This is my 1967 Wolseley 18/85, many of you if you are outside of the UK or Europe probably have never seen one, but these were built by the British Motor Corporation (BMC).
This was the same company that built the famous Mini that has became well known internationally and was featured in movies such as the Italian Job.
The Wolseley 18/85 is the badge engineered upmarket version of the Austin/Morris 1800.
Ive taken this car everywhere, and its still running with its original engine without any reconditioning done to it or the automatic transmission.
They feature the MG-B series 1800 engine and are rated at 85 horsepower which was considered a good amount back in its day, with todays mods and cylinder head porting, you can easily get over 100 horsepower from one of these engines, they are a very reliable long stroke engine with low down torque and good economy at under 10 KM per litre round town and about 12 or more KM per litre on the open road. Not bad considering these are a heavy vehicle.
Here Is a photo from the Turoa Skifield at Mt Ruapehu, its at the end of the season in this photo, so there is no snow at the carpark.
I recently had to replace the ring gear on the engine, so i removed the engine and decided it was a good time to give it a full repaint in 2pack paint and clean up under the engine bay.
Here are the before and after photos:
Ive owned this car for 12 years now and has proven very reliable with little work needed to keep roadworthy, it still burns no oil even after doing over 200,000KM on the clock!
These are a unique vehicle that used what is known as hydrostatic suspension which used a pressurised system with fluid that connects displacers between the front and rear of the car to self level the vehicle over bumps and to give a soft, smooth ride. For more info see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrolastic
This suspension was used in the early minis and the Austin/Morris 1100/1300
There is plenty of room in the front and back, and can seat 5 people including the driver.
This car is a real head turner at our classic car shows, and in this photo, you can see my fathers fully restored MK2 model to the right in this photo, his one has won many car shows and had drawn a huge amount of interest in these vehicles here in New Zealand.
For more information on this wonderful British vehicle, check out http://www.landcrab.net/
We own 6 of these of the various models up to the MK3 which has a 2.2 litre 6 cylinder engine.
We are in the middle of restoring some of them and will do another blog of my fathers restoration in due course.
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