At the wheel of the AVS
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THE AVS Marina provided an interesting comparison With the Post Office Lucas Bedford that I drove last week (CM September 5), and demonstrated the differences between what are basically mechanical and electrical solutions to the common problems of range, speed and overall efficiency.
The Marina has a normal floor-mounted automatic transmission seledtor lever and no clutch pedal. Drive, low and reverse are selected with it and there is the useful bonus of being able to use the transmission park control as well.
Starting is a Simple procedure—just turn on the "tigntin" switch, select drive and press the accelerator pedal to the floor. I expected there to be some lag while the motor picked up speed but in faCt there was none.
When I drove the vehicle I thought it felt sluggish, but criticisms on this score have been, in ' part, answered by modifications to the transmission. It seems that the final drive ratio was too high, so instead of using the direct top gear of the Borg Warner transmission, and second gear for starting, AVS is now using second as a top gear and first gear for starting.
This has improved accelera tion without detracting maximum speed performa As soon as a lower final d can be fitted, the vehicle be used with all three gem the gearbox working, toge with the other normal feat of this transmission sucl second-gear "kick-down."
Although the theory having only two motor .sp sounds crude, in practic worked very well and mut the time was spent coastin on only half volts. There no noticeable step in accelerator linkage, most o travel catering for half in speed •and the rest for speed.
With the major poztiol the battery pack placed c high up behind the seats t is a lconsiderable amount body roll on corners but unacceptably so.
In general the vehitit commendably quiet and c pares favourably with SCR controlled vehicles, w there is a constant buz: The AVS vehicle tends to three distintt noise levels cause of its two-speed nr It is .almost Silent on the c run, quiet when the motor half speed and only slig noisier when the vehict gding fiat out.