| Rare
Standard Atlas Kenex Minibus Feature
Introducing
Brian Birch's Kenex Minibus Conversion
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Click
on the photo
The
wide opening rear door |
Today there
is a wide choice of People Carriers or MPVs, or
whatever you want to call them. In 1959 if you wanted to
carry lots of people the choice was rather more limited.
One of the options then was this Kenex
conversion of the Standard Atlas Van. No fewer than 12
seats were fitted so you could definitely take all the
kids and their luggage too. Unfortunately, it still
looked like a van, even if the kind people who did the
conversion did put in four side windows. Like
modern MPV's they did however do clever things with the
seats, like tilt some and enable some to be removed.
Which only goes to prove there is very little that is
invented by modern day advertising agencies. most things
have been thought of far earlier.
That said, it is
difficult to imagine 12 people being carried
in this
Atlas for a journey of any reasonable length. It's |
| got
just 948ccs and 36 bhp. That's a whopping 79ccsand 3bhp
each!! And lets face it, its about as Aerodynamic as an
upturned bucket. Its little wonder then that the owner, Brian
Birch, says that the speed is restricted to 45mph
unloaded. He hasn't yet tried driving it with all his
friends |
| onboard,
but, just as a test, he did try loading it with a few of
them at the Standard Triumph Picnic.
This view is through
the wide opening rear door where there are two double
seats each side, so four people can be carried. In front
of that there are two rows of three seats meaning
another six are accommodated. And we do mean friends of
course, as you are all pretty close and its best if you
know each other very well. That makes 10 seats.
The other two seats are
up front for the driver and passenger. The shot below
shows these two seats with the engine cover between
them. You will notice that the driver's seat is
different, that is because the original owner suffered
with a bad back and specified a higher seat back than
would have usually fitted - that is shown in the
passenger position. |
Click
on the photo
They
appear to be happy in there! |
|
Click on
the photo
The
drivers seat is larger than the passengers |
This
shot also shows the "forward control" aspect of
the Atlas Van. The gearbox is so far back that the gearstick
has to be angled forwards, and even so, the driver has to
reach behind him to operate the 4 speed shift. As there is
so little power available to him, he has to make quite a few
changes to keep things moving along.
You can also make out that
there is room behind the drivers seat for the spare wheel
Two shots below show the
arrangement of the front row of seats behind the driver. You
will see that the double seat tilts upwards to allow
passengers to reach the row of seats behind. Alternatively,
the whole row can be simply unbolted to provide cargo space.
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Click on
any of the photos below |
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| Now
we come to the interesting arrangement for the middle row of
seats. The three shots below are pretty self explanatory, the
middle seat moves forward a few inches, them tilts upwards
over one of the side seats to allow un-encumbered access to
the rear two sets of seats, a really neat arrangement!
Click on any of the photos below
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Substantial overhang of the
body over the chassis is a feature of the Atlas |
Strategically placed rubber
device on the panel, prevents damage by the wide opening
nearside door and it acts as a catch to keep the door in the
fully open position |
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Finally we have
a couple of earlier pictures, supplied by Steve O'Hara, to go
with this feature. The first shows the Van its previous home,
where it had laid undisturbed for many years. The other shows
work in progress on the engine to restore it to full health.
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Atlas as found.....Our
first glimpse of the Atlas where it had stood since 1981.
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Atlas
engine..... A view of the Atlas's 948cc engine from the
nearside, with cylinder head and other items removed during
restoration.
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