Bus Depot on the Net presents:
The Guy Arab Retirement Center

      ___________________
     / _______   _______ \          GUY ARAB V (China Motor Bus Co.'s LX)
     ||   |   | |   |   ||          is the last model of bus with
     ||___|___| |___|___||          half-cab design running in Hong Kong.
     |___________________|          Although this bus is about 30 years 
     |   _______ _____   |          of age, it is still one of my
     |   I     I I   I   |          favorite.
     |   ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~   |          
     |===================|          
     ||~~~~~~~~|        ||          
     ||        |        || 
     ||________|        || 
     ||________|________||
     | o [~~I~~I~~I~~] o | 
     | O [~~I~~I~~I~~] O |
     |() [~~I~~I~~I~~] ()|
     |--===============--|
     |___________________|
      I__I           I__I                 

  ____________________________________________________
  \ _____  _____  _____  _____  _____  _____  _____  /
  ||  |  ||  |  ||  |  ||  |  ||  |  ||  |  ||  |  | |
  ||__|__||__|__||__|__||__|__||__|__||__|__||__|__| |
  |--------------------------------------------------|
  |                                                  |
  |_O________________________________________________|
  |--------_____ [II] LX _______ China Motor Bus     |
  ||      || | | |~~|~~| |  |  ||~~|~~||~~|~~||~~|~~||
  ||      || | | |__|__| |  |  ||__|__||__|__||__|__||  
  |--------| | |O       O|  |  |                     |
  |~~~~~~~~| | |    ()   |  |  |                     |
 _|  /~~\  | | |         |  |  |         /~~\        |_
 ||_| () |_|===|_________|=====|________| () |_===---[] 
 ~~  \__/                                \__/             

  MODEL: GUY ARAB
  ENGINE: Gardner 6LX
  TRANSMISSION: Daimatic
  BODY: Alexander

Guy was a company specialized in building large vehicles in Britain. One of the characteristic for Guy built buses was that they can use Gardner Engines as the power source. Gardner engines have long been famous for its high torque output, which was also a reason for the success Guy Arab had in Hong Kong.

A Guy Arab V with a original Metal Sections body (M42) standing side by side with another Guy Arab V (LX225) which has a rebuild body by Alexander.M42 was the last M-series Guy Arab to retire, while the LX225 was originally LW11 and became LX136 when it got a Gardner 6LX engine, and soon became LX225 when it received the new Alexander body.

Hong Kong was a hilly island with crooked and narrow roads. That was why China Motor Bus Company introduced Guy Arab to Hong Kong. In the mid 60's, China Motor Bus Company brought Guy Arab V to handle the increasing demand of public transportation after their success with Arab IV, and Under Floor (UF).

Two generations of hard-working front engined bus parked beside each other.

The original Guy Arab V in Hong Kong were single-deck buses with a length of 25 feet and 30 seats. They employed SCG340 semi-automatic transmission and Gardner 6LX engines which provided 150bhp. They were later changed to Daimatic semi-automatic transmissions, which were considered very advance in the 60's.

The legendary Guy Arab V stand proudly between two modern 12 meter buses. (Dennis Dragon on the left and M.C.W. Super Metrobus on the right)

In 1970, a 25 feet Guy Arab V with a license plate of AD4589 was on fire in an accident. The whole body was badly burned. The chassis and the Gardner engine were the only thing left. The engineers in China Motor Bus Company thought of a creative idea - to rebuild the bus into a double decker. With the doubled capacity, the Gardner engine could still handle the load easily. As a result, China Motor Bus Company decided to rebuild all of its Guy Arab's to double deckers. 50 of them became series S and 56 of them became series LS, while S had a height of 14ft-6in and the LS had a height of 14ft-2in.

An Arab has become a recovery truck in its original single-deck form. You can see the difference between the British single-deck bus of the 60s and the modern single-decker Dennis Dart in behind.

There was also a total of 44 28-feet long version of Guy Arab V double deckers, which was called series M and used Gardner 6LXs from the start. In addition to these three versions of double deck Guy Arab, there was a 30feet long double deck version that had the less powerful Gardner 6LW engines and Guy semi-automatic gearbox at first, except last 2 (LX1 and LX2) that were delivered in 1970 which had the Gardner 6LX. All Gardner 6LW equiped Arabs were later refitted with the 6LXs and changing their transmissions to Daimatics. All 30ft Guy Arab V double deckers with 6LW engines became the LW series when fleet numbers were introduced at around 1971. As the Gardner 6LWs were replaced by 6LXs in them, they were then called the LX series.

A Guy Arab V with the original Metal Sections body and a Gardner 6LW engine has become a training bus. Note that this bus was originally LW14.

During 1963 and 1967, there were 40 36ft long single-deck Guy Arabs with Gardner 6LX engines running in Hong Kong to ease the increasing demand of bus service. These huge buses were called Long Dragons. Being so long, they were not permitted to operate routes other then route 8, 8A and 8B. They were double decked and shorted to 30ft in the early 70s when they became part of the LX series. In the 70's, the Guy Arabs were re-bodied with Alexander bodies and became the LX200 series. So these Guy Arabs can no longer be distinguished whether they were former Long Dragon, or former LW series or second hand Arabs from Lancashire, England.

Another use of Guy Arab: By removing the top, it's now a tall truck that can let road workers prune the branches of a tree that has stuck out to the road. Note that this bus was originally a 25ft single deck Guy Arab V with a licence number of AC4775, then it became S15 before transforming into a tree pruner in 1985.

With the high output engine and specially tuned gearbox, the double deck Guy Arabs were used in the hilly and crooked routes like route 1, 3, 9, 13, 14, 19, 41, 47, and 77. However, as their age become 30 plus, people believe they are too old to be on the road even though they work very fine. Another front engined bus, Leyland Victory Mark II, has now replaced the Guy Arab to serve in those hilly routes.

A creative idea of turning a Guy Arab V into a hut for bus drivers to rest. This was either a S-series or a LS-series Guy Arab.

Although the last Guy Arab have been retired (LX332), people will still remember their power and speed. Guy Arab, we appreciate your hard work, and you will always be one of the best in the world.

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