John875 posted this at the Cohort, which helps explain why there’s never been a proper Austin 1800 CC here yet: this guy has corned all the remaining examples left in the world. The “landcrab” was a remarkable car, very ambitious, the British Citroen DS. Lots of room, and a comfortable ride, but it did have a few minor shortcomings (as hard as it is to imagine that). If anyone ever finds another, and gets a good set of shots, we’ll do a CC on it. But don’t hold your breath.
I assume this photo is from Down Unda.
BTW non-native palm trees, such as have been planted in our Sunbelt by developers et al., were a bad idea: very little shade, a nice place for scorpions to live, & there is a danger from falling fronds:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/09/hollywood-tree-trimmer-fatally-crushed-by-palm-fronds.html
You are correct, the photo was taken in north Queensland, where in addition to a few introduced palm trees there are also native varieties as it is a tropical area – I don’t know enough to say what type the ones pictured are.
My 6’5″ friend “Moose” had one of these during high school in the middle 70’s. I am 6’6″ and for the two of us this was a very comfortable car with a ride (long wheelbase) which I remember to have been rather Citroenesque. Great car conceptually but we all know the downsides of BMC/Leland products of that era.
I’m inclined to say that’s about how many you’d need to keep one running, but that would be mean.
Ah, yes. Ye Landcrab! The two in the background look like Mk 1 models (late ’64 to mid ’68) and the blue one in the foreground is a Mk 2, distinguishable by its lightly-finned rear wings. There was also a wood ‘n’ leather Wolseley version, complete with ‘snob’ light in the front grille, which kept the sloping rear wings of the Mk 1 throughout its life. My father bought a ten month old ’68 model in Snowberry White with automatic trans and power steering (optional on the plebs’ Morris and Austin versions, standard on the Wolseley). The car was purchased as a replacement for the much-loved family Ford Zodiac Mk 111, the decision to head for British Leyland being made because the parent hated the new Mk IV Zodiac with a vengeance, rightly so as the Mk IV was one of the very worst cars made by Ford anywhere, anytime! I remember the old man running screaming from the Mk IV launch bash at the local Forderie in April ’66, not a pretty sight. Anyhoo, the ten month old Landcrab still had two months’ worth of warranty on it which was just as well as it spent the next two years with us spitting out automatic gearboxes. The local Leyland dealer showed us the Red Card after box number five so Dad got rid of the 1800 whilst the going was good! The car itself was great to drive and it really did handle like a big Mini. The ride was extremely comfortable although the Hydrolastic suspension did have to be pumped up occasionally to keep things on the level. Decent reclining front seats and standard inertia-reel seat belts mitigated the worst effects of the ‘bus driver’ driving position and the slightly too-distant minor controls. The auto trans selector was a weird affair which stuck out of the instrument panel on the right side of the steering wheel (don’t forget ours was RHD). The radiator was mounted on the left hand side of engine compartment, blowing out hot stuff into the nearside front wheel well: ingenious, but rather too prone to overheating in slow traffic on a hot summer’s day. Conversely, the large front grille with no radiator behind it allowed rain to slosh in and soak the distributor on a cold winter’s day! Hey ho.
At one stage, the Snowberry White paint on the roof bubbled up in places and had to be re-done. British Leyland eventually agreed to swalllow the charge for this albeit after a bit of a tussle as they were probably still reeling from all the automatic gearbox replacements; seems that the wide, roomy Landcrab bodyshells were a liitle too fat to fit into the overhead tunnel between Mr Pressed Steel Fisher and the Longbridge assembly plant which meant that the bare, unpainted shells were carted over the road on open transporters thus allowing all manner of industrial Birmingham grot to descend on the bodywork before the colour coats were applied! ‘Quality Control’ was probably a bloke with a big hammer. Yes, those were the days!
Performance, at least in automatic form, was a bit marginal with a top speed of 90 and a 0-60 time of 18 secs. The 1800S with 95 bhp (as used in the MGB) was a bit brisker and had a nicer exhaust note to boot. Economy? In our hands between 25 and 27 mpg (Imperial, natch).
Ladies ‘n’ gen’lemen, I give you the BLMC 1800. (*ducks to avoid bricks*)
Interesting take on these cars, The Australian 1800 were assembled at Zetland in Sydney and painted on the most advanced paint system yet devised the bodyshells were rotodipped. Rusty 1800s are rare there was even a galvanised version of the ute available Leyland Australia really took to these the public however were a bit gunshy after the Mini and 1100 had given endless trouble to motorists These things overheated in England for gods sake in the cold so in warmer climates you can guess the results. Good handling .the Landcrab moniker stems from the souped up S rally version driven by Paddy Hopkirk who drove it sideways constantly, An 1800 finished not far behind the winning Hillman Hunter in the london to Sydney marathon in 67. The automatic as mentioned above was junk from new and not popular most were converted to manual just to keep the cars running. Very few left in going order but there are some in the British car museum nearby if you really want some shots Paul.
The Austin 1800 was one of the true “would have, could have”, apparently at one of the service stops in the last day or two of the Marathon an apprentice was told to do a spanner check of the car, so he duly went around and tightened everything up – including the hub nuts! A wheel bearing seized soon after and the wheel fell off. The crew had to get a message back to the service vans to send a hub and wheel which I think they did via an air-drop. Bulk time was lost together with any chance of the win as before this drama they were in the top couple of cars together with the Citroen that was involved in an accident with a spectator’s car.
Often seen with the suspension collapsed,was it hydrolastic or isolastic?
Those cars remind me of a bunch of cyclists from Boston who passed thru Erie every May heading to Columbus, OH for the Tour of the Scioto River Valley. The car was done up with Volvo 164 seats, manual transmission, the car was painted Bianchi Celeste (the pale, quiet green that is a Bianchi trademark), and holding 5-6 Bianchi road bikes on the roof rack. It could have easily passed for the Bianchi team car at the Tour de France. They turned me on to Aerosmith (still a local band for them at the time) and some of the best acid I ever did.
We’re talking early/mid 1970’s, and it was the only Landcrab I’d ever seen in the US.
Funny the auto box was so bad, as the manual was known for its robustness. I believe if you ever need to convert a mini to V8 fwd power (with a rover 3,5), then this is the gearbox of choice.
Fins, yes! Fins were ADDED to the Landcrab in 1968.
These were very popular when I was growing up in suburban England… Absolutely massive inside, and very capable, but stymied by their atrocious non-styling. No one at BMC was prepared to stand up to Issigonis (BMC boss George Harriman certainly couldn’t), and Issigonis didn’t believe that styling mattered. All of this at the same time as Ford was selling the styling dream with Cortinas, Corsairs and Zephyr Zodiacs.
A CC would be great, but in the meantime, here’s AROnline’s assessment: http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/cars/bmc-cars/18002200/the-cars-bmc-18002200-development-history/
There was still a Wolseley Six at large in Soho, in the heart of London, a couple of years back. I may have a photo somewhere, but it’ll take some digging out.
I’ve fond memories of these. I had a overdrive manual in Oz for a while and I found the inside space and ride comparable to the big Ozzie saloons. Around town it was better because of it’s smaller footprint and better turning circle. On longer runs it was nimble on country roads and when motorways came, providing you weren’t drag racing and were comfortable with down changing to overtake, she did the legal limit (110 KpH / 70 MpH) all day. I solved to water ingress/dizzy problem with a plastic bag and overheating with an aftermarket fan.
That must have had a Maxi or Morris Nomad gearbox 1800s were strictly 4speed and an 1800 can achieve 90 mph on the flat
Ooops, nearly forgot! No discourse on the 1800 would be complete without a mention of Those Doors. Head honcho at the British Motor Corporation from its inception in the early fifties until the mid-sixties (just before it became British Leyland) was one Leonard Lord, later ennobled as Lord Lambury. Old Len was a rough, tough piece of work who cheerfully took the axe to people and costs alike. Now I think he must have been scared rigid as a young child by the cost of a door pressing because throughout the fifties and sixties, he recycled the things wherever he could. For example, Morris Minor doors were pressed (pun intended) into service on the larger Cowley saloon, the Farina Cambridges and Oxfords shared their doors with the larger Westminsters and Wolseley 6/110s, and so on. This list is not exhaustive, and sure enough, the 1800 in classic Lord fashion eventually donated its doors to the smaller Maxi and also the larger Austin 3 litre. Hell, they even cropped up on the truly exotic Panther de Ville (don’t ask!), thus infusing Len’s stony heart with a warm glow.
Len reckoned that BMC stood for ‘Bugger My Competitors’ which gives some insight into the old boy’s character. Latterly, he was whisked around in a chauffered Princess Van den Plas 4 litre R (Rolls-Royce engine, doncherknow) with the registration plate BMC 1. This raised his profile a little bit too high and the number was ditched because Len got fed up with irate owners of BMC products stopping him in traffic to give him the benefit of their advice.
Please forgive me for droning on. I really must get out more.
Other than the 3litre Austin none of those cars you mention share doors, styles yes but the sizes are very different from the Minor body and the Oxford Wolseley bodies same with the A60- Westminster same style much different in size
erm, the Maxi *definitely* shared the 1800’s doors Bryce, as did several other unfortunate designs:
http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/cars/bmc-cars/18002200/those-doors/
Yes the cars current with the 1800 shared doors but not disparate models from the 50s Minors and Wolseleys definitely not. BMC learned that trick from Vauxhall who used the same doors on the PB Velox/Cresta and the smaller 101 Victor.The only 5speed trans came from the 1500 Morris Nomad from OZ it also brought the awful O series engine with it and got transformed into the Maxi using larger 1800 doors and was another complete POS
Must admit I’d never suspected Vauxhall of this trick, Bryce. Well, you learn something every day!
When Leonard Lord was granted his peerage, he took the name of Lambury “because Lord Lord would have sounded bloody stupid”.
On the other side of the pond, In the 1960’s I worked at Falvey Motors in Ferndale, Mich.; the area distributor for MG, Jaguar, Austin and Rolls Royce. I washed cars, swept floors and ferried parts in an old MG Mark I between the parts department on Woodward Ave. near 9 Mile Rd. and the body shop on Woodward near 8 Mile. I was always embarrassed when I accelerated into Woodward traffic because the car was so pokey. In my teenage mind, this was the famous Woodward Ave. full of hot cars. Fortunately it was the middle of the day in sedate Ferndale and not Friday night a few miles north, in front of the Stark Hickey Ford Dealer.
I did a lot of miles in 1800s in the 70s, a slightly pimped Mk1 ( lots of wood and leather) and a bog standard Mk2. Both were “company” cars and had been well used by my boss before I got them. The Mk1 suffered from occasional flat suspension because the pipes connecting the units used to chafe on the chassis. No problems with overheating or wet electrics though. Tough as old boots , could go fast over any kind of road, but definitely an aquired taste. They were what Issigonis wanted, but not what most BMC customers wanted.
I’m pretty sure the car at the back left of the picture, behind the MK1, is a Maxi.
Maxi wasnt sold in Australia thats a Morris Nomad
Wasn’t the Nomad based on the 1100 though – that back door looks 1800 size. There are always a few private import cars around and I dare say this guy would have seen them
Based yep but stretched and I think widened its a long time since Ive seen one but a brother and sister fruit picking team I met in lilydale had both a Nomad and 1800 and yes a private import is likely though why would you being spared access to Leyland cars is one of lifes pleasures
So that must be a ‘Land crab Shack’! Even have some shacks in the background…
My memories of these as a kid was they always seemed to be listing to one side as the Hydrolastic suspension crapped itself on the harsh roads of Far North Queensland!
Here’s the Wolseley version, for sale here. It’s a 1969 18/85 auto – note the auto selector sticking out of the dash to the right of the steering wheel. More details here: http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/other/wolseley/auction-604254804.htm