1968 Austin 1800 Mk1 'ute'
Joining the Kelly St Classics collection 26th October 2021 is this Jay Blue 1968 Mk1 Austin 1800 utility, a model I have desired for many years, but never found a suitable one (for good reason; there were only 2331 utes ever made, all between 1968 and 1971 - see below).
BMC’s new ADO17, launched here in 1965 as the Austin 1800 (and colloquially known as the 'landcrab') had earned high praise from the motoring media for its balanced handling, high-speed stability, compliant ride and excellent packaging. Of course, it was a modern FWD product with challenging styling doing battle with three very conservative and conventional RWD six-cylinder/V8 sedans, so it didn’t storm to the top of the sales charts.
A version unique to Australia was the Austin 1800 Utility, a coupe utility produced from 1968 to 1971. BMC’s Australian operations tooled up a ute version to compete with the ute offerings from Ford and Holden, as well as the new 1965 Chrysler Valiant Wayfarer ute. The light pickup market was a space BMC had not been involved in, and 70% of the market was dominated by Ford and Holden in 1964. The 1800 Utility was launched in 1968 into this growing market, at a time when the Japanese utes were steadily increasing their market share.
Although FWD utes were a rare breed, and remain so to this day, the ADO17 platform actually lent itself well to the ute treatment. The lack of a live rear axle allowed a large, flat cargo bay: you could fit a 48” sheet of plywood between the wheel arches. The ute body also looked much more conventional than the frumpy “Landcrab” sedan, and the advanced Hydrolastic suspension ensured a more pleasant ride than the jittery Japanese utes.
Sales hit 12,665 units for the entire 1800 range, its best year, but only 5% (639) of those were utes. Ute sales would experience a slight uptick for 1969, but they still didn’t account for a significant volume of 1800 sales. All up, over five years of sale the Austin 1800 range sold 56,918 units. A total of 2,331 of those were utes.
Australian Production Numbers:
Sedans
MKI Manual 26,531 (estimate)
MKI Auto 2,120
(estimate)
MKII Total 27,125 (accurate)
Utility
MKI Manual 820
MKI Auto 44
MKII Manual
1175
MKII Auto 112
Total 2151 (estimated from service bulletin
information and likely to be low by about 200 vehicles. 2331 ).
This car is an early example, dating from 1968, and being a rare Mk1, it's a survivor from one of the 820 Mk1 manual utes produced. Even when all variants are included, only 2331 Austin 1800 utes were ever made, so they are not exactly common as muck!
↑ After many years of
searching for a good Austin 1800 ute, I came across this totally rust-free,
long-term shedded (since 1984) example while looking at two other donor cars
for parts (a Farina A40 and Austin Lancer - I purchased the Lancer as a
parts car for my 1958 Lancer). Here the
car is shown exactly as I saw it, on the trailer of the seller who had
cleaned the sheds of the elderly previous owner who was entering a nursing
home.
↑ After agreeing
to purchase, I returned to the seller's premises to transfer the ute from
his trailer to one I borrowed.
↑ Once the ute was
carefully winched onto the trailer, the very rusty Austin Lancer I also
purchased just for parts was relatively easy to load onto the truck by
carefully using a telehandler that was conveniently available!
↑ Both cars loaded
for the trip from Camperdown, Vic, to Kelly St Classics at Avoca, Vic.
↑ Helpful neighbour,
Phil, pushing the ute into its new home, the Kelly St Classics workshop!
↑ ID plate shows very
early build number, and also original engine number. It's the 508th of 820
Mk1 utes made (serial numbers begain at 501), while its original engine was
the 564th (numbers began at 1010).The engine/gearbox that is now with the
car is the improved version from a Mk2 ute (18YF/Ta/H2563)
↑ Last registered in
1984, 37 years stored in a dry shed! First registered 27/9/68, registration
KBZ069.
Watch this page for developments!