Rethinking the shape of the bus
- Thread starter Pedrocas
- Start date
rickhamilton620
has a fetish for terrible cars
Dunno if anyone cares but I figured I'd post:
So....it turns out that the Hino/Starcraft deal went through and the first prototype was shown off in October, with a official launch in March of this year. The bus will be known as the Guardian.
https://pubs.zipadi.com/stn-nov10/p/20
So far reactions seem mixed. I personally like the exterior a lot. The Hino chassis looks great on the Starcraft body and kinda reminds me of the late FS-65 in terms of styling. Definitely not a bad thing. A lot of people seem to dislike the interior and I agree, at least on this prototype unit, there are issues:
Some items are too far away, the panel to the driver's left is all sorts of wrong (switches need to be angled better, there need's to be more switch blanks) but I, at least, like the Hino's dash and am glad that carried over. The LCD MFD screen between the gauges has an interface that looks visually like the multi function display in the center of the dash in Toyota's CUV/Minivan line.
It'll be interesting to see whether this will sell/has sold: Starcraft says they'll price it very competitively.
Source for images: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.445416289527.262309.95493799527 and https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.445343594527.262268.95493799527
So....it turns out that the Hino/Starcraft deal went through and the first prototype was shown off in October, with a official launch in March of this year. The bus will be known as the Guardian.
https://pubs.zipadi.com/stn-nov10/p/20
So far reactions seem mixed. I personally like the exterior a lot. The Hino chassis looks great on the Starcraft body and kinda reminds me of the late FS-65 in terms of styling. Definitely not a bad thing. A lot of people seem to dislike the interior and I agree, at least on this prototype unit, there are issues:
Some items are too far away, the panel to the driver's left is all sorts of wrong (switches need to be angled better, there need's to be more switch blanks) but I, at least, like the Hino's dash and am glad that carried over. The LCD MFD screen between the gauges has an interface that looks visually like the multi function display in the center of the dash in Toyota's CUV/Minivan line.
It'll be interesting to see whether this will sell/has sold: Starcraft says they'll price it very competitively.
Source for images: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.445416289527.262309.95493799527 and https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.445343594527.262268.95493799527
Komeuppance
Mr. Old Man Merc
LOL... never seen anyone so into school buses. Do you work for a bus building company??
-Robert
-Robert
rickhamilton620
has a fetish for terrible cars
Nope, I am just a college student. There's more enthusiasts for this than one would think.
narf
Sgt. Maj. Buzzkill
rickhamilton620
has a fetish for terrible cars
rickhamilton620
has a fetish for terrible cars
Thread bump!
Finally, Blue Bird's unveiled the first type-a that uses the Transit cutaway at NAPT:
It'll be interesting to see how they'll mount crossview mirrors onto the Transit's hood...or if they're required to do it at all.
Max capacity: 25 passengers, Engines: 3.7L V6 or 3.2L diesel
http://www.blue-bird.com/newsdetails.aspx?id=1617#.VGLyNVdYDTo
I honestly think it looks great - while proven, the E-series is well past it's use by date.
Finally, Blue Bird's unveiled the first type-a that uses the Transit cutaway at NAPT:
It'll be interesting to see how they'll mount crossview mirrors onto the Transit's hood...or if they're required to do it at all.
Max capacity: 25 passengers, Engines: 3.7L V6 or 3.2L diesel
http://www.blue-bird.com/newsdetails.aspx?id=1617#.VGLyNVdYDTo
I honestly think it looks great - while proven, the E-series is well past it's use by date.
Interrobang
Forum Addict
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some Bus-porn for Rick ...
rickhamilton620
has a fetish for terrible cars
Yay!
that first sprinter conversion with the tandam axle is interesting...never knew you could get one like that. Hah! Pretty much! That news kinda made my night, not going to lie.
narf
Sgt. Maj. Buzzkill
Yay!
I don't think that's a factory chassis... as far as I know you only gain like 600kg capacity compared to the 5-ton single-rear-axle-with-duallies little brother.
Eye-Q
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...which roughly translates into 2 medium-sized american citizens for you who can't wrap your heads around the metric measurement.
Just kidding...
Just kidding...
Perc
Very Odd Looking Vehicular Object
There's some Finnish company that made something very similar to this on a Peugeot Boxer chassis. Yes, a Boxer is a Fiat Ducato with another badge on it. Not the current one, the previous one.
Gotta wonder what it's like to drive with FWD and 25 passengers on the twin rear axles, especially on snow... because it certainly doesn't have any kind of rear steering.
And no, no pictures, because Google came up empty. They probably didn't make too many of them.
AiR
Forum Addict
I've seen those kinds around now and then.
Coman Maxirider.
http://www.coman.se/nyheter.html <-- pictures!
Coman Maxirider.
http://www.coman.se/nyheter.html <-- pictures!
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Chances are that all of these tandem-axle minibuses have the AL-KO AMC chassis.
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