Duple Caribbean
The Duple Caribbean was design of a coach bodywork built by Duple between 1983 and 1986. It replaced the high-floor Goldliner variant of the long-running Duple Dominant range as Duple's premium coach body of the mid 1980s.
Variants
The original Caribbean was introduced in 1983 as Duple's upmarket / high-floor coach and was available on 12 metre long mid-engined DAF, Dennis, Leyland and Volvo chassis. At the time Duple was attempting to develop its own integral coach designs and a one-off rear-engined semi-integral Caribbean was built on Neoplan running gear as a prototype. The design bonded glazing which distinguished it from the contemporary low-floor Duple Laser. Quad headlights and a narrow chrome grille were standard, although twin headlights and a wider grille could be specified as an option. The bonded-glazed Calypso was similar in appearance to the Caribbean, but was closer in height to the Laser.At the end of 1984 the Caribbean range was given a facelift and renamed the Caribbean II. The main difference was a revised front with twin headlamps and plastic grille, shared with the contemporary Laser 2.