Leyland Olympian Demonstrator with Solent Blue

In my youth we seemed to know the registration number of those manufacturer's demonstration buses off by heart and I can still remember many of them like 7000 HP, 8071 ML and 4559 VC. Even if we never got around to seeing them there were those pictures in Buses Illustrated of the latest buses looking strangely out of place in a local town carrying familiar blinds but in a different livery and their new shape looking slightly surreal. Afterwards excited enthusiasts awaited news of impending orders with baited breath or even dread. But by the time I took this view of G21 HHG in Southampton whilst it was on loan to Solent Blue this early style of Leyland Olympian was decidedly staid and rather old-hat and nobody would have taken much notice. Demerged from it's truck division Leyland Bus was now a small player and as a force in the industry was in terminal decline as not only had the builder's Eastern Coach Works premises had to be closed at Lowestoft to keep Workington going, Leyland's engine manufacture had now ceased too and these buses were fitted with Cummins engines. Solent Blue did go on to order some of these buses but fortunately not enough to seriously dent the operator's quota of old Bristol VR's.