Anadol At Motor Show

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31831, 8 November 1968, Page 9

Anadol At Motor Show

rpURKEY’S first car, the Re-liant-designed Anadol saloon, is making its United Kingdom debut at the London Motor Show. The Anadol is very similar in all respects to the Anziel Nova it has been proposed should be produced in New Zealand. Four thousand fibreglassbodied Anadols with 1200 c.c. engines have been built since production began in December, 1966. Now the makers, Otosan, of Istanbul, have introduced a new model with a 1300 c.c. unit, and this is on display at Earls Court. When production began, Otosan was building 20 Anadols a week. Now the rate has been stepped up to about 80 a week. Demand is still outstripping supply.

The local content of the Anadol has passed 50 per

cent. At the same time the project still contributes handsomely to Britain’s overseas earnings, as the components for each 1000 vehicles produced returns Britain more than £200,000. The Anadol, which costs the equivalent of $2200 in Turkey, will not be on sale in Britain, and is being shown at Earls Court to demonstrate that Turkey now has a motor industry in being. The Anadol’s popularity in the Turkish home market has been greatly strengthened by its victory this summer in the gruelling 570-mile Thrace Rally. An Xnadol beat an international field to become

the outright winner of the event.

Reliant designed and developed the car for Otosan as part of a “package deal motor industry” project. This scheme for helping countries to set up their own motor industries with a modest capital outlay, and in the shortest possible time, stems from Reliant’s expertise as Europe's largest producer of fibreglassbodied vehicles.

Otosan approached Reliant in 1964 to ask whether it would be possible to produce a fibreglass-bodied private car with a high local content to help alleviate Turkey’s shortages of both vehicles and foreign currencies.