Discover the pioneering Bond Bug

By Simon Charlesworth

| 24 Aug 2026

Classic & Sports Car – Bond Bug: a fresh angle

The Bond Bug belongs to the world of pure, monospace wedges.

As a design concept, this bold geometric approach usually hit home with a big ‘wow!’, but not in this case.

The Bug is one of those cars that is joyously whimsical, like a Messerschmitt KR175 or a Renault Twizy, only the Bond’s design is less compromised and more cohesive.

However, it is a model that has perhaps never really been taken seriously enough, and it is often overlooked.

The wedge looked as if it had emanated from another world.

It was and remains a striking and uncompromising notion – the sharp incline of the front wing is continued by that of the A-pillar – whose influence has lasted to this day.

The Bond Bug’s worm-and-peg steering is very direct

When the Bond Bug first arrived on the automotive scene, it was as if the needle playing the record of motoring history had jumped several decades.

One minute everything was folksy cosiness, the next it was the brave new electronica.

Andrew Cox, the owner of this splendid 700ES example from 1973, recalls how he caught the, er, bug.

“I saw my first one in 1974,” he tells us. “It belonged to a friend of a friend who was a year older than me.

“They both turned up at home in this Bug and I thought, ‘I want one!’ – but it wasn’t possible back then.”

Today, just as in the ’70s, the Bond has lost none of its impact.

‘Why is the Bond Bug omitted from wedge history? It must be its non-conformity in the wheel-count department’

“We were at a show recently and I heard this young lad say, ‘Dad, look at this, a car of the future’,” Andrew smiles. “It was 45 years old then!”

The late, great Marcello Gandini is credited with coining the wedge automotive shape with his 1968 Alfa Romeo Carabo.

He cited a childhood fixation with Meccano for his design’s sharp, machine-driven look.

Certainly there are other concepts that predate the Alfa Romeo (some as far back as 1962), but none of them, the Carabo included, reached series production.

In fact, it is hard to think of any car of this shape that beat the Bond Bug when it came to market in 1970.

Tom Karen’s Bond Bug design has truly stood the test of time

So why is it still so often omitted from motoring’s wedge history? It must be its non-conformity in the wheel-count department.

It’s something jokers and the less-well informed might latch on to for a cheap laugh, oblivious that you smile at the Bond Bug, not laugh at it.

The argument has to be made that the Bug’s adhesion to Reliant’s layout (one wheel at the front) doesn’t act against it, but instead makes it one of the most uninterrupted, focused wedge-shaped cars of all time.

When you admire the classic Bond Bug in profile, you see that it is uncompromised and utterly devoid of hesitation or deviation.

The Bond Bug’s engine is angled towards the passenger for better distribution of weight; this example has an 848cc Rialto unit

Does this undermine the Bond Bug in other respects?

Owner Andrew dismisses any concerns about instability: “You have to treat it with respect, but you can turn over a four-wheeler.”

And, given the mileage Andrew has driven in Bugs, he should certainly know.

He restored his 700ES – a car he says had been “abused for 18 years and neglected for 21 years” – with help from family and friends.

Regardless of season or weather, he has driven all over Britain and even to Paris – it took him 16½ hours.

He recalls: “I parked it in front of the Eiffel Tower, put up the canopy and then headed across the road to take a quick picture.

“Before I had reached the other side, there were tourists sitting in the driver’s seat!”

The Bond Bug is surprisingly nippy, thanks not least to its 396kg kerbweight

Does it live up to his 1974 moment? “And some,” Andrew beams with pride. “Yeah, definitely. It’s a fantastic feeling, the number of smiles you get just by driving around.

“If I had a pound for every smile I’ve created… It just makes you feel good, and it’s contagious.”

The Bond Bug might be a classic car that is now more than half a century old, but just look at it!

It remains – and surely will forever be – a lovable little funkster that still has the capacity to stop people in their tracks.

This pure slice of the 1970s oozes warmth rather than eliciting exclamations of shock, awe or even resentment.

Designer Tom Karen’s goal was to use as few panels as possible for the Bond Bug’s bodywork

The coming together of Preston’s Bond and Tamworth’s Reliant companies happened back in the February of 1969.

This took place following Bond’s dealership owner, the Loxham and Bradshaw Group, being bought by the Dutton-Forshaw Group.

Because the car manufacturer did not fit into the new owner’s business stable, Bond was put up for sale in 1968.

A management buyout was attempted, but proved unsuccessful; enter car maker Reliant which, at the time, was becoming the Reliant Motor Group.

Production of the also-three-wheeled Bond 875 model ceased in order to make way for the new Reliant-based Bug.

Bond Bugs originally got bias-ply tyres, encouraging sideways driving

That was followed in July 1970 by the announcement that Bond’s manufacturing facilities would close.

Construction of the Bug transferred to Tamworth, and Bond’s production lines would shut permanently in October 1970, with the end of the Equipe model.

The Bond Bug had been conceived by Tom Karen during his second spell at Ogle Design, based in Letchworth, Hertfordshire.

The award-winning innovator had trained at the Central School of Arts & Crafts before working at the Ford styling studio, then with David Ogle, Philips and Hotpoint.

He subsequently returned to Ogle in 1962, following David’s untimely death, to run the company.

The Bond Bug’s rear bodywork ends abruptly; Tom Karen’s original sketches didn’t even have a boot

Karen later wrote: ‘I arrived at Ogle in 1962 after poor David had his fatal car accident.

‘A year later, we started working for Reliant on the Scimitar coupé.

‘I floated to them the idea of producing a two-seat, three-wheel sports car, and I even had two eighth-scale models made.

‘But Reliant wasn’t interested. My luck changed when Reliant bought out Bond and needed to put a new model in its range.

‘We were given a chassis, a shortened version of the one destined for the Robin, to produce a sporty two-seater.

‘We developed the package around this. The challenge I set myself was to create a body of utmost simplicity: the fewest possible number of panels to build the body, all of them to come out of moulds without undercuts (I hated the bolting and unbolting of moulds practiced at Reliant) and a single ‘door’ with a flat windscreen.

‘The prototype, called Rogue, achieved all this, and the enthusiasm for the project at Ogle was palpable.’

Rumours of the Bond Bug’s instability are greatly exaggerated, says owner Andrew Cox

The Rogue, as named on Karen’s initial 1963 sketches, didn’t have a boot or even much rear bodywork, which left the spare wheel, the rear suspension and the axle exposed.

It also lacked doors, but had pop-up headlights similar to those of Vignale’s Fiat Samantha.

Karen continued: ‘Reliant approved what we had done, but sensibly asked for some boot space and widening of the front end.

‘They also hit on the inspired name “Bug”.

‘I proposed a single colour for all the Bugs (another cost saving), and when I found someone trying to put a plastic badge on the front, I offered the bold Bug graphics it ended up with.

‘Development of the vehicle from start to finish took less than a year.’

Tom Karen created the Bond Bug’s striking graphics

The Bug’s purpose was simple.

After the car’s launch at Woburn Abbey on 21 May 1970, Ray Wiggin, head of the Reliant Group, said: ‘The man we’re after is one who is full of sport, fun and energy, who wants a vehicle purely for fun purposes and fun transport. That’s what we were after in the first place.

‘Then, as the car started to develop, we began to feel that what we had got was not just a replacement for the motorcycle, but a new fun motor car.

‘The fact that it has three wheels is quite incidental. It’s a new form of transport.

‘So now, in fact, we think it is going to appeal to a much wider section of the market than we originally envisaged.’

Bond envisioned the Bug as a new form of transport

In its 6 June 1970 road test, Motor magazine expanded on the thinking behind the Bug: ‘Though the total car and more particularly the motorcycle market is on a downhill run, the market for three-wheelers is steadily growing (at a rate of 5% each year) and has done so since around 1960.

‘At the moment it is running at some 12,000 units per annum. (The total car market in the UK is about 11 million.)

‘Because it only has three wheels, the Bug’s Road Fund Licence costs only £10, and of course a motorcycle driving licence covers three wheelers.’

Reliant’s business case was to get young buyers hooked on the Bug before trading up to more family-friendly models.

The Bond Bug wasn’t built with tall people in mind

So serious was Reliant about snaring 18-25-year-old buyers that the company offered an ownership package which incorporated hire purchase, a two-year insurance policy, road tax and a one-year (or 24,000-mile) warranty.

Three Bond Bug models were planned: the 700, 700E and 700ES.

Alas, the £548 700 or ‘Bare Bug’ had little appeal: it lacked anything as decadent as sidescreens and hubcaps, so, unsurprisingly, only one was built.

The equipment list for the £579 700E ‘Medium Bug’ was more generous: a hydraulic lifting strut for the canopy, sidescreens, hubcaps, chrome glazing trim, a courtesy light, driver’s sunvisor and heater.

‘The direct steering and the four-speed ’box’s positive change obviously make the Bug great fun to drive’

Meanwhile, the £628 19s 2d Bond 700ES ‘Super Bug’ had more power from its higher-compression (8.4:1), all-alloy Reliant engine, which offered a healthy 31bhp at 5000rpm as well as 38lb ft at 3000rpm (up from the 700E’s 29bhp and 34½lb ft).

It also came with a rubber front bumper, low-profile tyres, a spare wheel, wing mirrors, mud flaps, seat headrests and side bolsters, a three-spoke steering wheel and B-pillar stripes.

Factory seatbelts and two Exacton alloy wheels (costing £12 10s) were optional extras.

The latter, when combined with the ES B-pillar decals, ramp up the Bug’s cosmic grooviness to the maximum.

This Bond Bug’s alloy wheels were an option

The new Reliant Robin 750 was introduced in 1973, which was when the Bond Bug inherited the 748cc, 32bhp, lower-compression (7.5:1) engine.

Only the 750ES model continued until May 1974, when production came to an end after just 142 750ES versions had been built, making room for more Reliant Robin production.

Sadly, a total of just 2270 production Bond Bugs of all types were constructed, with most, but not quite all, being painted in the eye-catching colour of Tangerine Orange, as seen here.

Six were finished in white and six in lime green, for promotional purposes.

What wasn’t highlighted in the specification sheet was a few very clever touches.

The Bond Bug 700ES-spec seats have bolsters and headrests

Yes, Andrew makes some tongue-in-cheek remarks about the Bug’s “central locking”, “air-con” and deceptively capacious boot, but he then points out features that might otherwise be missed.

The seats consist of padded vinyl trim fixed directly to the shell; this not only saves cost and weight, but also gives the Bug a lower centre of gravity than the Robin.

Look at the engine and you’ll notice that in plan view it veers diagonally toward the passenger footwell, to assist with weight distribution for solo driving.

More surprisingly, the Bug was originally specified with bias-ply tyres to make the driving as fun and enjoyably sideways as possible.

The Bond Bug’s exposed glassfibre bodywork keeps the cabin bright and colourful

Squeezing into the Bond Bug’s wedge-shaped body is certainly a challenge for someone tall and not rake thin.

The sidescreens and seating position make entry a blend of Fosbury flop and limbo dancing, but I have to make sure my backside is as far forward as possible to prevent my head from coming into contact with the closing canopy.

Once in, I feel much like a balloon that has squeezed its way into a traffic cone.

I am sorry to say that, even if I were to negotiate around the steering wheel and its column support, those pedals rob too many precious inches in the footwell to make a drive possible.

The Bond Bug is agile and fun to drive

That said, interior room might be tight, but it isn’t claustrophobic.

This example is fitted with an 848cc Rialto engine and gearbox, but even the original 701cc Bugs were nippy – coming second in Motor’s top speed and 0-60mph shootout against the likes of a Honda N600 (which was the fastest and quickest), a Hillman Imp, a Fiat 850, a MkII Mini, an NSU Super Prinz and a Renault 4.

It managed this while also being the most frugal on fuel.

The performance is really rather surprising, both on the straights and through the corners.

The engine sounds a bit harsh and its ride is firm on these terrible roads, but the direct steering (just 2.2 turns from lock to lock) and the four-speed gearbox’s positive change obviously make the Bug great fun to drive.

The Bond Bug’s cabin is spacious, but the driving position is cramped

No wonder this example’s loving custodian Andrew is such an advocate of both the car and also of The Bug Club.

Harold Hastings, a motoring journalist who was familiar with three-wheeling and was also the one-time sports editor of The Light Car, concluded his assessment in Motor as follows: ‘In all, this Bond Bug is a fascinating experiment and might well prove to be the missing link between the best of motorcycling and the minimum in car driving as up-to-now envisaged.’

Alas, it was not to be.

The Bug proved more popular with older buyers, and by the time production ended in 1974, Bond was no more.

Images: Jack Harrison

Thanks to: Andrew Cox; the Facebook group Nuts About Bond Bugs; The Bug Club

Factfile

Bond Bug 700ES

Sold/number built 1970-’74/2272 (all, including two prototypes)
Construction glassfibre body on welded, box-section steel chassis
Engine all-alloy, ohv 701cc ‘four’, single Zenith downdraught carburettor
Max power 31bhp @ 5000rpm
Max torque 38lb ft @ 3000rpm
Transmission four-speed manual, RWD
Suspension: front independent, by leading arm rear live axle, anti-roll bar, four trailing links, Panhard rod; coil-over damper units f/r
Steering Burman Douglas worm and peg
Brakes Lockheed drums
Length 9ft 2in (2794mm)
Width 4ft 7in (1397mm)
Height 4ft 2in (1270mm, canopy closed)
Wheelbase 6ft 5in (1956mm)
Weight 874lb (396kg)
0-60mph 23.7 secs
Top speed 76mph
Mpg 35
Price new £628 19s 2d