the corner was turning away from on-coming traffic.

It is also true that as modern cars have becoming increasing safe, drivers have becoming increasingly dangerous.....the thrill of "Risk Compensation"

[Bob Purton]

I thought it was funny but I guess if I were a serious Reliant owner it would have been a little harder to bare. On Stuarts point, I doubt there would have been a case for libel even if the company still existed, you would have to Ban comedy alltogether and lets face it some motoring journalists have been saying much the same about all three wheelers since there inception. I'm with Stuart on not lending them our cars though! If anyone is upset they shouldn't be. We all know that three wheelers don't tip over everytime you go round a corner and that's all that really matters.

Trident. I'm new to Isetta's so I'm no expert but I was told recently that all the cars used in the adverts were German cars. The other thing I have noticed is that on some doors there is a small round raised section in the door pressing designed to accept the BMW badge, others like mine for example do not and so clearly were never made to bare the BMW badge. I think the chassis plate says it all when it says something like Made by Isetta of Great Britain under license from BMW and ISO, its almost a potted history of car! Part of me is glad I have a Brighton car because of my dislike for modern BMW owners, surely the worst drivers on the roads today! The other part of me wishes my car did have a BMW badge just so as to wind up the afore mentioned!  

[Big Al]

It is also true that as modern cars have becoming increasing safe, drivers have becoming increasingly dangerous....."

And in a nutshell you have what this is all about. When I learned to drive the motto was to drive 'according to the conditions'. This was before street furniture, signposts every 10 yards, cameras etc. It meant you took responsibility for your safety and other whom you came near. You adjusted your driving style to vehicle and conditions. I think this has gone by the board for many folk who assume a 70 mph speed limit means 85 mph whatever and all the other nonesense you see on the roads in poor conditions. When it all goes wrong it is always someone else's fault or a 'car failure'. No, your usually a selfish ill disciplined nurk. All JC has done is prove once again if you behave like a spoilt teenager you can wreck things. Now sometimes that can be amusing but it is the same joke being trotted out again and again. It does rather suggest that the avid fans of this show suffer from reduced cranial capacity or should take up banger racing and do something instead of loafing about aimlessly. Compared to the original Top Gear which set out to educate and inform, reflecting the motoring world inhabited by normal drivers and enthusiast alike it has turned into automotive slapstick. It tells us a lot about society and could go a long way to explain many of the things wrong with it. It tells us virtually nothing about car enthusiasts or responsible driving. I care to watch some of the things they do but I would not participate in providing a car for filming. I can think of some quite interesting challenges they could do to but I will keep them to myself since they could be perverted into something rather nasty.
Why were you all watching on such a beautiful evening? I was out doing car stuff, moving a Heinkel and Fiat 126, enjoying all the missarable drunks spilling out of various pubs after 'Enga Land', as was clearly evident to a none footy person, dually got thrashed by the Germans at football. To win you have to score goals. So we took a team of 28, is it, with one mediocre striker. Yeah, that will do it then. That the Germans finally got return for the Hurst goal just puts the icing on the cake. The whole competion has been a fraud from the start. Ireland, England and Argentina being influenced one way or another by dodgy decisions. Normally they go in favour of the 'better' teams thereby insuring the final games are as exciting as Bernie Ecclestone's F1 each year and so maximising the money for the organisers. Perhaps turning Reliants over is a more honest and real thing to watch after all!

[marcus]

I could never understand why Reliant stuck to the single front layout, its only "merit" is that it does make for for simpler steering and front suspension. If they had put a Mini or similar FWD engine/transmission and kept the basic proportions they would have had a much safer car. Better looking too. At their peak tey were producing quite a number of cars so presumably had some financial resources. Was one of their 4 wheels cars, like the Kitten,  FWD? If so a single rear wheel version of that would have been very appealing.

By about 1970 I was already aware of comments and jokes about Reliants toppling on bends, this was long before Jasper Carrot and Mr Bean did their bit, so it does amaze me that Reliant took no steps to overcome the reputation.

I think they had a fairly "captive" market....people on a budget, bikers, and retired people so they never thought to make the change which would have made so much difference to a wider market.

Reliants had the potential to be SO much better than most (or even ALL) bubbles and micros: more space, more comfort, more performance, 4 cylinder engine, heater, reliability etc., but for me that single front wheel and its resultant instability was always the problem

Interestingly most American 3 wheel designs seem to favour the single front wheel which immediately puts me off them.

[Big Al]

IMade by Isetta of Great Britain under license from BMW and ISO, its almost a potted history of car! Part of me is glad I have a Brighton car because of my dislike for modern BMW owners, surely the worst drivers on the roads today! The other part of me wishes my car did have a BMW badge just so as to wind up the afore mentioned!  

Yes I would suggest it is not a true BMW. Indeed are any since ISO invented it. What is it about Microcars and being made in old railway buildings anyway? Interestingly the ones connected to aircraft seemed to be better. See Heinkel decay to Heinkel Ireland before being simplified into the Trojan.
But are Beemers now the worst driven cars. I fear Audi might have taken this title or maybe its an area thing. Though actually it is oversized 4 by 4's actually as they seem to think they own the road. Big mistake when I am out in a banger or Van on the country roads as I aim at them to get them in the ditch where they belong being off roaders. They get very upset by you not giving way but a lack of good paint and a big ugly image wins. There, Root, your missing all the fun round the lanes of Oxfordshire. As an ex banger racer this should be your style.

[marcus]

It's not just drivers who dis-connect their brains when on the road...pedestrians now have Magic Cloaks Of Invincibilty (mobile phones) which allow them to walk  and talk in the road in complete safety regardless of vehicles and cycles!

[steven mandell]

Anybody have a picture of the weights used to help stabilize the 3 wheeled Isettas?
While you are at it- what were they made of, how effective were they, and how much did they weigh?