And The Car in Front is a.............

Gazza

Well-Known Member
................Hillman Imp!!!! Came round a roundabout yesterday and there it was in front. Pride of Linwood from 1963 to 1976. Never seen one of these for years and can hardly believe that at least one is still going strong. Back bumper off, if I remember rightly three bolts and the engine was rolled out on a jack. Could change a clutch in a couple of hours.
 
there was an estate one at a classic car show over the weekend,
first one I have seen in years, I see a saloon imp most weeks locally.
 
I had one once as a tearaway, front camber kitted,..... 8 track in the dash!!:cool:

I can't imagine you managed much tearing away in an Imp. Gently moving off to a final top speed of 45mph, more like! My uncle had one and it did 0 - 60 over the space of relaxed afternoon. :lol: A mate of mine has one and uses it for commuting to and from work. He's frequently late.

8 track eh? Best thing since the 78. :norty:
 
Had the Imp van (unsure if it went under a different name) back in the mid-70's and loved it. Seem to remember taking the bark off my knuckles when trying to change the driveshaft rubber doughnuts.

Was the choke situated between the front seats? A lever?

George
 
I can't imagine you managed much tearing away in an Imp. Gently moving off to a final top speed of 45mph, more like! My uncle had one and it did 0 - 60 over the space of relaxed afternoon. :lol: A mate of mine has one and uses it for commuting to and from work. He's frequently late.

8 track eh? Best thing since the 78. :norty:

Well, there's Hillman Imps and there's Hillman Imps.

You'd need to shoehorn a Cossie engine into yer mini to catch this one...



And, believe it or not, these little beasts were, in the right hands, a match even for a Group1 RS2000.

 
Picked up my car from being serviced at my mates in Maltby, he showed me his recently fully restored Triumph VTS6!!

Cracking looking bit of kit and rare as rocking horse poo I'm told?!

I'm a 1963 Ferrarri GTO man myself, saw one go through an auction 2 years ago at 1.2mill!

T
 
Well, there's Hillman Imps and there's Hillman Imps.

You'd need to shoehorn a Cossie engine into yer mini to catch this one...



And, believe it or not, these little beasts were, in the right hands, a match even for a Group1 RS2000.


hey tamus thanks for that that number 108 was the car i copied to take mine to lemans in. it ran a talbot sunbeam motor with hand made exhaust in stainless with rs flatslide carbs hi comp pistons and a rad in the front as this was the only reall weak point on an imp. i wish i still had it i sold it in pristine condition around 4 years ago and got £3500 for it i will have to dig out some pictures it took me two years to complete,atb wayne

just to add it was a real famous car in its day called the beven imp,atb wayne
 
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My mate had a trials car with a Hillman Imp engine in... the engines were and probably still are popular for this as they could be tuned for low end torque but could rev high when needed.
 
Back in 1978 a friend of mine won big on the pools. His all time love was the Mini Cooper S. He bought one and had it seriously modified spending thousands.
I was sat with him at a set of lights when a little blue hillman imp pulled up next to him. The all encompassing racers nod was given and the wait for a green light began. On green the Imp proceeded to pi55 all over the mini much to my amusement. My mate wasn't so impressed trading the mini for a RS2000 MK2 the next day :)
 

The very same unit (much modified) that Colin Chapman put to use in his early Lotuses, most specifically the 1955 Lotus 9 ... and a star was born.
 
now that brings back memories.....passed my driving test in a Hillman Imp. If I remember rightly they were first car to have automatic chokes on them.

Mulac
 
Imps were OK, right up until you started to get wet cills,........... the feed hoses for the heater ran up through them.:doh:
Yeah, I had a singer chamois sport for 2x years in the early 70s, it handled great, very forgiving on country lanes when you had had too much sauce down your neck (oh how stupid I was and still survived) it did 95 on the M1 all day, 3 up if there were no crosswinds.
The heaters never worked because of the sludged up sill heater feeder pipes. so me and a mate went to a petrol station to clear them, I disconnected both pipe ends stuck an airline in one end with tape to seal it and my mate stuck his ear to the other end to listen for any whistles of air, but what happened was a sunami of sludge under pressure that whacked his ear instead. I still wet myself just remembering the cry and the image of him "we still are good mates though".
Coventry Climax were the fire pump makers from which the engine was derived they also sold a wider range of tappets than rootes spares did which helped after my 4th cylinder head skim to try to cure the head gaskets blowing. I did my apprenticeship on them at rootes experimental department in Coventry.
Happy days
martin
 
Built in Coventry By Rootes Group not at Linwood.I made the Pattern for the cylinder head during my apprentiship.
 
Bavarianbrit, that brought back a few memories, sitting in the passenger seat of my old mans white Singer Chamois whilst he went off looking for water!! with steam hissing out the back.

Happy Days

Cheers
 
Built in Coventry By Rootes Group not at Linwood.I made the Pattern for the cylinder head during my apprentiship.
Built in Linwood by the Rootes Group. The engine castings were made in Linwood and then transported to Ryton where they were machined and built. The engine was then taken back to Linwood where the Hillman Imp was built. This "journey" of the engine was part of the downfall of the vehicle.
 
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