Morris 2200 Saloon

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More popularly known as the ‘Landcrab’, BMC’s AD017 range was produced from 1964 to 1975 under the Austin, Morris and Wolseley brand names.

Ahead of its time in many ways, the Landcrab managed to combine a large glasshouse and a spacious interior with an exceptionally stiff bodyshell. Allied to advanced Hydrolastic suspension, this made the Landcrab a surprisingly successful long-distance rally car because, while it was never particularly fast, its inherent strength and sophisticated suspension meant it could maintain a good pace on poor roads for hour after hour without falling to bits or crashing. Indeed a Landcrab came second in the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon and took three of the top 20 places in the 1970 London to Mexico Rally.

Of front-wheel drive design, it initially had the 1.8-litre B-Series engine from the MGB but from 1972 a smooth six-cylinder 110bhp 2.2-litre engine was introduced (later used in the Princess HL) which gave it 100mph+ performance. Marketed as the Austin 2200, Morris 2200 and Wolseley Six, some 386,000 Landcrabs were made in total although survivors are now surprisingly rare due to a high attrition rate in banger racing at which the car excelled owing to the legendary strength of the bodyshell.

Dating from June 1973, this Morris 2200 had just one owner from new until 2003 when it was acquired for the Stondon Museum Collection. The 46,138 miles indicated is said to be genuine and the car is said to run and drive well with an MOT until October 2016. It comes with the original service book stamped four times, an old style V5 and a spare set of keys.