SOMETHING BUGGING YOU?
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Just recently a Reliant three-wheel chassis cab known as the Ant made an appearance on this page (CM 25-31 May). This prompted David Browning, joint managing director of the Ray Smith Group, to write in. David says that like The Hawk his eyes also misted up when he saw the Ant.
More than a quarter of a century ago Ray Smith Demountables was building a range of bodies for the Refiant chassis, which it christened the Munibug. For a time all went well, with the company selling the Munibug to local authorities. But then its agents in the north did a deal direct with Reliant and the Munibug became the Ant. You mil some, you lose some.
However, to quote a certain beer ad. David is not bitter and has many happy memories. "Whenever we sold one of these bugs we would go to Tamworth to coifect them and all the delivery drivers were expected to carry a house brick,' he recalls. The reason for this was that the accelerator pedal was so high off the floor that any journey over five miles was absolute torture for the driver unless he could rest his foot on a brick!"