Volvo power for Olympian
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• Volvo Bus is planning to offer its 9.6-litre engine in the Olympian double-deck bus chassis, probably when production moves to Irvine at the end of the year.
Until now the 11-year-old Olympian, which Volvo inherited from the Leyland Bus range, has only been available with Cummins or Gardner engines.
The development follows Volvo's announcement last December that it plans to move away from bodybuilding to concentrate solely on PCV chassis production (CM 12-18 Dec 1991).
The most likely choice of Volvo engine is the 164-194kW (220-260hp) TD102/3 which might replace the Cummins L10.
Difficulties have arisen in engineering the new generation Eurol-certified Cummins L10, which will be launched in Britain later this year, according to Winston Wright, general manager of Volvo Trucks' Irvine assembly division.
Irvine will start taking PCV work from Workington in the second half of the year and the Olympian will be the first PCV to be affected. Volvo's BlOM is due to leave Workington in May but production will move to Sweden first, before settling at Irvine in 1993.
The B6R midi chassis, which is currently built in Austria, will move to Irvine in the latter part of the year.
Volvo Buses says: "We will continue to develop the Olympian as a mainline doubledeck product — it is Britain's best-selling heavy-duty bus."