Reliant Sabre 6

Code Name (SE2) 

In October 1961 a new more powerful version of the Sabre was on display at the London Motorshow.  The bodywork had been improved to accept the short nose bonnet and rounded rear wheel arches gave a much neater appearance.  Among various chassis modifications to help improve road handling, the Reliant Sabre 6 was fitted with Ford's 2,553cc straight six engine, which was mated to a Ford 4 speed gearbox instead of the German ZF gearbox.  This helped push the car to a maximum top speed of 110 MPH.  The first 15 cars produced retained the original "flailing arm" front suspension, but Reliant then started using the double wishbone and coil set up derived from the Triumph TR4.

The Sabre Six went on sale to the public in 1962.  Autocar Magazine praised the Sabres driving position and visibility and said it was a fine grand touring car.

Poor sales led Reliant to only ever produce 75 Sabre 6 GT's and 2 Sabre 6 convertibles.

  Once again Reliant took Sabre Six works cars to compete in international rallies and had some success.  Sadly Reliant were at the time only a relatively small engineering company who didn't have a fraction of the money to spend on development that any of the bigger motor manufacturers had and the Works cars were later sold off.