Show Scramble is Worse Than Usual
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'UNUSUAL difficulty is beirCg 1.--1 experienced by manufacturers in obtaining proprietary components for new models to be introduced at the Commercial Motor Show next month. There is always a last-minute scramble to complete Show exhibits, but this year the situation is even worse than it is normally.
The result is that makers are tending to keep their plans secret until the last moment, instead of announcing new models over a period of about six weeks before the show opens.
About 20 new designs are in preparation. They included several 6 x 6 tractors, double-deck buses, lightweight single-deckers, small vans, an ambulance and a taxicab. Some of the designs break fresh ground and show 'welcome individuality, particularly in the use of chassisless construction.
It is believed that the only vehicle in the Show built to conform with the new maximum legal weights and overall width, to be incorporated in revised Construction and Use Regulations, will be an eight-wheeler. The concessions to be made in the Regulations have not yet been announced, but it is expected that the maximum gross weight for an eight-wheeler will be 24 tons and that all goods vehicles will be permitted to be built to a width of 8 ft.