ajcherry spottings

[MrRegieRitmo]

How many different models were 'Landcrabs'? Austin 1800, Wolsely 6, Maxi ......err what else?

[r.welfare]

Maxi wasn't part of the 'Landcrab' family, but used the same doors. Funny how it is lampooned for that, but the Peugeot 604 hardly ever gets mentioned for using the doors from the 504.Landcrab family then - Austin and Morris 1800 and 2200, Wolseley 18/85 and Six. Oh, and Austin 3-Litre as well - which used the same centre section but was completely re-engineered to accept a longitudinal C-series 3-litre straight six and RWD. They sold 9,000 which can hardly have covered the development costs! 35 years later, history repeats itself with the MG ZT 260...

[MrRegieRitmo]

  r.welfare said:

Maxi wasn't part of the 'Landcrab' family, but used the same doors.

Seems to be the same shape though, or very similar? Go on then define the meaning of Landcrab for us.....

[pogweasel]

Well it's defined exactly as Rich Welf has described. Austin / Morris 1800 and derivatives thereof. NOTHING ELSE.Yes the shape is 'similar'. But the 1800 etc was a large saloon, wheras the Maxi was a medium sized hatchback.From the same pen, many similar design features but very different aminals.

[55bloke]

Ah yes, it's SO obvious, now!

[r.welfare]

  Quote

austin-rover.co.uk sez: This 1974 model demonstrates perfectly the odd proportions of the car, with its long wheelbase, truncated front and rear ends and huge width. It is for this, the ADO17 earned the nickname, “Land Crabâ€Â.

 

My dad tells me that my great-uncle had one, and an average size driver struggled to lean across to open the passenger door, from the inside. His was a shite-beige 1800 L-reg, I think. He chopped it in a for a Maestro 1.6HLS in 1986, drove it about 50 miles, then died (unrelated events I hope). My dad was executor to his will, but STUPIDLY decided not to replace my mum's Lada Riva with the 'stro which would have been supercheap. Thanks, Dad.

[Torsten2001]

Yer Dad should've put the Riva and the 'Stro on ice, both awesome motors!

[Vin]

I have also read that the Landcrab moniker was coined on the London-Sydney Marathon of 1970, due it's tendency, under hard driving, to go round corners sideways and on 3 wheels.....crabbing - thus Landcrab. Could be balls though.

[MrRegieRitmo]

Thanks MrV & MrW, I think that's what Mr55 & I were looking for!

[55bloke]

  Vin said:

I have also read that the Landcrab moniker was coined on the London-Sydney Marathon of 1970, due it's tendency, under hard driving, to go round corners sideways and on 3 wheels.....crabbing - thus Landcrab. Could be balls though.

Now THAT seems to make sense!!

[MrRegieRitmo]

  pogweasel said:

But the 1800 etc was a large saloon, wheras the Maxi was a medium sized hatchback.

In that case shouldn't it have been dubbed the 'Midi'?(years before Vauxhall/Bedford got hold of the name)

[ChinaTom]

Sorry, not quite enough info. What was the derivative that had the thin strip rear light clusters that crept around the corners? I know the Wolseley had the corner mounted oblong clusters, and the austins and morris' had the vertical cluster with the reflector in the middle. I remember from my youth a mean looking black landcrab with those lights. Riley and VdP never did a derivative of this, so maybe it was an early 1800?

[r.welfare]

Early 1800s had pencil-slim rear lights, horizontally mounted, that crept round the corners. Think they lost 'em in the first facelift of '68, when they became more like 1100/MGB rear lights.

[bigstraight6]

Blimey, Landcrab overload! how come some of you chaps know so much about them, secret desires to own one perhaps I quite like the Wolseley version with the straight6 transverse motor, like this beauty seen at a show back in the summer....

[chester drawers]

Stafford Castle in August. Not a brilliant photo - in a bit of a rush at the time...

[Spottedlaurel]

Speaking for myself, even back in the day they didn't quite seem to fit into the grand scheme of things, think I recently said a bit like the Corsair. Though I didn't then know the term Autoshite, I think I always had that impression of Landcrabs.

[ajcherry]

I thought i`d check out what pictures of got of Landcrabs,suprisingly only two but at least one is an early one and the Wolseley has Rostyles which look rather good.

[bigstraight6]

Heres a few other Blandcrab pics from my archives, this Wolseley was seen about 12 months ago looking rather sorry for itself behind a Garage premises in southeast Cornwall....

Back at the begining of this year, this Morris 1800 was for sale at an agricultural dealers, again in Cornwall....

[mouseflakes]

  r.welfare said:

Early 1800s had pencil-slim rear lights, horizontally mounted, that crept round the corners. Think they lost 'em in the first facelift of '68, when they became more like 1100/MGB rear lights.

Those early cars looked so right - much better than post-facelift. I love 'em!

 

In typically daft fashion, those horizontal rear lights on the Morris tapered and wrapped around more than the Austin, whose clusters had more 'angular' outer edges. Can't see how that makes the Austin look any more up-market, which I think was the general plan in the badge-engineering hierarchy.

 

Austin...

 

 

Morris...

 

[mk2_craig]

Think this is the only one I've seen in the last year that wasn't on a banger track, this Wolseley last month, the house it's parked outside is now on the market - described as requiring modernisation, oh the irony

 

[MrRegieRitmo]

  mouseflakes said:

Those early cars looked so right - much better than post-facelift. I love 'em!

 

Austin...

 

 

Morris...

 

This is very much in the style of the earliest Simca 1100s

[Volksy]

  bigstraight6 said:

Heres a few other Blandcrab pics from my archives, this Wolseley was seen about 12 months ago looking rather sorry for itself behind a Garage premises in southeast Cornwall....

 

any resemblance here.. I think so....

[ajcherry]

I had a few hours to kill in Littlehampton last week so what better way to spend it than go shite spotting.Here`s what i found.For me the Subara XT was the best spot.

I had to use maximum zoom on this Fiat on the other side of the harbour

Twingo

Tidy Escort mk3 5dr

Espace

Stretched Granada

 

Corsa convertible

Maestro VP

Early Metro

Subaru XT

Cortina

Golf

Rover 2dr Coupe

Peugeot 309

[michiel]

Hurrah for killable hours! Good stuff, especially the XT and the "You can keep your hat on"-Ford.

[ajcherry]

A few more local spots.

Suziki X90.You can only drive one of these if you look like Barbie.

Triumph Acclaim

A40 Farina mk1 I may well have posted this before.

[ajcherry]

Oh and finally a Nissan Sunny Coupe (B11) and a Nissan Patrol.

[Spottedlaurel]

Agreed, that XT is the dog’s knees. D…DLE reg from the same batch as the D80DLE one my stepdad had on his XR4x4 and they’ve kept on their cars since (spells DOODLE with an appropriately placed screw).Metro sure is bright!

[pogweasel]

Cripes! Look at that escort wagon! Supa Kleen.

[Baz]

Quality spottage as always....Nice to see a Subaru XT again, and have a giggle at the truly repugnant hood fitted to the Corsa! Very envious of the spotting opportunities that You southern chaps seem to find....I'm in Bournemouth Thursday to Sunday this week: Anyone know if there's any good stuff to be snapped down there?

[mk2_craig]

Nice selection AJ, that gold Maestro is worryingly attractive and that bilious green Metro is a long lost sight in most parts of the nation, I'm loving the random red MG belts fitted to it. However what most floats my boat is the timewarp Golf;

 

Time was practically every new VW on the road had number plates to this common style, even in Jersey!

Was there an edict from Dub UK that a uniform appearance was required, achtung, sieg heil?