Leyland Tiger
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Leyland Tiger was a mid-engined bus and coach chassis which was built between 1981 and 1991 to replace the Leyland Leopard. It was provoked by Volvo's best-selling B58 and the fact Leyland was about to undergo a complete model renewal, which was much-needed.
The Tiger was to replace the Leopard, which had been in production for 20 years. It was designed for the new 'motorway era' in the 1960s. In its first decade it was a brilliant, modern motorway coach, in its second decade it was still a good coach. But by the 1980s it was ancient. In the 1970s, Volvo had stolen a huge march on Leyland with the B58, and much of Leyland's independent business had been snatched, not only Leyland's, for that matter, but Bedford and Ford, the independent operator's first choice, had lost custom. Within the Leyland organisation the AEC Reliance had been more popular than the Leopard with independents.
Volvo was at the time developing the B10M, which was set to further strengthen its position in the coach industry, and as a result Leyland had to replace the Leopard.
[edit] Engine options
Initially the only one engine was offered, the turbocharged Leyland TL11 (which could be rated up to 245hp). The Leopard had enjoyed huge success as a bus in Scotland, usually with the Alexander Y-type body, just as Leyland unveiled the Tiger, Dennis launched the Dennis Dorchester. Leyland had refused to put Gardner engines in its Leopard or Tiger, but Seddon, with its Pennine VII, had won over large orders from the Scottish Bus Group at the expense of the Leopard, and the Dorchester was set to win over this market with its Gardner engine. Leyland had no choice but to put a Gardner engine the Tiger, and added the Gardner 6HLX-series engines to the range. This easily killed off the Dorchester, and won over more business for Leyland. To facilitate the Gardner, it had to heavily modify the Tiger, the Gardner was much larger than the TL11 by far. There was little market for the Gardner-engined Tiger outside SBG, though.
A North American engine was put in the Tiger soon after, by 1985 the Cummins L10 was also made an option. Cummins' last attempt to put its engines in a British bus had been disastrous, its engines had only ever appeared in the highly unreliable Daimler Roadliner. Engine design and development was very expensive, and Leyland was no longer a world leader in this field, so outsourcing was the only option if Leyland wanted modern engines in its coaches. This ended in Cummins being specified more often from around 1988, with this the gearbox would usually be a ZF as opposed to the Leyland Hydracyclic.
In 1988 when Volvo tookover Leyland, the Tiger was redesignated, and from 1989 the oddest Tiger of all, with the Volvo THD100 - the one in the best-selling B10M - engine, was created. By this time only the Cummins L10 and Volvo THD100 were available.
[edit] Bus version
Like the Leopard the Tiger was also sold as a bus. Usually it would have a downrated engine and leaf-spring suspension. The SBG bought batches of these usually with Alexander TS-type bodywork and Gardner 6HLXCT engines. Small independent operators took interest of the Tiger bus too. Bodyworks for the Tiger bus were by Alexander (the T-type and P-type), Plaxton (Bustler and Derwent), East Lancs (some of which were rebodies), Wadham Stringer and Reeve Burgess (who built an unusual batch of short Tigers for Tayside).
The Tiger was also very popular in Northern Ireland between 1984 and 1993 with Ulsterbus and Citybus now Metro since February 2005. The first Tiger to arrive in Northern Ireland was registered DXI 3340 (fleet number 340) new in Februaey 1984 with Ulsterbus. A body for this type of bus was built by Alexander (Belfast) known as the N-type. The engine used by Ulsterbus was the TL11 engine but city bus used the Gardner Engine. All Citybus Tigers were new in 1988-89 and were on MXI and NXI number plates. This body stopped being made in June 1990 which used the Gardner engine on the very last N-type models in 1990. Then in February 1991 a new body was introduced, known as the Q-type, it was a major redesign of the outside but the inside stayed mostly the same. The only big diffrance between the N-type and the Q-type was that the N-type was semi-automatic and the Q-type was fully automatic and that the Q-type used a Gardner engine but this was used also in 1990 models of the N-type which were used by Ulsterbus. The Q-type body was put out of production in August 1993. The last Tiger ever made in Northern Ireland was registered YXI 5500 (fleet number 1500) in early September 1993. The Q-type body was still used on its replacment the Volvo B10M of 1994. These were registered between late 1994 and early 1995, all were on DAZ numberplates. This was the very last for the Q-type. Between 1984 and 1993 the number of Tigers sold was around 2000. As of March 2007 around 1980 of them are still in service or limited service.
[edit] Volvo ownership
Leyland Bus was bought by manager Ian McKinnon in January 1987, it looked like the Tiger would continue as before. Just over 12 months later Volvo purchased the business, bringing Britain's two best-selling coaches, the Volvo B10M and Leyland Tiger, under one roof. Volvo was very aware that Leyland had a very loyal following, and that the Tiger was an excellent vehicle, and so the Tiger continued. In 1989 it reassured Tiger loyalists that the chassis was there to stay.
However, Volvo was having second thoughts. Volvo acknowledged that the Tiger and B10M were broadly similar, and while since the Tiger was launched Volvo had sold 20,000 B10Ms, Leyland had sold 3,500 Tigers. This left the writing on the wall for the Tiger, which was discontinued on the same date as the factory that built it, Workington closed.
