Bristol VR - Bodies

Bodies

Like most Bristol buses, the VR was typically built with an ECW body. However, examples exist that carried bodies by Northern Counties, Alexander and East Lancs. Willowbrook of Loughborough also bodied a few VRs, notably for East Kent, Northern and Cardiff. MCW bodied 200 for West Midlands PTE.

The ECW body was distinctive for its rounded rear upper deck, a feature carried over from the ECW bodywork on the Bristol Lodekka and having its roots in ECW's styling on the Bristol K-type in the 1940s. The vehicles were typically constructed in the two heights set in the bus grant standards, 13 ft 8 in (4.17 m) and 14 ft 6 in (4.42 m), mostly Bristol Omnibus, Ribble, Northern and Maidstone & District. Other versions were built, including 13 ft 5 in (4.09 m) for City of Oxford Motor Services, and the 14 ft 2 in (4.32 m) height allowed under later versions of the grant specification along with the 13 ft 10 in (4.22 m) convertible open-toppers for companies such as Hants & Dorset, Southdown and Devon General.