Rally legend reborn: historic Austin 1800 that conquered two epics for sale

Back in the 1960s, Austin found itself on such a roll with the Alec Issigonis-designed Mini that it set-out to capitalise on the basic format with the larger Austin/Morris/Riley/Wolseley/Vanden Plas 1100/1300 and the even larger Austin/Morris 1800.

Seldom had a car murmured ’suburban middle management’ more than the lumbering 1800, a large, heavy saloon with levels of comfort and solidity that more than made up for what it lacked in speed.

But while its stately pace and lumpen looks (penned, incidentally, by Pininfarina alongside Issigonis) may have qualified it for the ‘boring’ category, BMC’s competition department soon recognised that its bridge-like strength, front-wheel-drive grip and bump-smoothing Hydrolastic suspension provided all the ingredients for a potentially cracking rally car.

And so it was that five fully rally-prepped 1800s lined-up in London’s Crystal Palace on November 24, 1968 for the 11pm start of the London-Sydney Marathon, a gruelling, month-long dash that took in three whole continents. And among the five was SMO 227G, pictured here.

Assigned to the three-man Australian crew of Evan Green, George Shepheard and Jack ‘Gelignite’ Murray, the mighty ‘land crab’ (as the Austin 1800 was nicknamed) completed the titanic course in style, crossing the line in a highly respectable 21st place.

In fact, all five cars finished the race, with SMO 226G, crewed by Paddy Hopkirk, Tony Nash and Alec Poole, clinching second behind the winning Hillman Hunter of Andrew Cowan, Colin Malkin and Brian Coyle.

But SMO 227G had yet more to give. Having been left in Australia, it was then prepared by the local Leyland competition department for the 1970 World Cup Rally – an even longer jaunt which covered 16,000 miles from London to Mexico City. And once again it proved the 1800’s built-in resilience and reliability by being the 11th of just 23 cars to finish the race from an original 96-car entry.