Leyland Swift

The Leyland Swift is a bus chassis for midibuses the British commercial vehicle manufacturer Leyland Motors. The model was built from 1987 to 1992.

The design of the chassis is based on the light-duty truck Leyland Roadrunner. In contrast to the truck but the engine was located behind the front axle in order to place the entry in the front overhang to the Swift. The chassis was available with a wheelbase of 3.6 m or 4.4 m. For use was mainly a turbocharged six-cylinder diesel engine from Cummins along with synchronized gears, alternatively an automatic Allison was available.

The chassis were completed with bodies from different manufacturers. Both travel and city buses were manufactured. Wadham Stringer Vanguard II modified the structure for the Swift and so was able to secure a large number of orders. Popular was also the Harrier building Reeve Burgess. The company Elme 2001 Portugal developed alongside the Orion, a special version for the handicapped transport with integrated wheelchair lift. Wright in Northern Ireland put on two different body styles. Some chassis were also completed as mobile libraries.

The Swift with the Orion or Vanguard II construction was especially popular in the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey. He used the local size limits for buses full of offered capacity for 43 passengers, and allowed the replacement of the built-up on older Bedford SB chassis buses. Overall, however, the bus was not a commercial success, there were only 345 buses will be discontinued. As detracted especially the high floor, which was necessary because of the placed behind the front axle motor. The production numbers of the Swift plunged as the conceptually similar Dennis Dart appeared in the low-floor design. After the takeover of Leyland by Volvo production was stopped, especially since Volvo with the tail motor driven B6 had a similar model on offer. A further development of the Swift was produced by Cannon coaches in small numbers.