AROnline takes a look at some of the automotive blunders from both our own and rival makes. Your Driver: Mike Humble This one really deserved to win, even after 30 years, the Doyen looks amazing and fresh, but sadly a lack of experience, company ownership and changes in the sector trashed any chance of success. [...]

Mike Humble: AROnline hops on a bus that was destined for Shattered Dreams Parkway, only to find it was actually quite good yet was a victim of it’s own technology, it’s forward modern thinking, oh.. and an unhealthy dose of classic British Leyland union militancy!   Strange when you look back in time isn’t it? [...]

Mike Humble fondly recalls the halcyon days of the UK bus and coaching scene from the 1970s, and pays tribute to the Leyland Leopard. For me, its all about the sound – you never forget the noises of your childhood, the school bell ringing to signal 3.30, the now almost extinct two tone air horns [...]

 The once former body building plant of C.H Roe in the BL era which became Optare after a Management buy out, has now passed into Indian control… with a familiar name. Ashok Leyland has increased its holding in Optare from 26% to 75.1%. The refinancing is being achieved by Ashok Leyland providing a guarantee to [...]

The 500 Series diesel cost Leyland a packet – and not just in development costs. Mike Humble tells the story of this ‘interesting’ engine Fixed head asset CONTRARY to modern day belief, Leyland Truck and Bus was once a formidable force on a truly global scale with British trucks and buses operating in all four [...]

Mike Humble goes On The Buses, dons his drivers cap and brushes up on his Phwoars and Cor Blimey’s whilst getting behind the wheel of the latest bus built in the plant which was at one time part of the British Leyland empire – the Optare Solo Eco Drive, and finds it rather good fun! Over the years, many once [...]

In a quiet part of Birmingham, MCW developed a midibus which was almost exactly what the market required in a post deregulation market. Dogged by early dismal quality, it became the most popular vehicle of its type and ended up being built in a former Leyland factory too!   Mike Humble explains… Metropolitan Cammell Weyman (MCW) is often [...]

Mike Humble British Leyland pretty much had the UK bus and coach market sewn up from the late 1970s – certainly as far as double-decker vehicles were concerned. The big names on the roads at that time were the Daimler Fleetline – Bristol VRT – Leyland Atlantean with one or two others such as Foden [...]

Replacing a bus like the Leyland National was always going to be a tough job. In the end, the National was a trusted, rugged product and a hard act to follow. Its replacement – the Lynx, was introduced during the biggest ever upheaval in the UK bus and coach industry and was built right up the [...]

Leyland’s last coach chassis, the Tiger – the company’s successor to the legendary Leopard – went out of production 20 years ago this year. The Tiger was also the last ‘heavyweight’ British coach to sell in big numbers and still has a loyal following to this day. Mike Humble pays homage… Buses and coaches played as an important part in my childhood [...]

The sun comes out in Surrey along with some old buses and coaches… Words and Photographs: Mike Humble The Sunday of the second week in April has, for many years, been the day for one of the biggest bus and coach rallies in the UK. The Cobham Rally has, until this year, been held on Wisley [...]

Keith Adams WHILE THE beautiful set were lording it up at Goodwood, I was doing something far more down-to-earth. Well, I say down-to-earth but, for me, a committed petrolhead, driving a Leyland National was like a dream come true. In fact, I’m still giddy from the excitement of it all! Thanks to Mike Humble, who [...]

Mike Humble As most of us know, Michelotti styled some fantastic motor cars including our very own Triumph 2000, Dolomite and Stag to name some but a few. But what would you say if I offered you a vehicle styled by the great Italian himself with state of the art technology like a five speed [...]

Tom Ellis It is with great sadness, as a discerning enthusiast of all things Birmingham-built, that I am writing about the end of an era. Yes, I am talking about these, faithful blue and silver wheeled 73-seater boxes on wheels, that have been as big a part of Brummagem (Birmingham in local dialect) culture as [...]

Richard Aucock I took a cracking book on buses out from the library last weekend. The book, in all its glory, is “The British Bus Today and Tomorrow”– which, seeing as it was published in 1983, should perhaps now be retitled “The British Bus Yesterday and The Day Before.” Ahem. Unfortunately, the book’s largely incomprehensible. Complex [...]

By. Clifford Webb Midland Industrial Correspondent British Leyland have run into technical problems with the new Leyland National bus, the first in the world to be built by mass production techniques similar to those employed in modern car plants. Lord Stokes, BLMC’s chairman, has described it as “at least five years ahead of world competition”. [...]