What lever to control the gears ?? You mean the
gear-knob-on-stick type instead of push-button ? On the OF 1417
introduced here around 1980 that type was used. Believe it was
Allison 4-speed full automatic.
I recall riding on i believe was the earliest O 305 in Singapore
(with Willowbrooke double-deck body) which was launched here around
May 1982. I still keep that 2 full page Straits Times launch ad.
put up by Cycle & Carriage which shows the left side view of
the O 305. The dashboard was similar to that in the next 200 or so
units to be ordered for delivery starting from 1984 to 86 &
based on what i saw & also on the gear-change characteristics
of the early unit i took on route 165, i'm fairly certain in early
80's era they already used the push-button type of full automatic
by M-B for M-B.
My thinking is that why Leyland used their own type of
semi-automatics back then instead of full automatics like M-B, ZF
or Allison etc. was due to the lower performance outputs of the
largely backward Leyland engines (like those used on Atanteans)
they probably figured with semi-automatic the vehicle performance
might be slightly better with less 'drag' on their engines i.e. for
their type of old engines semi-auto will do as they lack the
performance levels of the more modern engines to make optimal use
of a full automatic gearbox anyway ! Also in their favour is the
possible lower costs of a semi-auto box.
In other words, my belief is that if Leyland had better performing
engines like the Germans, Swedes etc. then, they would have used
the superior full automatics instead. By the way, any other makes
of buses/bus-chassi used these Leyland semi-autos ? Very rare i'll
say. I wonder if these Leyland boxes were really that fantastic,
other makers would dump the more expensive types & queue up
& buy from Leyland instead ?? Leyland then most surely would be
most happy to sell since then they're not in too good form
financially anyway ?
But going by history, that didn't seem so.
