The Leyland Octopus (Commercial Vehicles Archive Series)

Product Information

On this modern day Google aerial view of Bentley, you can see how the M6 Motorway cut through the Wolverhampton Road at this location: Foden were the first British manufacturer to offer tilt cabs on heavy lorries in 1962, with the introduction of the S24, identifiable by its oblong headlamps, single piece windscreen and the absence of a removable front grille. For 1967, a revised version of the S24 was introduced known as the S34 (tilting cab) or S36 (fixed cab). Both had slant mounted headlamps and a slightly deeper windscreen than the original S24 model. The Albion Sugar Company of Woolwich were well known users of Fodens during the 1960s. The ergonomic GKN-assembled cab may have been cutting edge in the mid-1960s but, by 1979, it was getting plain crude. Nothing is offered in terms of creature comforts with the exception of a suspended driver’s seat – even the windows pull down and up akin to an old railway carriage door. Long after I had moved into an entirely different career trajectory, EFE Models produced a remarkably accurate model of this very type. The EFE version came out in January 1997 and depicted the vehicle registered VBY354M. Could this have been the very same as seen here?

Visibility from the driving seat is good although the large quarter lights can partially obstruct the driving mirrors, in certain positions. The BLMC group was difficult to manage because of the many companies under its control, often making similar products. This, and other reasons, led to financial difficulties and in December 1974 British Leyland had to receive a guarantee from the British government. In 1935 Leyland Motors added a second steering axle to a Hippo six wheeler and the Octopus was born. It went on to become one of the most famous of all eight wheelers. The first new post-war eight wheeler from Leyland was the 22.0/1, powered by the 9.8-litre 0.600 oil engine. The pre-war Leyland eight wheeler, designated TEW, was replaced after the war by the new 22.0/1 and 22.0/3 (SWB) with modernised cab and completely redesigned chassis. During the mod-1950s a redesigned cab (56/A) was introduced and the increase in the UK legal weight brought the 24.0/4 and 24.0/5 models. The LAD "Power Plus" range appeared in 1960. Leyland Motor Corporation and British Motor Holdings merge to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC), which was now the fifth-largest vehicle producer in the world. BMH also owned Guy at that time; thus, BLMC owned and produced Leyland, Albion, Scammell, AEC, Thornycroft, and Guy lorries by the end of the decade.The AEC-based Leyland L12 bares no similarity to the L/TL11. It produces around 220bhp in non-turbo format and thumps some torque at low revs, based on the AEC AV760 unit. The engine in turbo flavour went on to power the Marathon and Roadtrain. Needs a splitter or range change to get the best from it, but in the Octopus it’s hampered by a six-speed constant mesh gearbox. It makes a glorious noise, too From 16th November 1931 until 31st October 1965, Wolverhampton Corporation, and Walsall Corporation ran a joint trolleybus service between the two towns, the service numbered 29, running successfully until the 1960s. Very few places in Britain ran joint trolleybus routes, so the sight of Walsall’s blue trolleys intermingling with Wolverhampton’s green and yellow trolleys was quite novel. Production starts during September at the all-new Leyland Assembly Plant, the first build being a Leyland Leopard bus chassis.

The whole interior has been revamped on the latest Octopus with ABS plastic trim all round and a ventilated headlining in the same material. Seats, now faced in brushed nylon, remained very cool despite temperatures nearing the 90s on the road test. Although the turning circles are big, no problems were experienced while on the road, but parking involved several shunts when turning in between other vehicles. In August 1962, the Routeman Mk1 was replaced by the Routeman Mk2 with its distinctive cab designed by Michelotti. This new cab was very striking, although it was non tilting, the Leyland group not having a tilting cab until the introduction of the Ergomatic in 1965. Engines for the Routeman Mk2 were Leyland 0.600 or 0.680, or Gardner 6LW or 6LX. The Routeman models were widely used as tankers, both for fuel and industrial liquids. In 1968 a double drive Routeman III was introduced using Albion Reiver hub reduction axles. Copies of the new regulations are available from the British Plastics Federation, 47-48 Piccadilly, London, W.I. The G-series cab was built in Bathgate and was available with several different names, such as Terrier, Clydesdale, and Reiver. After this cab was replaced the tooling was shipped to Turkey, where BMC's Turkish subsidiary built it as the "BMC Yavuz" and then as the "Fatih" (with Cummins engines) from 1986 until 1996.A management buyout made the bus division independent for a short period before it was sold to Volvo, who integrated Leyland models into their range before gradually replacing them with Volvos as they aged. In 1955, through an equity agreement, manufacture of commercial vehicles under licence from Leyland Motors commenced in Madras, India at the new Ashok factory. The products were branded as Ashok Leyland. Without doubt the Octopus is a motorway vehicle. It cruised happily at 96.5km (60mph) on M6 and rarely dropped below 641cm/h (40mph) even on the more hilly sections. Fuel consumption was better on this section of the test than for some of the A roads. This was probably due to the higher axle ratio employed. Although a lower ratio of perhaps 6.4 to 1 would probably improve the figures over A roads, motorway consumption would suffer. A further indication of the possible need for a lower axle ratio came when the Octopus failed to start on a 1 in 5 gradient although it had performance to spare on the motorway.