Leyland Panther Bus

Manufacturer	Leyland Motors
Class	Commercial vehicle
design type	Bus
Production period	1964 to 1971

The Leyland Panther was a Leyland Motors bus and Coach produced from 1964 to 1971.

History

The Leyland Panther was a bus chassis produced by Leyland Motors, a British commercial vehicle manufacturer. The engine was located in the back of the vehicle. Coaches and city buses were constructed. The buses were equipped with a Leyland Leopard six-cylinder diesel engine with a displacement of 9.8 litres and a power output of 125 horsepower, as well as a manually pneumatically assisted shift transmission. The panther was around 12 metres long in order to take advantage of the United Kingdom's constraints on bus dimensions at the time. Leyland Panther Cub was the name given to the smaller and lighter variant of the Panther. PSUR was the initial abbreviation given to the built chassis.

Until the 1980s, it was common for chassis and superstructures for buses were made by different manufacturers. The chassis produced by Leyland were therefore completed by bodywork companies with 44 to 51 seats. Part of the buses received superstructures from Leyland's subsidiary Charles H. Roe in Leeds , other major bodybuilders were Alexander , Beadle , Burlingham , Crossley , East Lancs , Harrington , Marshall , Metro Cammell, Northern Counties , Nuttall , Park Royal , Plaxton , Seddon , Strachan and Willowbrook .

Like many types of the first generation of rear-engined buses , the Panther has earned a reputation for unreliability. In total, more than 600 examples of this type were built. Most vehicles went to bus lines in the United Kingdom, some copies were also exported. The largest foreign operator was Storstockholms Lokaltrafik AB in Sweden, which took down 150 buses by Park Royal . Some chassis got a coach body , with these the frame of the chassis was higher. Most of them received superstructures from Plaxton .

Werkspoor developed a bus based on the Panther chassis under the name Leyland-Triumph-Werkspoor . Main differences were the stronger O.680 engine, and Divabus transmission and a semi-integral frame construction. The LWP City bus has been built for the city traffic in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The six buses manufactured for GVBA (Amsterdam) anticipated the design of the DAF SB200.

The Panther was replaced in 1972 by the Leyland National .