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The Dennis Dart is a rear-engined bus manufactured by Dennis in Guildford, England. More than 11,000 were produced during 18 years of production. Most were purchased by United Kingdom operators, although examples were sold to America, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. ==Standard-floor Dart== The Dennis Dart was conceived when Hestair Group (owner of Dennis and Duple) decided to produce a bus between a minibus and a full-sized single decker.〔(DT, DC: The Duple / Carlyle Darts ) Ian's Bus Stop〕〔(Dennis Dart: the first Generation ) Ian's Bus Stop〕 It was launched in 1988 and was originally offered with the Duple Dartline bodywork. It was 2.3m wide and was initially available in the length of 9m, but later available in lengths of 8.5m and 9.8m. It was powered by a Cummins 6BT engine and coupled to the Allison AT545 gearbox (the same engine and gearbox were also used in the MCW Metrorider, latterly the Optare MetroRider). This model was sold to London Buses and to some operators outside London. Soon after it was launched, Duple was sold to Plaxton and the Blackpool plant closed. Plaxton decided not to acquire the design rights of the Duple Dartline and it was sold to Carlyle Works, who continued producing the bodywork from 1991. Production passed to Marshall of Cambridge in 1992 who bodied five Darts to this design. In 1993, Marshall updated the design to the C36 and later, the C37. In 1990, Wadham Stringer became the next builder to body the Dart with a body called the Portsdown, but it was sold in small numbers and replaced by the UVG Urbanstar in 1995. In the same year, Wright bodied the Dart with the Handybus. In early 1991, Plaxton launched the Pointer (which was initially designated as Reeve Burgess Pointer as it was built at Reeve Burgess's plant, until later in the same year when it was transferred to Plaxton's Scarborough plant). Later in 1991, East Lancs bodied the Dart with its EL2000. In the latter half of 1991, Alexander launched the Dash. Another contender entering the market at the same time was the Northern Counties Paladin. Initially, it was built with a design of a barrel shaped windscreen with quarterlights (which were mainly sold to Warrington Borough Transport), later models had a deep double-curvature two-piece windscreen. It was phased out when Plaxton bought Northern Counties in 1995. As the low floor buses became more popular in late 1990s, orders for standard-floor Dart dropped heavily and production ceased in 1998, with the final five delivered to Jersey Motor Transport. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dennis Dart」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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