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Hello, from a Brit, living in Manitoba, Canada

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Scimitarman

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Hi All

Looking forward to contributing to this forum, I had no idea the British Classic Car scene had such a following!

Anyway, I had to sell everything including my favourite car to start out in Canada, although I intend to import in the near future.
My pride and joy was a Reliant Scimitar GTE, I owned 3 and although I thought I would be tempted by American muscle, I honestly think that cars you grew up with and dreamed of owning as a kid stay with you.
So, first, it would be interesting to hear from anyone that knows about Scimitars here? Especially any that reside in North America?
For those that dont know what they are, they were a sports car that just happened to come out of the same factory as the Reliant 3 wheelers!
They had a fibreglass bodyshell, Ford V6 Engine and can lay claim to starting a trend in Hot Hatchbacks.
There most famous owner and fan (she owned 7) was HRH Princess Anne and every time she got caught speeding in them, the image of the marque was raised even further!

Cheers

Darren James
 
Welcome, Darren...didn't Scimitar also make a neat little 4-wheel hatchback ala the Lancia HPE?
 
Hello Darren,

Greetings and welcome to the forum from a fellow transplanted Brit....there are a few of us on the BCF.

I'm afraid that you are unlikely to find a GTE over here, and importing one may well be your only recourse. I agree, they are great cars, and certainly started a trend, the Lancia that Tony mentions above being one of them.

Dive right in and join in the discussions that we have, this is a fun site, and you WILL make friends!

By the way, the chat room is active from time to time, and you can usually find one of us ex-pat Brits lurking about in there from time to time.
 
Hi Darren;

Welcome to the BCF: This is a Fun filled; Educated bunch of Brit Car Motor Heads:

I`ve never heard or seen You car in the NE PA (Pennsylvania) Area:

Why not post a Pic or Two for us "Un-Educated" Motor Hds:

Thanx and Regards, Russ /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/banana.gif
 
Darren, welcome to the zoo!!
One of our members has, or had, a Scimitar. I believe it was Dave, (78Z) who lives in Airdrie, Alta.
Jeff
 
Yup... That Scimitar is still in the Calgary area

Dave sold it to someone, that person quickly sold it to an owner of one of the local British repair garages, where it has just sat under a cover for the last two years or so... It needs lots of work! And is titled as a 1968

Here is a photo of it taken in April of this year:
467578414_60c67a22f8.jpg


And a photo of it from about three/four years ago, and it still needs the windshield...

4613302_19aadf3ab0.jpg


I suspect the present owner would easily part with it, but don't quote me either...
 
Yes it was me. Darren has already found me via email.

Basically I bought the Scimitar off a friend of mine who rescued it from the scrapyard. It was a bit too much of a project for me at the time and I sold it off. The guy I sold it to kept the windshield and sold the remainder to a local Brit car shop. It was non-running (I suspect starter - did turn over manually), needs windshield again, two pieces of side glass, has some cracks in fiberglass and some rust on the frame. It was number 508 off the line. Its brown under the orange. On the plus side its pretty complete (windshield being the big thing missing), the interior isn't too bad and it has 4spd with overdrive.

All in all a big project.

134593252_1a0e7d8cd4.jpg
 
Thanks for the replies, So it would be a very rare car over here.
I think importing is very possible, but I have heard horror stories if you dont do it right, ie customs asking you to destroy the car if the paper work is wrong.
If Daves old car was available, I owe it to the Scimitar marque to take on an epic restoration, I scrapped my project in England due to the speedy nature of my work opportunity in Canada and with nowhere to store it, it became ebay parts fodder. It would be nice for this one to be saved.

Regards

Darren
 
Brooklands said:
Keep us informed of your progress in finding and acquiring a Scimitar, and the restoration that follows. Looks like a very nice mode of transportation.
Click to expand...

Well, time for an update.
Thanks to Dave and Sherlock, I spoke with Mick Burke from British Cars International. It appears that the car fell into safe hands, they had long term plans to restore it, although it is available for sale.
Subject to viewing some pics, I could become the new owner very soon.
I am both excited and surprised to find a Scimitar in Canada- it confirms that this forum is CAPABLE OF GREAT THINGS!!!

Regards

Darren
 
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