Landcrabs- Any Good?

[tooSavvy]

Just read up that Ute. If 'narrow' engine bay is BL gbox in sump design (cannot get a Honda in)....

 

How do HottUp lads get all that $hit into MiNis?

 

 

TS

[quicksilver]

In the 1968 London to Sydney , 8 of the 56 finishers were in 1800s.

Whilst its success in long distance rallies is (relatively) well known, what I at least , didn't know was that the army campaigned them on stage rallies. Must have been something to do with using what you had and could appropriate spares for- wonder if anyone at the MOD in Whitehall ever queried why senior officer's Staff cars needed rollcages and lots of replacement bodypanels?image.jpeg

Funny you should mention this as there was one of these at Gaydon today. It was definitely the place to be for Landcrab lickers as there must have been about 25 there, and even more astonishingly ELEVEN 3-litres!

[twosmoke300]

How have I not seen that autospeed site before - bye bye - I may be some time

[tooSavvy]

^^^^ fab eh?

 

TS

[doobietoo]

Just read up that Ute. If 'narrow' engine bay is BL gbox in sump design (cannot get a Honda in)....

 

How do HottUp lads get all that $hit into MiNis?

 

 

TS

 

[tooSavvy]

Ahhhh !

 

 

 

 

TS

[egg]

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C887933

 

From the limited distant photos - this looks a nice one!

[Isaac Hunt]

Fine cars, I grew up on them, Wolseley 18/85 Mk2 Auto, Austin 1800, Princess 1800HL.  

 

By the time my Dad had got to the Princess 1800HL he was moaning that smaller valves and emissions 'stuff' meant that it "wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding".  So Dad rocks up with a Leyland ST Kit, Twin 1/34 SU's and an LCB Manifold.  

 

It sounded much better and seemed to go quite well.  I though it was cool cos my Dad was a 'boy racer'. and we had the only 'tuned' Princess 1800HL that I knew off.  

 

The Wolseley's are awesome, the seats are like armchairs and the Wooden Dash and Door Cappings are the stuff of Royces.  Even now, if a car hasn't got any Walnut Veneer, it is modern shite.  Even my X-Type had some decent wood veneer.  Modern shite is all brushed aluminium like the suff American Fridges are Deloreans are made off and the inside of most cars looks like a modern fitted kitchen IMHO.  

 

Hopefully one day decent wood veneer (not the sticky back plastic shite in some moderns) will come back into style and we can all pretend we have a little Bentley or a Royce.  

[flat4alfa]

The Wolseley's are awesome, the seats are like armchairs and the Wooden Dash and Door Cappings are the stuff of Royces.  Even now, if a car hasn't got any Walnut Veneer, it is modern shite. 

 

In that case, here is the dash on my old Wolseley

 

[flat4alfa]

Q.  I understood the O-Series block was common mount-wise with B-series.  Why do we not hear of MG Montego engines fitted to Landcrabs?

[M'coli]

The crankshaft will be different for starters in the same way that Maestro engines don't fit into Minis.

[flat4alfa]

Ta.  End-on gearbox donor woes.  I was forgetting the wonderful underslung gearbox that grounded-out if it even smelt a kerb

 

 

[flat4alfa]

Mazda in a Landcrab

 

 

http://www.sucksqueezebangblow.co/2009/01/bizarre-landcrab.html

[Asimo]

The crankshaft will be different for starters in the same way that Maestro engines don't fit into Minis.

I think that the B series engine was much less modified for front drive than the A series for the Mini. The clutch is in the normal place unlike the inside-out Mini clutch with it's long crankshaft spigot.

 

All you could ever want to know in this 1964 paper.

Edit - now includes the correct link! Sorry. http://copeland.id.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Austin-1800.pdf

 

The wrong link below is worth a look but has nowt to do with ADO17!

 

http://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/history/the-brazilian-air-force-and-the-planes-that-defined-us-part-two-peace-time/#more-235458

[flat4alfa]

I think that the B series engine was much less modified for front drive than the A series for the Mini. The clutch is in the normal place unlike the inside-out Mini clutch with it's long crankshaft spigot.

 

All you could ever want to know in this 1964 paper. http://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/history/the-brazilian-air-force-and-the-planes-that-defined-us-part-two-peace-time/#more-235458

 

Crikey!

 

Brazilians!  

[flat4alfa]

Did you mean 

 

http://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/curbside-classic-1965-austin-1800-mk1-was-it-best-in-class-or-just-plain-ugly/

 

 

 

It’s hard to believe there’s a half century between the XC9001 and the Mini Countryman

 

 

[Yoss]

I've been digging out some of my old photos. It's too late to do a proper write up but here's a teaser.

[flat4alfa]

The 'crab pulling the caravan is wearing the Six headlight cowls, but has the 3 whiskers denoting an 18/85  

 

It must have been an S if it was the four cylinder as my old 18/85 struggled to pull itself, let alone a caravan too

[Yoss]

Very well spotted. Two bonus points there. That car belongs to my friend Wilf, it's still in his garage but now in red oxide. He will eventually restore it but always has lots of things on the go so it keeps getting put back.

 

The car was an 18/85 but he put a six in it. The 18/85 has better quality interior so most people would take the interior from an 18/85 and put it in a Six. Not Wilf, he already had an 18/85 so decided to put a six in it. Not as simple as it sounds, Leyland changed the engine bay slightly. To be fair he is a proper engineer with a garage full of strange machine tools and if he needs something just makes it, usually from something he just had lying around. Saying that, he rarely throws anything away so has lots of stuff lying around.

[55palfers]

Passed my driving test in one (OOP 46G) in early seventies.

 

Usual rusty BL rustiness, comfortable, easy to fix, hopeless to park with no PAS.

[Yoss]

My first Crab, GTN565K, the aforementioned 18/85S auto. I found it abandoned in a car park at the foot of Shirley Towers. I'd walked past it many times then one day it had a council note on it to remove or tax it within seven days or it would be removed. So I put my own note on it. A couple of days and £80 later it was parked in a different council car park.

 

This was very early in my car buying life and I was still learning about rust. It failed the MOT big time on the sills. Cost another £250 in welding and a new set of cover sills. That seemed a lot more in those days but it was worth every penny.

 

 

 

In some fine company at a friends place in Hastings.

 

You don't get council car parks like this any more! These were all mine and the only one that cost proper money was the mk1 2000. I can still remember that I paid £80, £200, £70 and £750 in that order.

In those days you didn't have to tax and insure everything to keep them in council car parks. You'd get the odd council note threatening removal but a quick trip to the housing office with a story about old car, awaiting parts etc...and they'd leave you alone for another six months. It helped that the person you'd speak to at the office wasn't the same person who put the note on as sometimes it was obvious the car was never gonna run again. Crabs make excellent sheds! I used to spread my cars around the various car parks on the estate. I'd just lined them up for the photo and then moved them again before everyone else came home from work.

 

Then I found this one of a day out somewhere with my friends 3-litre. My brain tells me it's Aylesbury or High Wycombe railway station but it was 25 years ago. Somewhere Chilterny anyway, I think we'd been to a show up that way.

The Moggy was nowt to do with us, and LOOK a Talbot Samba. Not sure what the red thing behind the minor is, looks Jap, someone here will know.

[Felly Magic]

Nissan ZX Sunny coupe by the looks

[Isaac Hunt]

 

In that case, here is the dash on my old Wolseley

 

 

Ahah, a Mk1 with leather.  The Mk2 seats were even more armchair , nut lost the leather to vinyl.  The MK2 got bigger door cappings to match the dash.  I'm a bit 'zipped up' on these, 

[Isaac Hunt]

I've been digging out some of my old photos. It's too late to do a proper write up but here's a teaser.

IMG_20170703_184151.jpg

is that Harvest Gold on a V Plate ?

[Yoss]

Nissan ZX Sunny coupe by the looks

Cheers, I knew someone would know.

[Yoss]

is that Harvest Gold on a V Plate ?

Yes, was exported then reimported. This one still exists too. Now belongs to the nephew of the person who has his head under the bonnet in this picture. The Hornet now belongs to the daughter of same. The blue Six was one of mine.

I have absolutely no recollection of this photo, though I was obviously there. I've been staring at it trying to figure out where it is but I've drawn a blank.

[flat4alfa]

Is your lovely blue Six wearing VdP SD1 alloys there?

[Yoss]

They both have SD1 alloys. I think the harvest gold one has the earlier type though I'm happy to be corrected. I like SD1s but I don't know all the ins and outs of them. They transform Crabs. You're only going up from 165 to 185 tyres but it makes all the difference. And of course they look good too.

[flat4alfa]

Yes they are, had a set of that earlier 14" 'S' style on my P6B Rover too.  Changed again later for 15" set off a Vitesse Rover SD1 (that lost their caps every ten minutes, grrr)

[flat4alfa]

Ahah, a Mk1 with leather. 

 

It's a proper early Wolseley as it has the 3-bearing crank, 80bhp, bugger all torque to turn that chain-driven BW35

 

Do miss it, and know where it is ....it now runs an Oselli head!   Yet still turns that slushbox