There was a lad at the Poly with a Reliant. I can't remember his real name, but we never used it after the following event...
In those days, Beaconside hadn't been extended, and just became the (current) road to Sandon after the junction with Sandon Road.
A lot of students used to arrive that way from the eastern side of Stoke via Meir and Hilderstone.
"Reliant Boy" got involved in a race with a Mini that had been (Demon) tweaked for rallying. Due to the weight restriction, a Reliant was fairly quick off the mark, but not the ideal machine for corners. At the RAF bend, just after Hopton Garage, the Reliant was on the verge of rolling - a quick (over)correction as the short straight appeared, nearly rolled it the other way, and so it continued, with about eight near-roll events. Eventually, he managed to stop it and got out, ashen-faced, before being able to continue the last mile to the Poly.
It ground a good bit of fibreglass off the front corners and he was thereafter known as Flipper.
Another lad, John Aitken, also had one and did roll it, in a gale somewhere in the northeast. It ended up the right-way-up, with him and his Dulux dog still sitting in the seats, but the bodywork had shattered and "just blew away", much to the amusement of the coppers that attended the scene shortly afterwards.