Developed in collaboration with the Israeli motor company Autocars, as a result of the Managing Director Itzhak Shubinsky visiting the 1960 London Racing Car Show, where he saw the Ashley 1172 fibreglass body and also a Leslie Ballamy-designed chassis, the EB Debonair, exhibited on the LMB Components stand.

Reliant introduced a right-hand drive version for the UK market and renamed it the Sabre.

Launched in 1961 as two-door convertibles, front-engined, rear-drive, with four-cylinder OHV, Ford Consul (later "Zephyr 4") engines of 1,703 cc (103.9 cu in).

At Earls Court in October 1962 the Sabre was shown with a redesigned, "less bizarre" front end.

Modifications included a Raymond Mays alloy head with triple twin-choke Weber carburettors and independently-branched exhaust manifolds.