From the Chief Canberra Correspondent: an Austin Tasman X6

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I love this early 1970s' Austin Tasman, captured by the CCC in suburban ACT, purely for its Aussie-ness.  It is, effectively, an updated Austin 1800, sharing the basic platform and doors of its slightly older British-built cousin, known colloquially as the "Land Crab."

It's Aussie-as because even though it was (re)designed, built and marketed here and also sold in New Zealand, it was never available in the Land Crab's home country.  Therefore, it's quite exclusively ours.

And the real kicker is that even though the Poms missed out on our boxy update of their innovative, fluid-floating front-driver, they did benefit from the Australian-developed in-line six-cylinder engine that powered it, as it ended up being fitted to their Austin Princess and other British Leyland stablemates.  Our contribution to that car isn't lost on at least one dryly amusing British YouTuber, as he explains in the following rather entertaining  clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmLhkp_53ok.  

This engine - also available in the more upmarket Austin Kimberley that shared the Tasman's body - was based on the British four-cylinder Austin Maxi donk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Kimberley, accessed 23 DEC 23).  However, in true Down-Under fashion, we added another 400 cc and two extra cylinders to the original version - for a total of 2200 cc - and, later on, bunged on a further .4 of a litre, creating a 2.6 litre six (not available in the Tasman or Kimberley, though).

This 2.6 then got plonked into Australia's own brilliant, but sadly flawed and much-maligned P76, as well as being shoe-horned into our own version of the Brit's Morris Marina.  Just to put this into perspective, your average Marina ran anything between 1.3-ish and a 1.8 litre engine capacities, so our version - also sold in South Africa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Marina) - must've been quite the beast!   Here’s what another YouTuber from Old Blighty thinks of them: https://youtu.be/kpBCJJ3TFbc.  

Mind you, this grafting on extra cylinders thing wasn't exclusive to Leyland's Australian arm.  Our motor industry can proudly boast of 3.3 and 4.1 litre six cylinder versions of Ford UK's four pot Cortinas, as well as working similar magic to create straight six-powered and even V8 Holden Toranase  and Commodores from much smaller engined Vauxhall / Opel base GM products.  Ingenious or what?!  


Sadly for us, the CCC will be relocating to Hobart, Tasmania, in early 2023, creating a vacancy within the UMPH Canberra office.  He's provided many, many great pics and commentary over the last three years and his contributions will be missed.  Thank you, Gor!  

Here are just a few of his many excellent contributions to celebrate his time in the nation's capital:

https://uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com/2022/12/from-chief-canberra-correspondent-mk-i.html (a Mk I Cortina restomod);

https://uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com/2021/03/readers-photos-102-lancia-fulvia-hf.html (a Lancia Fulvia HF);

https://uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com/2022/06/from-canberra-correspondent-alfa-spider.html (an Alfa Spider);

https://uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com/2021/03/readers-photos-100-ex-zimbawe-mercedes.html (an ex-Zimbabwean W111 Mercedes);

https://uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com/2021/01/readers-photos-91-ford-blitz-truck.html (a WW2 Ford Blitz truck);

https://uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com/2021/02/readers-photos-xx-alfetta-sportiva.html (an Alfa Sportivo); and one of my personal favourites:

https://uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com/2022/04/from-auto-italia-2022-fiat-128-rallye.html (a genuine Fiat 128 Rallye).

Update of 25 DEC 22

It seems that it's YouTube that has been watching me!  A couple of days after publishing this article, my feed suddenly came up with this, a HubNut video on, yes ... , you guessed it:  The Austin Kimberley!  Who's a clever little algorithm then?  Please see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYAPaah4piE.




U M P H

(uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.)



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