Renault 5", which was also introduced in 1972. Production numbers A total of 2,600 Rebels were made in saloon, estate and van variants. Most were sold in the UK but many were sold in the Caribbean islands. Of the approximately 900 Rebels which were exported, a number of them were in left-hand drive form to suit some of their export market. As above most of the reasoning behind the low production numbers was Reliant didn't give the Rebel its own production line until 1971, before this if a batch of Rebels needed to be produced then Reliant had to stop production of its popular Regal 3/25, something which Reliant didn't want to do very often. Rebel 1600 GT prototype During the Rebel's production run, Reliant had been experimenting with a more sporting variant to complement the Scimitar GT and forthcoming Scimitar GTE. Whereas the existing Rebel was powered by 598-748cc engines with 25-35 hp, the Rebel 1600 GT prototype codenamed FW6 had been fitted with the 80 hp and 92 ft-lb (Net) / 91 hp and 102 ft-lb (SAE) 1599cc Ford Crossflow engine from the mk2 Ford Cortina 1600E. Reliant had a relationship with Ford using their engines in Reliant sports cars with Reliant building Ford's fibreglass truck cabs in return. The Rebel 1600 GT was a working road legal prototype and had it been given the go-ahead would have been launched in around 1968, but was never put into production as Reliant Management found out the Rebel 1600 GT could not only out perform the bigger Scimitar models (around the factory as Engineers had been racing them), but also reputedly featured a power-to-weight ratio of 204 bhp per ton which would have exceeded that of many modern sportscars. References Cars introduced in 1964 Reliant vehicles 1970s cars