57 seats and toilet on MAN RR8 chassis but ability to up-seat to 74 later in life is built in from the start
BASE Coach Sales displayed a MOBIpeople Explorer-bodied MAN RR8 at CBUK, one of a handful that it has so far delivered to a high specification. It is for customer KB Coaches of Stonehouse, Gloucestershire.
Unusually, the coach has a nearside centre sunken toilet and exit. BASE Director Mark Aspinall says that this is in consideration of its later life, when the toilet can be removed and the Explorer converted to a 74-seater with a 3+2 arrangement.
“We try to design a second and third life into coaches and the change to the seats could be undertaken in just one day.”
BASE recently ordered its 100th and 101st MAN chassis for bodying by MOBIpeople, and it expects to deliver 40 of the Portuguese coaches this year.
It is able to offer operating lease packages on the MOBipeople and Barbi ranges through Close Brothers, and despite recent currency fluctuations, the retail price of a 74-seat Explorer remains highly competitive at £181,000.
Also displayed was the third Barbi Galileo-bodied MAN RR2 for the Anderson Travel Group of London. It joins another in the Windsorian fleet and Group MD Mark Anderson says that the “fantastic” performance of the two coaches already in service was the reason he returned to BASE.
