This is a 1972 Reliant Regal Supervan III that is said to be one of the original six vehicles from the wildly popular 1980s British sitcom, Only Fools and Horses. It’s now being offered for sale with a guide price starting at just £15,000.
There are few British TV series more beloved than Only Fools and Horses, and it had a major influence on British comedy shows going forwards. One of the most memorable non-human characters was the Reliant Regal Supervan III shown in this article.
Fast Facts – The Reliant Regal Supervan
- This 1972 Reliant Regal Supervan III, one of six original vehicles from the British sitcom “Only Fools and Horses,” is now up for auction with a guide price starting at £15,000. The iconic yellow van was central to many of the show’s plot lines involving the Trotter brothers, Del Boy and Rodney.
- The three-wheeled Reliant Regal was produced to exploit a UK tax loophole, classifying it as a motorcycle to reduce costs for buyers. Built from fiberglass, it became a cheap, popular vehicle in the 1950s-1970s, although often the subject of comedy in British media.
- Reliant’s Supervan III, despite its limited performance, could reach speeds of 70 mph. The fiberglass body made it lightweight and resistant to rust, though fake rust was often added for comedic effect in “Only Fools and Horses,” where it quickly gained iconic status.
- The Supervan III offered for auction has been owned by John Mansfield of the BBC. Recently refurbished with new tires, brakes, and fuel system, it’s been used in charity events and comes with show props like the roof rack, suitcase, fluffy dice, and inflatable doll from a famous episode.
Why Three Wheels And Not Four?
Although three-wheeled Reliants have long been a popular target for British comedy, featuring in Mr Bean, Top Gear, and Only Fools and Horses to name just three, the vehicles were built entirely seriously and used extensively in Britain in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
The interior of the vehicle is simple and ready for action, remaining much the same as it was during filming all those years ago.
Due to a tax loophole, the UK has been spawning unusual three-wheelers for over a century. Morgan three-wheelers were being produced all the way back in 1911, and they were the first vehicles produced by the storied marque.
The tax loophole is that three-wheeled vehicles are classed as motorcycles rather than cars. This means it’s far cheaper to buy them, register them, and insure them.
The Reliant Regal
Reliant developed almost their entire business model around this loophole and they achieved no small amount of success – over 105,000 Regal vans and saloon cars were built between 1963 and 1972, and that number doesn’t include the company’s other models.
The Reliant Regal first appeared in 1953 to replace the earlier Reliant Regent. The Regal initially had a wooden frame with an aluminum body all mounted to a steel box section chassis, and it was powered by a 747cc side-valve, water-cooled engine.
These cars were entirely built by hand and were cheap to run, so they became moderately popular and Reliant continued developing them over the 1950s and 1960s with a slow shift to cheaper fiberglass bodies and increasingly powerful engines – though the term “increasingly powerful” is being used loosely here, most Regals produced between 20 and 30 hp.
During the heyday of “Only Fools and Horses” in the 1980s, this was undoubtably one of the most famous TV cars in Britain.
Reliant became industry experts in the use of the still new material called “fiberglass”, by 1956 they were building the Mark 3 Regal with a 100% fiberglass body. In 1962 they debuted the Regal 3/25 with a fiberglass body of unit construction doing away with the wooden frame entirely and making the bodies in two main parts – the inner and outer body, which were then bonded together to form a rigid, lightweight structure.
The optimistically named Supervan III used by Derek “Del Boy” Trotter and his younger brother Rodney Trotter was one of these 100% fiberglass Reliants, in many episodes of the show you can see that the props department has applied fake rust to the body of the car to give it a more rundown look, which of course amused the people who knew the car was made of glassfibre and therefore couldn’t rust.
Reliant offered the Supervan in three variants including the Supervan, the Supervan II, and the Supervan III. The use of the word “super” in the model name has been the subject of much comedy over the years due to the somewhat limited performance capabilities of the vehicles.
That said, later versions of the Supervan III could reach speeds of 70+ mph (112 km/h), although you’d need to be a much braver man than me to try it.
What Is Only Fools And Horses ?
Only Fools And Horses was a British sitcom that ran between 1981 and 2003. The show featured two hapless brothers named Del Boy and Rodney Trotter, Del Boy was the wheeler dealer and Rodney was the younger brother who was invariably pulled into Del Boy’s schemes.
Above Video: This is a series of highlights from the first season of “Only Fools and Horses.” It originally debuted in 1981.
The graphic on the side of Del Boy’s bright yellow Supervan III said “Trotters Independent Trading Co., New York – Paris – Peckam.” The Reliant was the family’s only form of transport for much of the show and it was central to many plot lines.
A number of Supervans were used over the course of production, one was blown up, another jumped over a bridge and fell apart, and some just broke down.
The Reliant Regal Supervan III Shown Here
The Reliant Regal Supervan III you see here is owned by John Mansfield of the BBC who is now offering it for sale. He also owned another nearly identical example that he sold back in 2017.
This is said to be one of just six originals from the series, and it will hold significant sentimental value to anyone who remembers watching the series on an old cathode-ray tube television set.
Most recently this vehicle has been used for charity events, it’s now being offered for sale with a price guide of £15,000 – £18,000 or approximately $19,827 USD – $23,620 USD.
The vehicle has recently had new tires fitted, the brakes were overhauled, along with the fuel system. It’s been used for charity events for the past few years, and it comes with the roof rack, a market suitcase, fluffy dice, and an inflatable doll in the back as seen in Series 6, Episode 2, Danger UXD.
It’s now due to roll across the auction block with Classic Car Auctions in the UK on the 28th of September with a price guide of £15,000 – £18,000 or approximately $19,827 USD – $23,620 USD. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Classic Car Auctions
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
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