Wolseley 18/85 II mod 18

[Rosieuk]

Having waited for a year less a couple of weeks to get the Hyundai back is gave up in march and bought a Wolseley 18/85 landcrab.
It's a 1.8 4 speed manual that looks like what you'd get if an obese Dalek mated with a chrome bumper MGBGT. It used the MGB engine with a siamesed port head and either a single or dual HS6 carb.

Eco upgrades so far:

LEDs in indicator circuit (except telltales & front bulbs)
LEDs in dashboard (which can be switched on or off as a feature of the car).
LED headlights - 35-45w combined - previous sealed beams 100-110w combined.
Ivory over green repaint (roof & boot lid and surrounds) reducing interior temperature by 20%
Falken Sincera 165/70/14 tyres.

With Hydrolastic suspension it's not possible, nor desirable, to raise tyre pressures.

MPG is about 22/26/34 at the moment. This will improve as the tyres wear in.

[Ecky]

Pics? Sounds like an interesting vehicle.

Add it to your garage for fuel tracking?

[Lemmy]

The LED bulbs have doubled its value!

[Rosieuk]

Originally Posted by Lemmy

The LED bulbs have doubled its value!

People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

More to the point the ADO17 was the most advanced UK car of its period and had the strongest body in regards to torsional strength until the early 2000s. It won two rallies and car of the year (when it actually meant something).

The smartcar on the other hand is a barely controllable shoebox with a constantly vacuous transmission, a vehicle of a group of vehicles whose only redeeming feature that it invariably kills its occupants (thus improving the gene pool) in any form of even mildly serious accident - and to top it off, they made a Brabus version!
The only potentially more lethal vehicle would be a Riley Ditchfinder on worn kingpins and crossplies fitted with a flat plane crank supercharged Rover v8 - on a Welsh RAC rally stage driven by a 17 year old female "love island" fanatic. In the wet.

[Rosieuk]

For those of you who aren't familiar with the landcrab you could get them with a rather unusual power steering system.
The pump was snapped in behind the dynamo and took its power from the dynamo shaft - after that it was pretty standard. Anyone who's driven and compared the two tends to say that the manual steering is better generally but horrible at low speeds - whereas the only advantage to the PAS is slow speed maneuverability (ie you can actually steer the thing without rupturing something painful).
It got me to thinking, since the only time you need power assist is at low speeds why not set the system up so that's the only time it works? Instead of having a pump constantly running either from parasitizing the engine or from electrical power.
In the manual Wolseley that would be relatively simple - collect the parts to do a manual to PAS conversion (still all available) - but instead of powering the pump from the dynamo, add an electric motor to turn the pump - switched via the gear lever to run only in first & reverse gears. That way you've assistance when you need it, but aren't wasting power, and losing steering feel, when you don't (and when you've got all of 22amps to play with you don't want to waste it)..
The car is on track for a 24.6mpg tank this time - means the spitfire cable has made a 2mpg difference - when I get more used to the car I'll start with P & C..

[Rosieuk]

Originally Posted by Ecky

Pics? Sounds like an interesting vehicle.

Add it to your garage for fuel tracking?

Every time I try to add pics it logs me out.

[Ecky]

I typically just upload them to imgur and then add {img} {/img} (only with [ instead) tabs around the URL to them.

Honda's EPS implementation doesn't have any hydraulic fluid at all. It's direct manual steering at higher speeds, and there's a motor bolted to the rack that adds assistance at lower speeds.

[Rosieuk]

Originally Posted by Ecky

I typically just upload them to imgur and then add {img} {/img} (only with [ instead) tabs around the URL to them.

Honda's EPS implementation doesn't have any hydraulic fluid at all. It's direct manual steering at higher speeds, and there's a motor bolted to the rack that adds assistance at lower speeds.

There is a company in the UK that adds adjustable electric power steering to classic cars via the steering column, and they have done a landcrab, so the parts would be there to do that - it'd just be a matter of wiring up the switches into the remote shift (very much like the lockout switch for overdrive on the Humber Sceptre). In fact you could do the same thing with that switch just fit it in reverse so it energised in 1st & 2nd - and have another switch for reverse (since reverse in landcrabs is basically 4th gear plus a lifty thing).
That's basically the same idea - surprised that Honda don't advertise that a bit more as regards fuel efficiency - but then joined up thinking isn't often the premise of the average car buyer (I wanna discount on the basis it's not power steering when I don't need it /winge mode : off).

Just found the suspension is riding 20mm low so need to get it pumped up a bit. Interestingly hydrolastic suspension didn't take off generally in the 60s/70s because it needed powerful computers to simulate and set the system up for different cars - the displacers and the various thicknesses of rubber, metal components and the pressures inside the system (including tyre pressures, which really affect the ride) needed computers to be worked out - so despite better handling and more level ride - it died a death pretty much.

[Lemmy]

Originally Posted by Rosieuk

People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

More to the point the ADO17 was the most advanced UK car of its period and had the strongest body in regards to torsional strength until the early 2000s. It won two rallies and car of the year (when it actually meant something).

The smartcar on the other hand is a barely controllable shoebox with a constantly vacuous transmission, a vehicle of a group of vehicles whose only redeeming feature that it invariably kills its occupants (thus improving the gene pool) in any form of even mildly serious accident - and to top it off, they made a Brabus version!
The only potentially more lethal vehicle would be a Riley Ditchfinder on worn kingpins and crossplies fitted with a flat plane crank supercharged Rover v8 - on a Welsh RAC rally stage driven by a 17 year old female "love island" fanatic. In the wet.

But as well as the Smart I have a family car, Triumph GT6, and an FZR600, FZR1000 EXUP, and a Hayabusa.

When new it was Euro NCAP 4, so for it's day among the safest small cars to have a smack in. I wouldn't fancy my chances in yours, which wouldn't achieve 1 star. Glass houses, you say? No other A segment car from 2004 achieved a higher rating as standard. As for the Landrab being the stiffiest monocoque until into this century, what a load of bull. Monocoque, more like load of old cock!

But the point is that you can't take a joke, which is a shame as a sense of humour was essential for a landcrab owner when they were new. BMC were laughiing their backsides when they sold it. Even Allegro drivers smirked at the Landcrab. Landcrab were for people that wanted a P6, but couldn't afford one. Fortunately I could, so had the P6.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Rosieuk

With Hydrolastic suspension it's not possible, nor desirable, to raise tyre pressures.

What could go wrong?