Mazda Parkway

[scott]

Does anyone know anything about these buses? , my local church had one, a 1981 model, that was sometimes used by my primary school for swimming shuttles, it was also the substitute church bus when the other one, a Coaster was off the road. It had a five speed column change gearbox, seats that flipped down (us kids loved playing with them). It was sold in 1994 or thereabouts.

Are they many of these still around, or are they all now campers or chooksheds?

[boronia]

The Parkway I think dates back to the 70s, and predates the T4100.

I saw a "restored" one recently, still in bus guise, but I imagine that they would be few and far between these days, even as campers.

I believe there was a rotary powered version available in Japan at one stage

[Des]

Rob Newman who runs busses and coaches in Gayndah in the Central Burnett (Qld) had 3 of them in the late 90s but whether he still has any I'm not sure. If you trying to track one down he may be worth following up.

[scott]

Thanks for your replies guys, I am not in the market for one, just going through some old photographs and saw a photo of it when the church loaned it to my primary school to use on a school camp in the very early 90's. It was great thing the church did with our school, loaning us the minibuses for small excursions and for trips with small groups. It was a great bus but not overly powerful.

[Centralian]

Here's a newspaper article (sorry undated) about Keith Todds Glenorie Bus Co and its purchase of a Mazda Parkway.

Mazda P.1.jpg

[ALBION1881]

Here is a Mazda Parkway with a bit of go they were produced in Japan with of all things a Rotary motor I hate to think what they were like on fuel but I heard they could do a 100 picture from the Rotarygod website.

[busrider]

Looks a bit like this one I found on IMCDb...

[Albatross]

The Parkway I think dates back to the 70s, and predates the T4100.

I saw a "restored" one recently, still in bus guise, but I imagine that they would be few and far between these days, even as campers.

I believe there was a rotary powered version available in Japan at one stage

when you say rotary powered version, do you mean a "Wankel Rotary Engine"?

I am not asking to be immature-a friend who has a go kart mentioned a "Wankel Rotary Engine" [with a straight face] today and i was curious as to weather this is the same sort of engine-the Wikipedia article [for what it is worth] states that Mazda was the most extensive user of this type of engine

[ALBION1881]

Yes it is true Mazda did bring out a Mazda Parkway with Rotary engine the picture above is one of them they were produced in 1974 and had a top speed of 120 kph and here is another rotary that might surprise you picture from the speed website.

[Daz]

Wow interesting reading! A rotary powered bus... What next, a two-stroke?

And I wonder if the "roadpacer" comes standard with a half-tennis-ball towball cover??

Daz.

[boronia]

Wow interesting reading! A rotary powered bus... What next, a two-stroke?
Daz.

Lots of coaches/buses had 2 stroke GM diesels, so nothing new there.

If a 2 stroke car takes your fancy, you need look no further than Australia's own LIGHTBURN ZETA in the 60s.
http://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/ca ... n_zeta.htm

[DB500]

Hi there,

Been a while since this was posted but I came across it googling info about these old buses also. I was intrigued by Scott’s story about the loaning of the churches parkway to your school because that’s exactly the same thing we had going on at my school during the 90’s.
It was good to have for the school, for a freebie at the time but really it was a bit of pig to operate.
From what I can remember as a teen, it was extremely hard to start on cold mornings and used to sometimes take the teachers up to half an hour to get it going and It just Seemed to just blow huge amounts of constant black smoke from the exhaust pipe while ever the accelerator was pressed to the floor (which was basically all the time) as it was terribly slow and underpowered on hills and taking off etc. you could see it all just spewing out the back of it through the window and the back of the bus became a bit black and sooty in between washes.
Something that would obviously be probably defected off the road these days with tight emission laws etc but goood old times gone by.

[Enviro 500]

Petrol or diesel?

[Shubhar785]

Petrol or diesel?

It runs on diesel.

[AndrewV]

Hi Everyone. Im new to this forum but Im after some advice. My mother in law past away 18 month ago and has left my wife and I Parkway bus. We would like to sell it but would like some advice on how to work out the model. I need to clean it up still but i know the motor is knackered and was i the process of being rebuilt. Any advice would be much appreciated

[boronia]

Having a photo of it might help if you want it identified.

Maybe one of the Mazda car clubs could give you some information too. Searching Facebook will be worthwhile.