A short but sweet story this week about the Reliant Regal based three-whhler kit called the Ricketts Gilcolt.
A mystery car that definitely existed from 1972. There’s only ever been one grainy photo used in an old black and white advert. Until now.
I may have just un-earthed the only photos of the car – other than the aforementioned one – that still exist. One naughty colleague described it as looking like ‘a slip-on shoe on wheels’ although these new images show it in a slightly better light.
There’s also some confusion as to who was behind the car. It’s always been reported that a ‘Reliant dealer called Ricketts’ marketed the Gilcolt. That’s always been an accepted statement.
However, a sales sheet from the Gilcolt Motor Company of Glenelden Mews, Streatham makes no mention of a company Ricketts Reliant. Their premises, pictured in 2025 doesn’t look to have a showroom element to it either, so was the company merely a Reliant service rather than sales agent?
I guess we’ll never know. A subsequent piece of digging reveals that there was maybe a ‘David Ricketts Reliant’ based in nearby Tooting Bec although the person that told me that wasn’t at all certain about that.
Anyway that doesn’t explain where the name ‘Gilcolt’ comes from.
Anyway, the Gilcolt was based on a box section, pressed steel chassis, which must really have been that of the Reliant Regal, although in lengthened form.
The body was in GRP, it featured a laminated windscreen and doors could be of gullwing-type or conventional style.
Front suspension was by way of a leading arm controlled by a hydraulic unit and a coil-over damper. The rear featured trailing arms with ‘wide base’ coil-over damper units.
Power came from the donor, a 700cc all-aluminium unit, a real peach, albeit one delivering just 29bhp. Reliant did build a lovely little engine. It featured a diecast cylinder head with cast-iron valve guides and sintered iron casts.
The engine block crank case were also diecast with removable wet liners. It had a forged steel crankshaft mounted on three steel-backed main bearings. It was all topped-off by a downdraught carburettor.
Gilcolt Motor Company wanted £175 for the starter kit, which featured the main GRP body tub, bonnet air duct, dashboard and a pair of doors (conventoonal or gullwing). The chassis cost a further £75.
However, a more comprehensive package that included both elements plus windscreen, rear window and door glass cost £284.
A complete kit was available featuring everything bar the Regal donor parts cost £725.13 although you could have the complete kit with EVRYTHING included for £960.
Finally, a fully assembled Gilcolt cost from £1314.20. Consider that a brand new Reliant Regal 21E with all the ‘right bits’ on it cost £770! That might explain why Gilcolt Motor Company only sold four of them.