Plaxton Paramount

Plaxton Paramount
Plaxton Paramount II 4000 and 3500 coaches
Overview
Manufacturer	Plaxton
Body and chassis
Doors	1 door
Floor type	Step entrance
Chassis	Paramount 3200 and 3500: Volvo B10M Leyland Tiger Bedford Y series DAF MB DAF SB Dennis Javelin Scania K92 Scania K93 Scania K112 Scania K113 Ford R-Series Leyland Royal Tiger Leyland Leopard Dennis Dorchester Mercedes-Benz O303 Quest 80 VM Volvo B58 Bedford VAS Ward Dalesman ACE Puma Paramount 4000: Auwärter (Neoplan) N722 DAF SBR3000 Volvo B10M/B10MT Scania K112 Scania K113

The Plaxton Paramount was a design of coach bodywork built by Plaxton. It first appeared at the 1982 British Motor Show and was built until 1992.

In its more common single deck form it replaced the Supreme V and Viewmaster IV, and was replaced by the Premiere and Excalibur.

The Paramount had squarer lines than its predecessor the Supreme, with cleaner lines, a flatter roof line and square-cornered side windows including a small "feature window" just behind the front wheelarch. Forward of this, the window line sloped downwards to meet the deeper windscreen. The rear was similar to Supreme V and VI but all else was new.

Structurally the new Paramount was similar to the Supreme, utilising 25mm square tubing to form the frame. The whole structure was treated inside and out to resist rusting.

Although the previous Supreme was of all steel construction, that applied mainly to the actual structure of the coach as the panelling was individual aluminium which can be easily shaped and formed, and easy to replace and featured the Plaxton special flush finish, but aluminium suffers in hot weather from a rippling effect. The Paramount however utilised a continuous steel panel below the windows that was Zintec-coated for corrosion protection, requiring fewer side mountings having been stretched into place and gave a sleeker finish. The front and rear panels used GRP as did many previous Plaxton coach ranges. According to Plaxton brochures the roof was one piece GRP and as such unlikely to leak unlike some of the Paramount's competitors.

Initially the Paramount was available in single-deck form only, in two heights, the Paramount 3200 (initially available in 8, 10, 11 and 12-metre lengths) and the high-floor Paramount 3500 (available in 11 and 12-metre lengths, although only three eleven-metre 3500s were built). The figures 3200 and 3500 refer to the height in millimetres.

In 1984 the design was adapted to create the Paramount 4000 double-decker coach, initially built on Neoplan underframes. Neoplan's Skyliner coach had popularised the use of the double-decker coach layout, often with a galley, toilet and other amenities on the lower deck. By comparison the Plaxton design was somewhat more utilitarian, usually more focused on higher capacity than on luxury. Later it was also offered on Scania and DAF chassis.