Forward Control

[High Jetter]

Slidey doors, too.

[Asimo]

9 hours ago, sierraman said:

I can’t believe they still made those on a Y plate, they looked obsolete, by the time they would have been withdrawn in the late 80’s they must have looked like an antique. 

They made these things until 1996.       Edit:- 2013!

 Big fleet users don’t care how out of date it is. Does it do the job? If yes then buy same again.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Not to derail this thread but I believe this is one of the worst vehicle designs of all time and the reason for that is safety. I remember from a Swedish TV program from the 80's about cars and traffic, a Mazda E series was crash tested and at 50 kmt (30mph) the driver had to have his legs amputated.

This also reminds me of a story I read from Australia that happened sometime in the 80s or 90s. On a remote road a Toyota Land Cruiser and a Mitsubishi L300 collided head on. The driver of the Land Cruiser was unharmed but that was not the driver of the L300 who was in poor condition. They had to wait all night before a car passed that could notify the authorities and the driver of the L300 was trapped in the car all night and had to have his legs amputated on the spot to be released from the wreck.

So these are vehicles I will never own or drive for this reason.

[Dobloseven]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

The BMC/Leyland EA had a snout with the engine on its side under the floor, right underneath the seats.

 

They continued up to 1984 when they were replaced by the big bodied Sherpas. Not sure about the engines being on their sides, though. They were the old 2 1/2 litre petrol and diesels. Surely they'd need extensive redesigning of the sump etc. to work in that format.Might have been tilted slightly though, I suppose. As always, happy to be corrected. 

[horriblemercedes]

1 hour ago, Dobloseven said:

They continued up to 1984 when they were replaced by the big bodied Sherpas. Not sure about the engines being on their sides, though. They were the old 2 1/2 litre petrol and diesels. Surely they'd need extensive redesigning of the sump etc. to work in that format.Might have been tilted slightly though, I suppose. As always, happy to be corrected. 

I just Googled Leyland EA to get to the bottom of this and found Leyland Eats, a takeaway ordering service in Leyland.

What kind of world do we live in where that's a higher priority than the ~1984 Leyland EA?

[andy18s]

11 hours ago, goosey said:

These horrible bags of shit have a snout and the engine under the seats 

there are LDV and Nissan versions both are shit. My Dad has a Jap import Nissan version which I can’t remember what it’s called but it’s auto and 4wd and is still shit 

My LDV version was caged out into a sled dog hauler with the wheeled rig hanging off the rear doors.

With 4 dogs,the Mrs and and me and either a good amount of camping gear or a small caravan it went everywhere at 60mph,and loved the veg for cheap motoring

Once you sorted the rusty rear chassis it was pretty much un-killable

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, Dobloseven said:

They continued up to 1984 when they were replaced by the big bodied Sherpas. Not sure about the engines being on their sides, though. They were the old 2 1/2 litre petrol and diesels. Surely they'd need extensive redesigning of the sump etc. to work in that format.Might have been tilted slightly though, I suppose. As always, happy to be corrected. 

So in all likelihood they’d have continued until early 90’s in service. 

[Asimo]

1 hour ago, Dobloseven said:

Not sure about the engines being on their sides, though. They were the old 2 1/2 litre petrol and diesels. Surely they'd need extensive redesigning of the sump etc. to work in that format.Might have been tilted slightly though, I suppose. As always, happy to be corrected. 

From the EA brochure.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16684904@N02/albums/72157633001623668

 

[sutty2006]

10 hours ago, Crackers said:

Didn't know you could still buy those here to be honest! That market segment must be tiny compared to what it once was. I rarely see Cabstars/Isuzus any more, and don't recall ever seeing a new-shape Canter.

Canters/fuso are still buyable through a Mercedes’ dealer. They are still popular with companies that like cheap-to-buy vehicles but run a mile when they need expensive repairs. Fucking horrible hateful piles of crap they are, much like the Isuzu equivalent. 

[lesapandre]

23 minutes ago, Asimo said:

From the EA brochure.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16684904@N02/albums/72157633001623668

 

Similar underfloor arrangement to the Mk1 Renault Master except the engine is upright. The master has a sloping front 'snout' though because the gearbox is set in front of the engine driving the front wheels.

[MJK 24]

2 hours ago, Asimo said:

They made these things until 1996.

 Big fleet users don’t care how out of date it is. Does it do the job? If yes then buy same again.

I know someone with a 2007 model!  I think they made it to 2013 by which time it was called Vario.

[GeordieInExile]

10 hours ago, Daviemck2006 said:

I had a 1994 nissan serena people carrier which was basically one of these vans. It was a 1.6 petrol and took all types of abuse including towing a giant size elddis crusader superstorm twin axle caravan whilst loaded with me, wife, mother in law and 3 kids. I actually thought it was a great vehicle.

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk
 

Iirc the diesel version took over 20 seconds to get to 60.

[MorrisItalSLX]

Australia’s most popular van, the Toyota Hiace, had a forward control layout until 2019.

Now, with snout.

[Split_Pin]

5 hours ago, sierraman said:

I can’t believe they still made those on a Y plate, they looked obsolete, by the time they would have been withdrawn in the late 80’s they must have looked like an antique. 

They made the Leyland FG up until the same time which was an even older design.

I think all the former BMC light and medium trucks were kept in production due to their popularity with stingy fleet operators and to keep the Bahtgate plant alfoat for a few more years.

[JimH]

16 hours ago, GeordieInExile said:

Is this something to do with crash regs?

I bow to no one in my admiration of the Fiat 850T, however, even I probably wouldn't want to be sitting in the passenger seat when it came to a scrap.

That's going to sting. 

[808 Estate]

I had a Mitzi Delica L300 for a few years. Bouncy but great fun round town and at festivals where the 4 wheel drive got you out of the mud.

 

[chaseracer]

6 hours ago, Asimo said:

From the EA brochure.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16684904@N02/albums/72157633001623668

 

Bet that's a snappy* gearshift...

[MJK 24]

6 hours ago, GeordieInExile said:

Iirc the diesel version took over 20 seconds to get to 60.

33 seconds!

[warch]

Speaking of fashions in van design what happened to sliding front doors on vans? 

[wuvvum]

1 hour ago, MJK 24 said:

33 seconds!

That was the 2-litre.  The later 2.3 (as fitted to the LDV Cub) knocked nearly 10 seconds off that time.

[eddyramrod]

4 hours ago, warch said:

Speaking of fashions in van design what happened to sliding front doors on vans? 

Went the same way as Forward Control and petrol engines.  Probably in the name of Safety.

[High Jetter]

13 hours ago, warch said:

Speaking of fashions in van design what happened to sliding front doors on vans? 

Was debated at some length quite recently, can't recall on which thread though.

[scruff]

20 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

They made the Leyland FG up until the same time which was an even older design.

I think all the former BMC light and medium trucks were kept in production due to their popularity with stingy fleet operators and to keep the Bahtgate plant alfoat for a few more years.

I think you're right, for a long time there wasn't really much around to replace them either particularly if you had a BUY BRITISH policy.

[Leyland Worldmaster]

Great idea for a thread. Some disturbing results in a crash test from 1984:

http://carsafetydance.blogspot.com/2017/08/forward-control-van-crash-tests-1984.html?m=1

[goosey]

1 hour ago, Leyland Worldmaster said:

Great idea for a thread. Some disturbing results in a crash test from 1984:

http://carsafetydance.blogspot.com/2017/08/forward-control-van-crash-tests-1984.html?m=1

Nice one Allianz and well done to Volkswagen for winning 🥇 

I’m sure VW run a series of advertisements in the 80s with the tag line “buy a VW Van and you won’t get squashed if you crash into something ” *****

 

[mk2_craig]

Rumour has it that VW sacked off forward control for their 1990s redesign of the Transporter, after Harry Redknapp nearly carked it in this one:

[purplebargeken]

Buy, buy, buy. Just.... buy.

Or you could have a sweet Renner Matra Espace....