Dennis Dart

This is a London Bus City mod.

The Dennis Dart was a rear-engined single-decker bus chassis manufactured by Dennis (later Alexander 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 North America, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

History
In 1995, Dennis launched a low-floor version of the Dart, the Dennis Dart SLF (Super Low Floor), which later became known as the TransBus Dart/Alexander Dennis Dart.

It was 2.4m wide and initially offered in lengths of 9.2m, 10m and 10.6m, with air suspension introduced in place of the taper leaf used in the original design. The driveline of the step-entrance Dart was retained, although some early examples were fitted with Eaton manual transmission.

It was initially offered with the low floor version of the Pointer (which was notable for being wider), replaced by the updated Pointer 2 in 1997. It was also offered with a wide variety of bodies, namely the East Lancs Spryte, UVG Urbanstar (later renamed as the Caetano Compass; replaced by the Nimbus in 1999), the Wright Crusader, Alexander ALX200 (discontinued in 2001 with the formation of Transbus International and being replaced by the Pointer 2), Marshall Capital (developed from the C37; later built by MCV), Caetano Nimbus and MCV Evolution (since 2005 - a further evolution of the Marshall bodywork).

Some Dart SLFs with Alexander ALX200 bodies were delivered to the North America and sold as Thomas Dennis SLF-series buses.

In 1997, the Dart SPD (Super Pointer Dart) was launched with the length of 11.3m (about the same length as a long Leyland National). It has a more powerful engine and a more heavy duty Allison World Series B300R gearbox, but also with an option of a Voith gearbox. Originally offered only with Plaxton Pointer 2 bodywork (hence the 'P' in the name) this larger bus was later offered with other bodywork such as East Lancs, the Alexander ALX200 and a few have also been bodied by Marshall. In 1998, it was accompanied by the MPD (Mini Pointer Dart) at 8.8m long, a model reminiscent of the original 8.5m Darts.

further variants of the Dart SLF appeared by 2002, when bus operators in the Channel Islands of Guernsey and then Jersey replaced the majority of their fleets with slightly narrower Darts designed to comply with the islands' vehicle size restrictions, sporting adapted versions of existing East Lancs and Caetano bodies respectively. Further examples have since joined them and small numbers of similar buses have entered service with other operators around the UK. Gibraltar also has a fleet of these narrower buses. The last ones entered service in summer 2007, but Alexander Dennis had not produced a direct replacement by September 2008.

With the move to Euro III emissions in October 2001, the new Cummins ISBe engine was launched, with the 4-cylinder 3.9-litre model being used in all lengths except the 11.3m version, which uses the more powerful 6-cylinder, 5.9-litre version. The Cummins ISBe Euro IV engine became available on the Dart SLF chassis since late 2006.

In 2007 the Dennis Dart SLF was superseded by the Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Dart. The last Alexander Dennis Dart SLF was delivered to Park Island Transport, Hong Kong in March 2008.

Stats
Horsepower:115 bhp

Top Speed: 85 mph

Mass: 16,464 lbs

Durability: Very High

Available Colours
London Central (Route C10)

London United (Route 391)