1936 Lanchester Ten Minibus — 🚌 The Weirdest Bus Built From an Ordinary Car

The 1936 Lanchester Ten Minibus is one of the strangest British vehicle conversions you may never have heard of. It started life as a small luxury car, but in 1947, one inventor decided that an ordinary saloon was no longer enough. He removed the original body and transformed the car into a miniature passenger bus capable of carrying seven passengers plus the driver! The original Lanchester Ten was produced in Coventry, England, from 1932. Approximately 12,250 examples were built, but this particular car took a very different path. In 1941, Lawrence Mervyn Gibson purchased a Lanchester Ten registered BDV 343. Six years later, he commissioned a completely new body inspired by London's LT-series buses, turning a conventional automobile into a tiny touring coach. The custom body featured handcrafted aluminum construction, large glazed side panels, a tall roof and a nearly vertical front. Despite its bus-like appearance, the vehicle retained the foundations of a compact passenger car, including its original chassis and rear-wheel-drive layout. Its wheelbase measured approximately 2.60 meters (102.5 inches), while the short chassis left limited room for passengers and luggage. Under the bonnet was a water-cooled, 1,444-cubic-centimeter four-cylinder gasoline engine producing around 34–38 horsepower, depending on the specification cited. Power went to the rear wheels through an unusual four-speed Wilson preselector gearbox paired with a fluid flywheel. Instead of changing gears like a conventional manual transmission, the driver could select the next gear in advance and engage it using a separate pedal. The converted minibus reportedly reached 96 km/h (60 mph), but its modest power, narrow chassis and tall body came with obvious compromises. Carrying eight people, including the driver, was an impressive achievement for such a small vehicle, although luggage space and performance under a full load were limited. What makes the Lanchester Ten Minibus fascinating is that it was never a regular factory model. It was a one-off postwar transformation that combined 1930s British engineering with an entirely different purpose. One man's unusual idea turned a luxury automobile into a miniature bus that looked as if a London city bus had somehow shrunk to fit on a passenger-car chassis. Subscribe to On Wheels for more rare vehicles, bizarre conversions and forgotten stories from automotive history! #Lanchester #LanchesterTen #LanchesterMinibus #VintageCars #ClassicCars #VintageBus #Minibus #RareVehicles #UnusualVehicles #AutomotiveHistory #BritishCars #ForgottenVehicles #CustomCars #HistoricVehicles #OnWheels Support the channel and get exclusive perks:    / @youtubeonwhels