Back briefly to Landcrabs. I seem to remember someone at BMC (maybe even Issigonis) reckoned it was the most torsionally rigid shell they ever made, though as Ray says, everything ahead of the front bulkhead was a bit dubious. My Dad had a very early Austin 1800 as his company car and from memory had three engine blow-ups in under 12,000 miles - he did a lot of motorway driving and at prolonged high speed, the mechanical bits took exception to the Max mark on the dipstick being the same as on the A60 Cambridge/Oxford, which shared the same B Series engine but without having the transmission in the sump to confuse things. Other downsides were the horrible cable-operated gearchange (Is it in 1st or 3rd? Let's see if it stalls) and very low-geared steering, which made town driving a pain as it was also heavy. But the cabin was incredibly spacious and the ride was perhaps Hydrolastic's finest hour.
I'd always thought it was quite a big car, until I recently saw one alongside a modern BMW Mini and realised they both occupied about the same amount of road-space.
