Held in Halls 19 and 20 at the NEC on Wednesday and Thursday the 2nd. and 3rd. of October 2013.
The show had so much to offer and there was so much to see that to try and put it all in to one article would be a mammoth undertaking and would probably overwhelm the reader.
What I propose to do then is to look at a number of areas that I found of interest and present them starting today. Over the next few days I will cover as much as I can.
Optare always manage to come up with something interesting and below is an all electric ‘Versa’.
It can be supplied in a different lengths and its ‘Magtec 150Kw drive produces zero emissions. It can be re-charged in 2 hours.
This is being supplied to Nottingham City Council for use on the Medilink services it runs linking the various medical facilities in that city.
The Solo SR continues to build on its success and this is the 2014 version. It comes with a Mercedes-Benz 900 series engine coupled to an Allison 2100 5 speed automatic gearbox.
It can also be supplied as a diesel electric hybrid or fully electric again with zero emissions.
A Solo SR Hybrid was on display and this will eventually go to ‘Manchester Community Transport’.
The legal address for MCT is given as Crossley Business Park which for bus enthusiasts of a certain age will bring back memories of a series of single and double deck buses for another MCT (Manchester Corporation Transport) 50 or even 60 years ago.
Power for this comes from a Siemens twin electric motor hybrid drive.
Meanwhile the standard diesel powered Versa is still meeting with considerable success. The show model being one of a substantial order for ‘Go North East’.
I have attended a number of these autumn Coach and Bus shows at the NEC. In that time I have seen a number of vehicles built by Spanish based manufacturer UNVI.
I have tended to classify them as builders of small capacity coaches and at one time I drove one that was equipped for disabled passengers.
While they do produce smaller vehicles they have now moved up in scale and had a pair of very creditable ‘midi coaches’ on display.
The smallest coach on view was the Vega.
Alongside this was the Classic-R
The Mercedes-Benz powered Touring GT came next .
While top of the range was the Touring GTR on a MAN chassis.
Amongst the outdoor exhibits was this GT-R.
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