The well-remembered touring coaches, built in Melbourne by Ansair Pty Ltd, under licence from the Flxible Company in the USA, were operated in Australia as touring and express coaches during the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s by Pioneer, and other coach operators.

It was mid-morning on a pristine spring day, and I was waiting at Blow Hole Point, on the Kiama peninsular of the NSW South Coast by the lighthouse, for a prearranged meeting with the owners of our story’s subject to arrive for a photo shoot. I soon heard them coming up the hill, the music from their two-stroke GM diesel engines heralding their arrival. As they came into sight, it was the 1950s revisited – the two Ansair Flxible Clipper coaches came to rest at the bus parking area by the lighthouse. I actually wondered if these two time-capsules had brought sightseers to this very place some 60 years ago?

These days, the two Clippers transport people in comfort and style to weddings and other events, having been converted internally to monster limousines, including a restroom, complementary bar and full air conditioning. Their entrepreneurial owners, business partners Ian Yabsley and Dan Evans, completed these restorations for their company, Clipper Limousines, at Kiama.

When Ian was a student at Armidale Teachers’ College, on the NSW Northern Tablelands, during the early 1970s, he drove an Ansair Clipper for Gregan’s Coaches, from Armidale to Uralla each afternoon, in order to earn some income. This was his introduction to and how he became attracted to, and interested in, these iconic old coaches.

During his teaching career, while working in rural NSW at Coonabarabran, he met and became good friends with Dan Evans, who was working in a tractor and agricultural equipment dealership in the town. “Dan is more than just a mechanic, he has real engineering and inventive skills. He is an artisan. He could make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, as the saying goes,” remarks Ian. “And, as we both had a love of classic old vehicles, I enthused Dan about finding and restoring an old Clipper as a hobby”. 

So, after some searching, they found a 1957 Ansair Clipper, Body No. 116, in Perth, and brought it back to Coonabarabran. According to Ian and Dan, it was in what one would call, dire straits. The body was beyond rejuvenation and, as it was now the early 1990s, the metal white ants had been gorging on it in sand groper territory for a decade or more. So, the dynamic duo set about hatching a plan, firstly locating a body in reasonable condition in north-western NSW, that was being used as a storage shed on a property. The next search was for some badly needed componentry from a second wreck, which would end up making one coach from two donors plus the original. No. 116’s air-cooled Deutz engine was dispensed with, and a 471 GM two-stroke diesel was installed and coupled to the existing Spicer 5-speed manual transmission. This jigsaw was carefully pieced together from Dan’s craftsmanship and Ian’s enthusiast labour of love. The result is the immaculate blue example hued in original Pioneer’s 1950s livery, that you see on these pages.

The next step

With their respective families, they then moved and settled in the Shoalhaven district, on the NSW South Coast. The move along with the long hours and hard work that went into the first rebuild, hadn’t quelled their enthusiasm to do it all again. They were on the hunt for a second coach to restore. Dan says, “We found one further south in Bega. The owner, who had bought it several years previously, was intending to restore it and didn’t want to sell. However, as luck would have it, we were talking with another fellow who knew the owner, and with his assistance we were able to buy the bus.” 

It was also a 1957 model, a ‘sister’ to their first bus, with Body No. 111 - it had only been built weeks before No. 116. After a trip on a low-loader up the Princes Highway, it was in Dan’s shed in Albion Park, ready for the aficionados to burn the midnight oil. 

Not quite a repeat of the marathon task of the first bus conversion, but it did include lots of body fabrication and a repeat performance, with the removal of the old Deutz engine  for a GM, but this time it was a larger capacity V653, coupled to a 643 Allison Automatic, which incorporates a retarder. Both coaches are also fitted with Jacobs (‘Jake’) engine brakes.

This time, the spray gun was filled with white paint, and No. 111 really looks the part as a first-class wedding limousine. The interior of both of these super limousines has been refitted out with plush leather covered, swivel lounge seating, that encourages relaxed conversation. 

More to come

They spotted an original Flxible-built Clipper for sale in the USA, so without too much hesitation, Ian packed a bag and headed for the overseas terminal at Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, in Mascot.

On arrival in the US, Ian found the advertised Clipper was in good condition and he was ready to organise payment, when the owner explained that he had two and wanted to sell them as a package deal. After a call to both Dan, and his ever-supportive wife, they decided that two was definitely good company, so Ian began the bargaining process, and virtually got both for almost the price of one.

“Shipping was of course a major financial consideration, and I found the cheapest way to transport them was on a ship that was loaded with Toyota vehicles, that would eventually get to NSW. Providing we weren’t in a hurry, it was about half the full fare,” recalls Ian.

“It took about three months, as they were offloaded and reloaded at various ports on their Pacific Ocean sightseeing voyage”.

The two ‘Yanks’ were fitted with Isuzu engines, which Ian and Dan replaced with Cummins 230hp B-Series engines. This was followed by some rejigging of the ingress and egress door, opening to the Australia kerbside, and of course repositioning of the pilot’s seat and the controls from left to right. The duo used Isuzu steering boxes for the right-hand-drive conversion, which is a common replacement steering box for a Clipper. They also opted for a front axle from an Austral-built Firepac fire engine, giving it the correct geometry in order to run on a left-hand cambered road. They’d used other componentry for the first two Clippers from these fire engines previously. 

These two rigs have been kitted out as motorhomes, for their personal family use on adventures to the Red Centre and other scenic holiday destinations.

US Flxible Clipper history

The Flxible (the name patented without an ‘e’) Company, like many other vehicle manufacturers, had a modest, but unique beginning. In 1912, Hugo Young, the owner of a motorcycle sales agency in Ohio, USA, had an idea for a new type of motorcycle sidecar, one that would permit the third wheel to tilt but stay on the ground when the motorcycle leaned, while going around curves in either direction.

During 1913, Young founded the Flxible Side Car Company in Loudonville, Ohio, to manufacture his patented vehicle.

In the early 1920s, the sidecar market suddenly disappeared when Henry Ford established the price for his Ford roadster at US$360 less than the cost of a motorcycle and sidecar. Therefore, in order to survive, Young had to create a new type of vehicle to manufacture and market, so Flxible entered the bus building business.

Its first bus was a wooden framed, side loading, open tourer-bodied 12 passenger coach, powered by Studebaker, and was built in 1924. Designs continued to change until 1937, when the first model Clipper was produced. It had a cab-over front engine design, with a wooden frame and streamlined styling. After World War II, the Clippers became more streamlined with curved windscreens, sliding side windows, and a top-mounted air scoop for the new rear engine style. It had an integral chassis and body construction, with an all steel frame. This was the model used as a prototype for Australian manufacture, when exported in 1948.

Heading Down Under

Reg Ansett’s Pioneer Tours was the company that imported the prototype. After evaluation by Pioneer, the Melbourne-based company, Ansair Pty. Ltd., also part of the Ansett group, obtained a licence from the Flxible Company in the US to build the Clipper in Australia. A straight 8-cylinder Buick petrol engine powered the prototype. It was converted to right-hand drive by Ansair and began tour operations in January, 1949. 

Ansair built 131 Clippers between the end of 1950 and mid-1960. Most were 33 feet long, seating either 29 or 33 passengers, had full air brakes, large luggage racks inside the body, a rear luggage compartment, sliding windows, and were fitted with both public address and radio systems. The chassis and bodies were all steel with an aluminium roof that was jig built in one unit, with unified under-frames, and side pillars to window level. The top, front, and rear panels were built in separate jigs, and brought together on the assembly line. The rear-mounted engines were either Leyland, Cummins, Deutz or GM diesel power. This variety of engines was caused by the shortage in supply directly after the war.

In January, 1955, Pioneer launched the first express service between Melbourne and Sydney, with Leyland-powered Flxible Clippers. They were used on all interstate services until circa 1962. During 1961, 11 coaches were extended with four-feet added to the wheelbase, and seating increased to 37. These coaches were transferred to economy express routes between Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, until mid-1962, when the economy services were discontinued.

In December, 1962, two extensively modified Clippers, were fitted with air suspension, air conditioning, a toilet and a washroom, to run on the Adelaide to Perth express route until 1966. 

Pioneer used a fleet of between 12 and 14 GM-powered Clippers based in Cooma, and operating on Snowy Mountains Tours during the 1960s. 

By 1972, Tasmanian Coach Lines had acquired 17 Clippers and were still operating them up until the mid-1970s. Australian Flxible Clippers were also exported to New Zealand, with Newmans Coach Lines, in Nelson, on the South Island, running a fleet of six units.

*Jim Gibson

*Australian history details with thanks to the Bus and Coach Society of Victoria Inc.