Tag Archives: Gear

Eminently Fit For Purpose – AEC Routemaster RML 2583 ER

It used to be a right of passage for some lucky small boys and probably a few lucky small girls to receive a big red bus for Christmas some where between the ages of 2 and 4. It is an enormous thrill to share these photo’s on which by far the most popular of these toys was based, namely the iconic red Routemaster more commonly known as a ‘London Bus’ on the 12th and final day of Christmas.

On my way home from a visit to the dentist last month I thought I must have been given a few extra doses of painkiller when this wholly familiar, from my time spent in London variously in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, beautiful red bus came into view on a roundabout in Bristol.

The Routemaster was developed by A.A.M. Durrant, Colin Curtis and styled by Douglas Scott between 1947 and 1956 to replace London’s fleet of 1,891 trolley buses which themselves had started to replace London Trams in 1931.

The first Routemaster was exhibited at Earls Court in 1954 and in 1956 four prototypes went into service prior to full production getting underway from 1958 to 1968.

Routemasters were constructed by the Associated Equipment Company, AEC, in Southall, and were completely overhauled every 5 years at the Aldenham Works near Elstree in Hertfordshire up until 1986.

Novel features of the Routemaster, for buses, included the first use independent front suspension, power steering, a fully automatic gearbox and power assisted – hydraulic braking. The construction took its queues from methods of aircraft construction, also similar to the D and E type Jaguar (!), featuring an aluminium (English pronunciation) body with two steel sub frames, one on the front for the engine/suspension and steering gear and one on the rear for the rear suspension and axle.

115 hp for the Routemaster was originally provided by either the 9,600 cc / 586 cui AEC AV590 or 9,800 cc / 598 cui Leyland O.600 6 cylinder diesel engines. After the Routemaster had been in service 15 years longer than originally anticipated from 1992 to 1994 many of the AEC and Leyland engines were swapped for Iveco or Cummins units.

Routemasters came in two flavours standard 27′ 6″ RM or 30′ RML, designed to negotiate the narrow roads of London’s metropolis they are all only 8′ wide and 14′ 4 1/2″ high.

An example of how easy the RM / RML busses were to handle can be seen in this clip from a comedy film ‘On The Buses’ which includes stock footage from the London Transport driver training facility at Chiswick.

Longer wheel base RML’s are distinguishable by a half size window between the 2nd and 4th window’s of the bus.

While the official capacity for the long wheel base RML was 72 I have been on these buses when they were so packed getting one more sardine on board would have been impossible.

The bus conductor would signal his driver that it was safe to proceed with two rings of the bell operated by this button attached to an easily reached cord that runs the length of the lower deck of the bus. Passengers rang the bell ‘once’ to signal to the driver when they wished to alight at the next stop.

The beauty of having no doors to pass on entry and exit was that the bus would only need to be stationary for as long as it took for people to alight and board no time was wasted waiting for doors to open and close. The disadvantage of having no doors was that in could get a bit ‘parky’ riding on these buses with inclement weather.

On the 9th of December, 2005 after much trading of Routemasters back and forth between London and other regional operators, having outlasted its intended replacement the Daimler Fleetline by over 20 years these splendidly fit for purpose vehicles were finally withdrawn from service on all but a couple of ‘Heritage’ routes, not even the Mayor of London who said in 2001 that “only some sort of ghastly dehumanised moron would want to get rid of Routemasters” could save them.

Allegedly in October 2008 a Top Gear presenter destroyed a Routemaster in a publicity stunt, presumably to publicise what “ghastly dehumanised moron” he is.

Ding ! Ding ! Any more fares please !

Hope you have enjoyed my 12 vehicles of Christmas series concluding with todays ride on the Routemaster, and that you’ll join me again tomorrow when I’ll be upping the pace with a 200 mph vehicle named after a ferocious bull raised by the Duke of Veragua, famous for fighting an epic battle with ‘El Chicorro’ in Madrid. Don’t forget to come back now !

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The Mini Challenger – Citroen DS3

The Citroen DS 3 launched in 2009 is the first of the ‘Different Spirit’ range and replaces the C2 models.

It competes in the market place against the Alfa Romeo MiTo, Audi A1 and MINi.

Top of the range DS 3’s have 150 hp capable of 0-62.5 in 7.3 seconds with a top speed of 133 mph and 155 g/km CO 2 emissions.

It is award time of the year and this applies as much to motor vehicles as any other field of endeavour, in an act of unparalleled hubris Europe’s top motoring magazine writers have managed to vote a vehicle called a ‘Leaf’ that is not yet for sale or on the roads as European Car Of the Year. For once, and this happens very rarely I am in agreement with Top Gear magazine which has handed it’s gong for 2010 to the DS3 describing the car as ‘The peoples champion’.

The DS 3 was launched to an unsuspecting British public with the first product placement in a video by a British recording artist. You can see this same view at 2 mins 31 secs in Pixie Lott’s ‘Broken Arrow‘ video.

For those like me who believe competition on or off the track is the best place to prove a vehicles worth, Citoren have kindly built seven, consecutive, time World Rally Champion Sebastian Loeb from Alsace in France a 202 hp DS Racing version with which to defend his title, I expect the DS will remain in the public eye for a while yet.

Thanks for joining me, hope you’ll join me tomorrow for Ferrari Friday, don’t forget to come back now !

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Top Gear – Lancia Thesis

Lancia was founded by Vincenzo Lancia in 1906 and was run by his wife, son and Vittorio Jano upon Vincenzo’s death in 1937. The company was taken over by Fiat in 1969 and has been run as a Premier Fiat brand ever since.

The Thesis was powered by a variety of straight 5 and V6 engines with horsepower ranging from 170hp to 230hp, the top speed of the 230hp V6 is around 150 mph.

Lancia ceased trading in the UK in 1984 after their Ferrari powered Thema failed to sell beyond double figures, so it is always a surprise to see a contemporary Lancia in the UK. The Thesis was in production from 2002 – 2009.

Amongst Lancia trademarks is the use of the letters of the Greek alphabet for the names of it’s models. Lancia like Alfa Romeo also make a variety of commercial vehicles rarely seen outside Italy.

Innovations introduced by Lancia include the first mass manufactured monocoque vehicle which dispensed with the separate chassis a type of construction prevalent in the motor industry today, they also introduced V6 and V4 engines along with the first 5 speed gear box’s as options for their vehicles.

I was surprised to learn when researching the Lancia Thesis that Lancia was named the greatest car company of all time by the presenters of the 14th series ‘Top Gear’ a motoring TV show produced by Britain’s impartial public broadcaster the BBC.

I’d like to thank everyone from the Rowdy and Cadillac Forums who visited and made the last couple of days here bumper events. Thanks for popping by Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres, don’t forget to come back now !

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