A futile Quest

Quest 80 and the U-drive

I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds the failures of the motoring world so much more fascinating than the successes. So much has already been written about the most celebrated and popular vehicles that there is nothing new to add, but those that failed to make an impact are far more worthy of study and raise so many interesting questions. Why did they fail? Could they have succeeded under different circumstances? And in some cases, what the hell were they thinking?! Today's subject tends to fall in the latter category: unsurprisingly you may never have heard of Quest 80 buses and coaches as they went out of business more than thirty years ago after building just a handful of vehicles, but their claim to fame (or should that be infamy?) was a notoriously cumbersome and inefficient drivetrain that frankly defied engineering logic. Read on to find out more about this strange and forgotten manufacturer and their range of blunderbuses.


Quest 80 Ltd was a design and engineering consultancy formed in Telford in 1979, initially to develop bus and coach chassis for use in South Africa, including a trolleybus, but later moved into manufacturing a range that was offered on the UK market with little success. With Ford winding down PSV production, Quest 80 adopted many Ford parts and hoped to continue where Ford left off and build on their reputation in the newly-deregulated coach market. However, the company quietly ceased trading in 1985 after building around 70 chassis, several of which were never bodied, and today is virtually forgotten and its products all but extinct. As the manufacturer disappeared over thirty years ago and the vehicles were never a common sight, information is not always easy to find and there are many assumptions and contradictions written online about Quest 80 so I hope this piece is as accurate as it can be. For instance, one common misconception implied by several sources is that the '80' was a model number, but it was in fact part of the manufacturer's name and the different models were identified by letters.


Despite the initial hype and optimism, Quest 80's products soon gained a poor reputation, not helped by some frankly hideous and unappealing bodywork and the bizarre 'U-drive' arrangement adopted on many of them. The engine was mounted longitudinally in the rear offside corner and transmitted power via a chain across the back of the chassis to the gearbox mounted in the opposite corner, and by all accounts it was every bit as inefficient and unreliable as it sounds. Even those not so afflicted were beset by other problems, and running a Quest 80 was rarely a straightforward experience. What follows is a run-down of the various models offered on the UK market.

The B, C and D-types

These three models, all rear-engined, formed the initial Quest 80 PSV range launched in 1983, the very first complete vehicle being a Reeve Burgess-bodied D-type registered A863 CAW and initially used as a demonstrator before sale to the local council. The B-type was an innovative but unsuccessful low-floor midibus, similar in concept to the later Dennis Dart, with a Perkins engine and an Allison gearbox, while the C and D-types were both Ford 360-engined chassis; the former was available in 9, 11 and 12 metre lengths and was intended as a coach, and the latter was a 33 or 35 seat midibus. The B and C-types used the U-drive layout, and production seems to have amounted to a paltry seven of the B (all with Locomotors bodies) and four each of the C and D variously bodied by Locomotors, Reeve Burgess, Van Hool and Jonckheere.

One of the most documented was A365 DAW, a B-type airport bus built for Ralph's of Longford for use at Heathrow, which had an odd-looking triple-door body and its Ford heritage was made very obvious by the use of the front grille and lights from the Ford Cargo truck cab. This one may still exist as it was advertised on eBay a couple of years ago, converted into a mobile home. Locomotors also bodied the other six B-types (B927-931 KWM and C844 OBG) to a completely different and extremely boxy design for Merseyside PTE's disabled persons' services; they were quickly sold on after little or no use and the last of these also appears to have survived. The C and D-types may now be extinct though, unless a long-disused example is still lurking in a yard somewhere.

The VM

A813 LEL, the sole surviving VM, seen at Showbus 2004 when owned by Ben Fosker.

 
The best known Quest 80 vehicles were the twenty coaches ordered in 1984 by Excelsior Holidays to a special design developed in collaboration with Excelsior's Managing Director Vernon Maitland and named the VM in his honour. Only 17 of these were actually bodied and delivered as A807-823 LEL, the last of which managed to set itself on fire when just six weeks old and was completely destroyed. They were plagued with reliability issues including putting conrods through the side of the engine, there being a story that one driver ended up using six different VMs to complete his seven-day tour as they kept breaking down, and all were quickly disposed of after just two seasons. The three unbodied chassis from this order are believed to have been exported to Cyprus, but interestingly Excelsior later acquired five more as spare parts donors after Quest went bust to compensate for the type's unreliability. These weren't ordered by Excelsior so where they came from remains a mystery, but they may have been either built for stock or a cancelled order from another operator whose identity was never made public. 

All of the completed VMs had Plaxton Paramount 3200 bodies with the low driving position but without the standard short 'feature window' that Mr Maitland so disliked and omitted from all of his Paramounts. They were 12 metres long (although one of those ordered but never bodied was to be 11m) and had Ford 360 turbo engines uprated to around 200bhp by Sabre Marine but with a conventional driveline rather than the troublesome U-drive, basically amounting to a more powerful rear-engined version of the Ford R-series. One odd feature was a cable-operated gearchange with its lever mounted to the right of the driver, specified by Excelsior to make it easier for the driver to get out of his seat and assist his passengers.

With a bit of effort to recognise and work around their foibles, and in some cases a change of engine, some subsequent operators managed to get decent lives from their VMs, but others passed through many owners in quick succession, often changing hands at auction for low bids as they were undesirable oddballs. A few lasted into the 21st century but eventually they all became too difficult to keep running and one by one they bit the dust. Against all odds though, one VM has survived: A813 LEL spent many years in Suffolk, firstly with Riches of Stradbroke and then with enthusiast operator Ben Fosker from Martlesham, before passing into private preservation. One of my local operators, Eddy Rainbow of Westbury, was a big fan of Ford coaches and also ran a couple of VMs during the 1990s; sadly he closed down before I got into photography but I almost certainly saw them on his school contracts and may have even unknowingly travelled on one.

The J-type

A rare gem, hidden away and awaiting its return to the road, this was the last Quest registered in the UK.

 
The J-type was designed in conjunction with Jonckheere (hence its name) as a base for their 37-seat Piccolo midicoach body, and was just about the most numerous model, 26 chassis being built. Only the first eleven were completed as intended though and they were slow sellers as most were not registered until 1987, two years after Quest 80 had gone out of business. Most of the stockpiled chassis that were never bodied by Jonckheere eventually found their way to Cyprus and some entered service there several years later (in one case as late as 2001!), stretched to 12 metres and fitted with locally-built bodies. Mechanically, the J-types had Ford Cargo engines and Turner gearboxes with the U-drive configuration and the gearstick on the left where it should be.

With this being an uncommon yet sought after size of coach, the J-types were more desirable than other Quests, but the complex and unreliable U-drive was their Achilles' heel. Buddens of Romsey developed a conversion using a Cummins B-series engine as found in the Leyland Roadrunner truck that also used the Turner gearbox, which eliminated the chain and gave many of them a new lease of life. Like the VMs, most seemed to end up in Ireland and have now disappeared, but I stumbled across a survivor a couple of years ago. CLZ 3035, originally E222 YTU, was the very last Quest 80 registered in the UK (but not the last built) and is tucked away at the back of the yard of Cherwell Valley Coaches in Aynho, Northants; one with the Cummins conversion, it has been a non-runner for many years but its owner still hopes to get it back on the road one day.

Trucks

Until recently I was unaware that Quest 80 had also built trucks, again intended primarily for the South African market, and these were supposedly even worse than the PSV chassis! They aren't as well documented and production figures are unknown, but a contemporary report in Commercial Motor magazine suggests 700 were shipped to South Africa in kit form for local assembly, which if true meant they outnumbered the PSVs by more than ten to one. It is thought that only five were sold in the UK though and three of those were scrapped long ago. Unlike the coaches, they used either Perkins or Mercedes engines, American-style Rockwell axles and a rather strange looking cab that was mounted ahead of the front axle and created issues with weight distribution when unladen.

They were also reportedly very heavy, having been designed to cope with tough African conditions, with a payload some two tons short of the competition as a result, yet at the same time not strong enough as the chassis were apparently prone to cracking when fully loaded. The tipper D166 FHA might claim the record for the shortest working life of any vehicle; built in 1983, it wasn't registered until October 1986 and was last taxed in July 1987 so it didn't even manage a year on the road! Amazingly, its original owner has kept hold of it ever since and occasionally displays it or its box-bodied sister at truck shows, where they always attract a great deal of interest.

A very odd looking truck. Not sure whether this is better or worse than their buses.

That then is the sum total of Quest 80's achievements in the UK and is quite frankly nothing to be proud of. No doubt they had the best of intentions but the products obviously weren't what customers wanted and didn't live up to expectations, resulting in the company's inevitable quick demise. Interestingly, my online searches revealed that footwear manufacturer Salomon now produces a ski boot called the Quest 80; they were presumably unaware of the connection and one hopes the boots are more successful as a mode of transport than their vehicular namesake!

Do you have any memories or experiences of Quest 80 vehicles? I'd love to hear your stories so please feel free to leave a comment below.