We don’t usually talk about buses on ClassicCarsForSale, but with the Leyland Leopard things are different. Whether you realised or not, between 1959 and the late 1990s you’ll have seen one every day - making it an important a piece of nostalgia.

For many it’s the sound of adolescence, the throaty hum of the cantankerous and flaky school bus awaiting in the bay come the bell at 1530. You would spend more time glaring at the clock on the wall than you would listening to the beige lecturer, relishing the moment you could break free from the drab classroom and leg it towards the transport ticking-over to a faint smell of oil. Your ticket home.

For anyone educated within the last five decades, the bus looming over the forecourt as children and teenagers scrabbled to nab their seats would have been the Leyland Leopard - effectively the backbone to British infrastructure. No matter the time of day, no matter the road, you would find a Leopard chugging its way forward, regardless of weather condition. 

Although production ended in 1982, they could be found on British roads until 2006, where all Leopards were withdrawn from public service. Some examples had clocked up an incredible 28 years of service. However, various specimens fobbed off the scrap yard or early retirement to transport students and private hire groups around under the operation of private coach hire firms.

Throughout its 23-year lifetime virtually every coachwork body firm had built upon the Leopard chassis. To bus enthusiasts, names such as Plaxton, Willowbrook, ECW, Duple and Alexander will leave Kleenex sales through the ceiling - but the one you’ll most likely have found blotting out the sun remains the Plaxton Supreme. No matter where abouts in the country you found yourself, every 15 minutes one would wallow by, usually packed with people hiding behind the steamed up windows.

The British Military adopted the Leopard for base work, exporting the buses out to various other countries, with a select few bodied as pantechnicons and at least one as a car transporter - although there was one where the Leyland was not welcome. During the Troubles in Northern Ireland, a portly total of 228 Leopards were stolen from depots and maliciously destroyed and burnt in public streets.

Yet, while Northern Ireland remained a Leopard scrapyard, unlike most British products of the time, the Leyland kept competition at bay, putting the Volvo B58 and AEX Reliance firmly in their place. New Zealand operators ordered loads of them, while national operators practically chose nothing else. Ventura Bus Lines, National Express and British Coachways to name only three big operators.

In the early 1990s, a number of Leopards were rebodied in order to take advantage of a loophole allowing rebodied buses to be classified as new for fleet purposes.

Engines ranged from 9.8-litres of diesel goodness up to 11.1-litres; churning out close to 200bhp. Top speed? 0-60 time? Don’t be silly, it’s a bus. Although, you could get 52mph out of it - and it would do that speed for hundreds of hours on end before so much as needing a service. The mechanicals proved to be sturdy, dependable and reliable. Again, much unlike other British products of the time.

While the monumental steering wheel and huge, air-operated, accelerator and gearbox seem out of date, as a driving machine you would rarely hear those behind the wheel complaining.

Today, several Leopards are in the hands of those preserving them - and rightly so. It’s easy to forget that the vehicles we grew so used to seeing are disappearing - especially when they aren’t cars.