The Name's Bond

So the UK showing season is well under way and we're all again embedded into the ground hog process of: polish, vacuum, pack lunch, drive to, display; polish, vacuum, pack lunch, drive to, display: ad infinitum until the either a) Autumn descends and displaying your car is no longer viable or b) you finally go mad and take up fishing as a hobby.  For me and the missus, this cycle starts in early May at the Gawsworth show in Cheshire. From then we'll decide, based on the criteria of weather, time and the pretence of having other stuff to do, the other shows we'll visit throughout the year. And that will be our Sisyphean routine until the end of the car show season. Having done this for quite some years now we've become very familiar with, not only the format, but also a lot of the cars we'll see as we go. Indeed, we can now precisely name many of the car models present and also quite a few of the owners too. Which is nice.

Conversely, it's said familiarly breeds contempt and, after quite few years of this it would be easy to become complacent as you see the same cars displayed on the perennial club stands to the point you can almost predict what vehicles are going to be in attendance even before you saunter past the club's patch. I sometimes use this to my advantage as it allows me to like to sound particularly impressive and informed, especially when I'm with an ingénue to the car scene. Imagine my self-importance as I walk along nonchalantly saying: 'MGB, MGB, Mini, Mini Cooper, MGB, Midget, MGB, ooh look a Morgan etc.'

Unfortunately, in reality, it’s all a bit of motoring misdirection on my part as mainly I'm reading the name badges as I walk a few feet I front of my awed (or bored) companion. To be fair, I'm not that bad in my knowledge but this year I had what I now call a 'Gawsworth moment' where I happened upon a car I simply couldn't even guess what it was and there was no bonnet badge to illuminate me (remember my Corvair experience?). Usually when this happens a quick wander around the back of the car to examine the boot lid solves the issue but in this case I was still clueless. I stood back and appraised it some more and shakily concluded it was perhaps an early, un-badged version of the Reliant Scimitar but as Princess Anne wasn't around to advise me I still wasn't sure. Luckily, modern technology helped me so I took a quick picture of the chromed, cursive words on the boot lid with my smart phone and resolved to reference the required information later using the awesome power of the Internet. Here's what those enigmatic words said: Equipe Overdrive 6.

Bond Equipe Overdrive 6 pictured at Gawsworth Car Show 2015

By now, having read this information, most true car experts already know I was looking at a quite rare and interesting GT car made by a company called Bond.  Originally from Preston and called Sharps Commercials Ltd this manufacturer was presciently renamed as Bond in 1963 and were known mainly for making funny little three wheelers such as the overturned bathtub called the Minicar. A decade or so later they gave their name to that wedge of super-charged Red Leicester known as the Bond Bug.

The Equipe stands out in the Bond canon as it was a proper four wheel car with a decent engine and genuinely desirable, classic looks. They were based on the Triumph Herald running gear when production started in 1963 which was later upgraded to the more powerful Vitesse engine. By 1970 - the end of their production - they had evolved into credible two litre cruisers (with optional overdrive) and were very capable 2+2 GT cars offering 100 mph + performance. Their fibreglass body had a rakish, fastback look and although some styling cues from the donor cars were always discernible, the car over its production life became increasingly sophisticated and distinctive. I'd really like to see more on the circuit so I could see the developments that resulted in the very pretty car I encountered this year.

Interestingly Bond was purchased in 1969 by Reliant their main competitor who discontinued production of the Equipe (and Bond's 875 three wheeler) almost immediately presumably in favour of their own GT car - the Scimitar - which when looked at sideways is pretty similar in a lot of respects to the Equipe. If history had lurched in a different direction maybe today we would be saying: 'Look a Bond Equipe! Princess Anne had one of those.' Which actually sounds better I think.

The final car badged as a 'Bond' was, of course, the bright orange 'Bug' the three-wheeled polyhedron based on a Reliant Regal. These distinctive cars, designed by Tom Karen, still have quite a following so, if you're the sort of person who likes to zip along at 76 mph in a 700cc fluorescent chip cone, then you'd be in good company. And, even though there's so little actual car, a good example today is worth quite a bit as so few of them were made.  Although the Bug was discontinued in 1973 the basic format was used as the basis for the maligned Robin series of three wheelers which as we all know is one of the most hilarious cars that the UK has produced so it made a contribution of sorts.

Measure the angles. Bond Bud pictured at Gawsworth Show 2015

Alas, this is yet another piece about British car makers that have long since gone. Bond and Reliant, despite their innovation and distinctive approaches, have, like so many others, been consigned to the wheelie bin of history unlikely to be heard from again. An even bigger pity is that of all the manufacturer names that have gone to the wall, the brand name Bond is arguably the coolest of them all (for reasons we probably don't need to discuss here).