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Is This British? Sabra!

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PAUL161

PAUL161

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I came across this car by accident and was intrigued that I have never heard of it before. I think it's a British design, but not sure. Supposedly built in 1961 & 1962. Not bad looking, kind of unique actually. Even left hand drive. Any comments on this little gem? PJ

62_Sabra_Sport_DV_06-HHC-06.jpg

62_Sabra_Sport_DV_06-HHC-04.jpg

62_Sabra_Sport_DV_06-HHC-e03.jpg
 
I think it's a Reliant Sabre - Triumph Herald/Spitfire/Vitesse based (well, the Sabre 6 was Vittesse); predecessor of the Scimitar.

John
 
Nope. Close though not Sabre, Sabra. Israeli! (their only car)

First ones built in England in the Reliant Plant so there is a relationship

https://www.sabra.be/
 
Thanks John, I never heard of the car but thought it was British. Someone on another site just informed me it was built in Israel. Sure wouldn't mind having one in my stable. I think it's a very nice looking car and appears to be well built. The voltage regulator looks like a Lucas and threw me off also. PJ
 
Yes & No

The car was designed by Reliant, supposedly on a contract for the Sabra company (Israel), I'm not sure if any of them were sold in Israel itself but they did set up an American network for sales, I don't think many were ever sold... There is some debate whether any of them ever even saw Israel, some say that Reliant built them in England and shipped them over here...

This car is very similar to the Reliant Sabre, but the Reliant Sabre was introduced after the Sabra sports car, so which came first? Reliant probably just thought it was a good enough sports car to make for themselves too...

Sabra also produced a series of small cars alongside the sports car.
 
As was already pointed out, they were built in Israel - well some of them. The first batch was actually made in the UK. The were NOT however built on the Herald chassis. The herald based cars came a bit later and weren't in the least bit sporty!

The Sabra along with a few other less interesting sedans / pickups etc were all built by Autocars of Haifa. They all had fiberglass bodies and used imported mechanical from the UK. depending on when they were built Reliant (Ford engines), BL (Triumph) or eventually Simca bits.

They really didn't stand much of a chance competing against European or later Japanese automakers.

I saw a herald based chassis a while ago. It looked exactly like the herald chassis at least up front (I thought it was a herald at first) except that it had a conventional solid axle and two sets of leaf springs.

And there actually a few Sabra sports cars which remained in Israel. I even heard of one body which was dropped off at a kindergarten as a play car.
 
Funny how you look at some of these cars. I have no idea the make of the engine in the car I showed, but first impression was it was a Ford because of the timing gear cover. But the head looks like the old Nash design with the round pipe exhaust manifold. I don't remember Ford ever using that type of head. But then again, who knows how many hands were in the making of this thing. I sure do like it though. PJ
 
They used a Ford Consul 1700 4 cylinder.
They sold Consuls here in the US.

- Doug
 
Boy I would love that nose and scoop for the GT6. A bit more air flow, Maybe then you could stand to run the car in the middle of summer. (yeah; like I remember)
 
AngliaGT said:
They used a Ford Consul 1700 4 cylinder.
They sold Consuls here in the US.

- Doug
Click to expand...

That makes sense: the Sabre 6 used the 2553 straight-six out of the Zephyr and Zodiac saloons.
 
What would you call the LARGE chrome protrusions on the front? Bumperettes? Shiny Sabrinas? Battering Rams, WMD's(Weapons of Mass Dentation)?! :smile: Sweet car in any case....
 
Silverghost said:
What would you call the LARGE chrome protrusions on the front? Bumperettes? Shiny Sabrinas? Battering Rams, WMD's(Weapons of Mass Dentation)?! :smile:
Click to expand...

<span style="font-weight: bold">UNIQUE?</span> :jester:
 
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