Insight into Landcrabs?

I have seen the car (at least photos), but is there a British thing about naming a car after a crab? That makes the name "elf" almost forgivable.

Ah, here you have an insight in to the British sense of humour. It was nicknamed the "Landcrab" because of the fact that the two subframes were not always aligned correctly, in fact they would be considerably out of whack, and the car would be going down the road in a distinctively sideways fashion........hence "Land Crab".

There is actually a webpage of enthusiasts for these cars:

https://www.landcrab.net/

I seem to recall reading that the fellow who designed the Rootes Imp had a hand in the design of the Landcrab...I can't recall his name, but I believe he just passed away.

Actually, these cars were really very good. They were designed to be just bigger Minis, hence some of the styling cues, and they had acres of interior space for the size of the car. Pretty popular in their day, and they were mourned when replaced with the infamous Leyland "wedge".

Hello all,
my recollection of the 1800 was that the works rally prepared cars got nicknamed the 'landcrab' because of a:- their weight, causing the land to sigh after a jump and b:- crab because of the sideways style of the drivers. Not a particularly quick car but tough and reliable.
Michael Parkes was involved with the Imp and he later went to Ferrari, I don't remeber any association with BMC (as it then was)

Alec

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Actually, these cars were really very good. They were designed to be just bigger Minis, hence some of the styling cues, and they had acres of interior space for the size of the car. Pretty popular in their day, and they were mourned when replaced with the infamous Leyland "wedge".

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I thought the equally infamous Allegro replaced them

There are a few "Landcrab's" up here in Canada, they were sold here for most of the production run. I've seen a few of the ones that have survived.

Here's a personal webpage of one 1800 "Landcrab" owner here in Alberta:

https://www.telusplanet.net/~chichm/gromit/gromit.htm

Marcel also has a nice collection of various other cars - Mini's, Cortina, pictures elsewhere on his website

Oh yeah... according to his webpage "Landcrab is Albanian for 'big Mini' " /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

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I thought the equally infamous Allegro replaced them

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The Allegro was introduced to replace the excellent Austin/Morris 1100/1300 range.

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Michael Parkes was involved with the Imp and he later went to Ferrari, I don't remeber any association with BMC (as it then was)
Alec

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The Imp was jointly designed by Mike Parkes and Tim Fry. Parkes went on to work for Ferrari as an engineer and was involved in such things as the Lancia Stratos. He was probably better known as a Formula 1 driver though. He died in a car accident in the 70s.

I'm not sure what Fry did after the Imp, but he was the one who passed away recently.

I'm not sure what Fry did after the Imp, but he was the one who passed away recently.

Fry is the correct name and I am in error regarding his work on the BMC 1800. I just checked my source (magazine) and he went on to do work with his own firm (Smallfry) after he and Parkes worked on the Imp. Apparently, he helped with the design of the Rootes Avenger and the Elva Courier and some others. He is creditied with designing a cross-flow aluminum head for the BMC "A" series engine, but he did not do any work on the Landcrab.

I grew up in Africa in a former British colony where most people preferred to buy British, at least in the 50's but the attitude lingered, because the Germans, Italians and Japanese had been our enemies in the war.
Austin 1800s were quite popular, and in that climate didn't rust. If the hydrolastic suspension can be maintained there are likely many of them still in use.
I always thought the car looked a bit like a crab as it was very wide and had chrome reflectors round the headlights tht looked a little bit like a crabs pincers
Simon.

You hit the nail on the head with the hydrolastic suspension, they work well but can be a pain in the pocket to keep going.

Those old 1800s are extremely strong. A freind of mine was in a trafic acident in one about 12 years ago when an 8 ton Mercedes truck turned in front of him while he was traveling at speed down the road. He hit it in the front wheel and knocked the trucks front axle right out from under it.(no meen feat as Mercs are tough) The engine came back and hit the tubes through the firewall where the hydrolastic displacers are mounted and that area of the car absorbed all the impact. He had to be cut out,and spent 3 months in hospital recovering, but I recon he and his 3 small sons who were with him all owe their lives to that wonderful old Austin.

Graham /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif