Kind' wins at Brighton
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KINCH OF LOUGHBOROUGH repeated its win at the Blackpool National Coach Rally when its Volvo B58 Plaxton executive coach became the 1980 coach of the year at the Brighton British Coach Rally.
Plaxton and Volvo also took the best Grand Touring Coach award which went to a Wallace Arnold B58. The top standard coach at the Rally was a Grey-Green Duple Dominant 2 bodied Leyland Leopard.
Peter Bibby of Fred Bibby of Ingleton repeated his Blackpool success by becoming 1980 coach driver of the year.
Sussex operator Burgess Hill Coaches driver R, Hunt drove a Volvo B58 Duple which was judged to be best coach on the road, Two surprisingly unplaced entries from Europe were both Van Hool integral vehicles and included the first articulated coach to enter a British rally entered by De Boeek of Belgium. Exhibition vehicles on display at Brighton included a Wadham Stringer Vanguard bodied Ford T152 fitted with Allison fully automatic gearbox, a DAF MEG 205 articulated coach with Jonckheere bodywork and the second Irisar bodied Volvo B58 to enter Britain for a British operator, in the livery of Surrey International Coaches of Cranleigh. STONEFIFLD VEHICLES' future is still in the balance, with Tozer, Kernsley and Mil!bourn studying the firm's figures in detail.
The Scottish Development Agency has put proposals on Stonefield's future to TKM which is keen to integrate the special purpose Stonefield range into its own automotive activities (CM April 19).
A TKM spokesman told CM that he hoped to be able to respond to SDA some time this week.