Leyland-MCW Olympic

Leyland-MCW Olympic
Preserved former King Alfred Motor Services, Winchester Leyland Olympic in January 2013
Overview
Manufacturer	Leyland Metro Cammell Weymann
Production	1949-71
Body and chassis
Doors	1-3
Powertrain
Engine	Leyland 0.600 Leyland 0.680
Capacity	9.8 litres 11.1 litres
Power output	125-200 bhp
Transmission	Leyland synchromesh, 4 speeds Self-Changing Gears Penumocyclic direct-acting semi-automatic, electric or air control, 4 or 5 speeds
Dimensions
Length	27ft 6in to 40ft (8.5m-12m)

The Leyland-MCW Olympic was an underfloor-engined single-deck bus manufactured for at least eighteen countries from 1949 to 1971. 3,564 Olympics were built at four factories (three in the UK, one in South Africa) from 1949 to 1971, with 1,299 Olympics (36%) built as right hand drive and 2,265 (64%) as left hand drive. It was a very durable heavy-duty bus which ran in arduous conditions for longer periods than ever envisaged by its designers.

In 1948, the first post-war Olympic Games were held in London. At the same time, Leyland Motors were working on a horizontally orientated version of their recently announced 0.600 9.8-litre diesel engine. Leyland were not new to this design concept, the pre-war 8.6-litre engine was used in horizontal orientation for the London Transport TF-class Tiger FEC single-deckers and the sole Leyland Panda but, like the contemporary work of Tilling-Stevens and a slightly later prototype from AEC, such designs were put into abeyance to further the war effort. Initially, the 0.600H engine was sold to Scandanvian bus makers, Scania-Vabis of Sweden and Strommen of Norway but, in exhibiting it at the 1948 Commercial Motor show at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre, Leyland made clear it would soon be available on the home market.

Leyland's first underfloor-engined bus for general sale was not to be a traditional chassis but an integral built in collaboration between Leyland Motors and the separately owned coach-building concerns who formed the MCW group.

In 1948, Leyland and the MCW sales organisation concluded a twenty-year agreement that they would exclusively collaborate on integral designs and favour one another with body-on-chassis business. Their idea was that an under-frame comprising durable Leyland engines and other mechanical units would be permanently attached to a similarly heavy-duty body structure. This idea became the Leyland-MCW Olympic and was built over three series from 1949. Only 90 of the early version were registered in the British Isles from 1950-2, but thousands of all marks were sold for export, 1,192 to Cuba alone, the other major customer countries being South Africa, Jamaica, Argentina, Turkey and Uruguay.