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Bombardier (Ireland) Limited, later GAC (Ireland) Limited, was a bus and coach manufacturer based in Shannon, County Clare, Ireland. It was in operation between 1980 and 1986, and almost all the vehicles it built were for the Irish state-owned transport company Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) with the first delivery out of a 749 order in November 1980. == Beginnings and FFG prototypes == During the 1970s, CIÉ's long-standing relationship with Leyland became strained, and in 1977 the company decided upon a standard "family" for its next generation of buses and coaches. It thus contacted FFG of Hamburg, Germany, which built six prototype vehicles: a 45-seat coach, a 72-seat double-deck bus, a 35-seat citybus, two 47-seat rural/school buses and a wheelchair-accessible midibus. Aside from the midibus, all of these vehicles shared common body components, the most notable being large, inward-curving two-piece windscreens. The coach, double-decker and citybus were all fitted with General Motors Detroit Diesel engines, while the rural/school buses were fitted with DAF and Mercedes-Benz engines respectively. The midibus, built in 1981 as a token response to the International Year of Disabled Persons, also carried a Mercedes-Benz engine, and featured a sliding door at the front, immediately to the driver's left. Unlike the other models, it did not go into production, and saw very little use.〔http://www.skylineaviation.co.uk/buses/+Bombardier.html〕 CIÉ looked for partners to build these buses in Ireland, eventually finding two: the Canadian conglomerate Bombardier, and the US-based General Automotive Corporation (GAC) from Ann Arbor, Michigan. The two companies formed a new company Bombardier (Ireland) Limited, 51% owned by Bombardier and 49% owned by GAC. In August 1983, Bombardier sold its shares to GAC, when the company name changes to GAC (Ireland) Limited. The former Rippon piano factory in the new town of Shannon, County Clare was leased, and production commenced in 1980, with 51 of the KE type InterCity/tour buses, with some KD double deck production taking place around the same time. The idea behind the Bombardier/GAC project was inspired by a number of factors # CIÉ's requirement for new buses as a matter of urgency, and their preference not to purchase any more Leyland products. # To address a serious unemployment issue in the local area caused as a result of the Rippon piano factory's closure. There is no doubt that local and national political influences had their part to play in this project as Ireland was in a deep recession at the time, although the Shannon project was doomed to failure in later years. # It was intended that CIÉ would commission design of a "family" of buses, designed by FFG in Hamburg by designer Otto Schultz, to their own specification, with identical and interchangeable body and mechanical parts throughout the bus "family" and it would greatly reduce the logisitical and financial problems associated with running a mixed fleet of buses. # With the closure in 1977 of Spa Road coachworks, CIÉ would supply all the bus-building equipment and materials for the contractor (Bombardier/GAC) to build the buses to CIÉ design, who in turn employed the manufacturing staff. The jobs created in Shannon would then create thousands of "spin-off" jobs through suppliers to the new bus-building plant. CIÉ would purchase an agreed consignment of vehicles every year to make the factory "break even", and any extra buses that the manufacturer could produce themselves and sell to the export marked would provide their profits. Although the build-to-export plan was good in theory, it turned out in the end to be an unsuccessful enterprise. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「GAC Ireland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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