I managed to drive ex - West Midland Leyland Nationals retro-fitted with DAF engines when working for Metrowest. I believe these were based on Leyland O.600 or O.680 engines; either way they made a lot of nice noises but didn't perform as well on Black Country hills as the 510 engined versions. I wonder why West Midland specified 4 speed direct top gearboxes when all other Nationals seemed to have 5 speed direct top gearboxes? (at least Bristol Tramways, Eastern National, Midland Red, London Transport, Northern General, Ribble and Western National examples that I drove did). Incidentally, was the TL11 engine developed further by DAF?DD12 wrote: ↑12:57 Sunday 12th March 2017
In the back of my mind was the memory of Leyland DAF, and the possibility that some engines were built under-licence as "DAFs". - ( - TIM ? )
Some of our older forum members will remember that Midland Red were "always" experimenting and fitting non-standard engines and gearboxes etc (as recorded on this website).
I wonder if DD12 managed to travel on DD11 5261 when it had a D9 engine fitted? I never managed to, but heard it accelerating on a number of occasions and it was rather strange hearing a Fleetline pull away with a deep booming note and hitting the governors (cha-cha-cha) before each gearchange. It actually sounded like a rear engined D9, whereas the underfloor engined D10 sounds more like an S17 single-decker.