What does the term 'charabanc' mean? A keyword search brings up a lot of T stuff from down under? Is it also a T body style from down under?

The word Charabanc derives from the French char a bancs ("carriage with wooden benches"), where it originated in the early 19th century.

1915 Charabanc on tour in Boone NC this July. All Ford running gear.

Is It from down under?

That charabanc was from England, shipped over for the national tour. Quite a fantastic vehicle, carried on the rear a folding step ladder so folks could be loaded to the 3rd back seat.

OMG Dan, there's that tubby T pic again, I almost blow my cookies every time I see it!

So how is the center of gravity on that thing? It looks like it would be easy to roll over.

In Australia, they often doubled as trucks during the week. Then on the weekend the charabanc body was put on the tray and the truck became a passenger vehicle for tours.

So the centre of gravity was high on these vehicles. If the body was specific to the chassis, it was more like a bus.

Allan from down under.

Thank Allan

Hello

The above charabanc was built by my late father Simon and is a registered 1922 chassis but with a brass radiator and bonnet. He preferred the brass cars.

It's now with a chap in texas who regularly uses it and drives it around town. It has space for 12 passengers and drives surprisingly well for something of its size!

I was on the North Carolina tour where the above pictures were taken and we used it a lot to go out for dinner and around town.

It was originally used here in Britain for taking people out on excursions to the coast from the inner city's. That particular one was part of a group of charabancs called the busy bees and operated from gorleston, about an hours drive from where we live now.

Joe.

Perhaps a gastric bypass program would help ?

Joe,

Thank you so much for adding the additional information about that charabancs’ history. By any chance are there any photos of it when it was operating back in the day?

Respectfully submitted,

Hap l9l5 cut off

I like it but it looks like FAT ALBERT to me.

Bob

But you got to admit, that it would throw off al those model T experts ( Not our group ) who do not own a T and think they know all about them. It would be nice though for weddings, do you not think ?

John
RTFM

If you do a keyword search on this forum for charabanc for all dates you will find a lot of old photos from down under.