‘Crab, Ambassador? You are spoiling us’
Tom and Rob Galloway drive to Macedonia in a very special Landcrab READERS STORY TWO
Iam the membership secretary of the Landcrab Owners Club International and I run a Wolseley Six. My son Tom has a 1974 MKIII Austin 1800, but moved to Macedonia as our daughter-in-law has been appointed UK Ambassador there. Tom was keen to take his car with him, so I spent a few months preparing it for the journey to Skopje.
He and I would to drive it there over four days, leaving Birmingham on
October 11, 2018. Tom had owned the car for about five years. It had only one previous owner and had only done 42,000 miles, but a few thousand more now! We bought it together, discovering it after it had been laid up in the previous owner’s garage for 12 years. Recommissioning it was fairly straightforward, a small amount of welding on the toe board, freeing off the brakes, unsticking the valves by means of a light tap on the rockers with a mallet, pumping up the suspension and unsticking the clutch by jacking the front of the car up, putting it in top gear depressing the clutch and starting the engine. It immediately freed with a bang and has worked perfectly ever since!
From the history file I have deduced that the engine has never had anything done to it apart from a new water pump many years ago. It still runs extremely well and uses little oil. The head is unmodified and Tom has run it on premium fuel with Castrol additive. We decided to prepare it with a simple service and check over, then we would set off together from Longbridge.
Four-day adventure
The plan was simple, between October 11-15, 2018 Tom and I would drive to Skopje where he (and it) would live for the next four years. I would be supporting Rob on my second time doing the drive between Birmingham and the Balkans; I had driven to Dubrovnik in an 1800, nonstop with three drivers doing two-hour stints of driving each. That was 40 years
ago though, in a nearly new car!
This time round we would to drive to Reims on the first Day, Turin on the second and Ancona on the third where we would take the overnight ferry to Igoumenitsa in Greece and then the final 325 miles on to Skopje. Nothing to it… we hoped!
We a very early start from Birmingham and early on had to negotiate some horrible traffic after which we had a perfect 380 miles. The weather was great and the 1800 had no problems at all. The only breakage was the radio aerial, which obviously was not used to long periods in a 65mph slipstream. And it was an excuse to buy a new radio!
We continued through France, then crossed the Alps and to Ivrea in Italy. The view we got when we were approaching the Mont Blanc tunnel in the Alps, with a snow covered Mont Blanc was absolutely astounding. The car was running well and we were well ahead of schedule. It was at this point that we decided to press on to Bologna rather than stop in Turin overnight in order to reduce the journey to the Ferry at Ancona the following day. I only recently learned from my Enjoying MG magazine that Bologna to Ancona was part of the Mille Miglia Route!
Pininfarina had a hand in the design of the 1800, being largely responsible for the grille, headlights and front wings. So driving the car through Italy was appropriate. Comfy, roomy and easy to pilot, the Landcrab does make for a good touring car. Perhaps with taller gearing it might have become the perfect continent muncher.
Crab on the ocean
We made good time to the ferry at Ancona as well. Overnight across the sea with the Landcrab down below we arrived bright and early in Igoumenitsa in Greece. The next highlight was the journey to Thessalonika after leaving the ferry at Igoumenitsa. This was on a modern motorway almost devoid of any traffic that went through the beautiful mountain scenery of northern Greece.
We made it to Skopje on time and now the car is Tom’s daily. He has a boot full of spare parts and can call me for advice any time. The 1800 is a piece of family history as Tom’s grandfather also worked on them in the Longbridge factory and Tom was born in the year this particular example was made.
On arrival the Austin 1800 met its much younger and faster cousin, the Ambassador’s Jaguar XF. I also said hello to my much younger, faster grandchildren. The Landcrab is a family car after all. ■