Sharps Commercials Ltd was a British car maker based in Preston, Lancashire. It was founded in 1922 by Paul Sharp. It changed its name to Bond Cars Ltd in 1963. The company was taken over by the Reliant Motor Co Ltd of Tamworth, Staffordshire in February 1969, who eventually closed the Preston factory at the end of July 1970, transferring the spare parts business for the Bond Minicar, 875 saloon, 875 Ranger van and Equipe models to a firm called Bob Joyner & Son in Oldbury in the English Midlands. Reliant nevertheless continued to use the Bond name until 1974 on Bond Bug models made at their own Tamworth plant. Bond Minicar 1949–1966 Sharp's Commercials began production of an economical three-wheeled car early in 1949. It was called the "Bond Minicar" (retrospectively to be called the Mark A) and was powered by a single-cylinder two-stroke Villiers engine of 122 or 197 cc. Bodywork was mostly aluminium, though some later models used fibreglass for parts of the car. It proved very popular at the time owing to post-war economies. The Minicar moved on through several different incarnations, culminating in the "Mark G" in 1961. Convertibles were offered, as were van and estate versions. The engine was upgraded, first to a single-cylinder 250 cc and then to a 250 cc twin-cylinder Villiers 4T (optional only on the Mark G). The engines were essentially a Villiers motorcycle-type unit and therefore had no reverse gear. However, this was a minimal inconvenience, because the engine, gearbox and front wheel were mounted as a single unit and could be turned by the steering wheel up to 90 degrees either side of the straight-ahead position, enabling the car to turn within its own length. Reverse gear of a sort was offered on later models, but using this involved stopping the engine and starting it backwards. This was achieved by reversing the Siba Dynastart unit, a device which doubled as both starter and generator. It operated as a starter motor when the starter button was pressed but when the engine was running it generated power instead and recharged the battery. The last Bond Minicar, a Mark G, was made in November 1966. Bond Equipe 1963–1970 The Equipe GT was Bond's first four-wheel car, a sports car, with fibreglass two door body. Essentially it was a Triumph Herald chassis, complete with bulkhead, windscreen and doors, with the Triumph Spitfire