I had an Imp some years ago, and I loved driving it; the handling was superb. One night I was trying to outrun a Ford Granada behind me, I would lose them easily on the bends, but they would catch up on the straight. Then they put on their police lights and pulled me over, fortunately it was all very amicable.
What a great story, well told. The IMP was 4 or 5 years too late. If it had been launched in 1962 and all the bugs ironed out, it would have given the Mini 850 a run for the money. I have a 16mm colour film of the design and building of the IMP and shows the enormous amount of work that went into the design of the body and the motor. But I bought a Morris 850 in 1962, thank goodness!
@@brianmuhlingBUM I had a Sunbeam Stiletto which I think I bought somewhere around 1969. It was an ex demo, light blue. I guess this was the luxury version of the Imp at the time, manufactured by Chrysler using the Coventry Climax engine. Whilst courting we used to go to the same pub most evenings and would often see a Ford Granada which would stop there as well. I remember one day at the start of our trip to the pub it turned out in front of us and he put his foot down. I put my foot down, although I could just about keep up I didn't have the power to overtake. I had a lot of problems with the head gasket which was forever blowing, in the end we used some gunk and stuck it down. I had it for about 4-5 years but got rid of it as it was getting costly due to various problems but I had a lot of fun in it, although it would have been fatal if one had a head on crash with so little in the front, plus a fuel tank! Oh yes, and the windscreen leaked like mad. Never did solve that one despite having a new screen fitted. I married my then girlfriend in 1972, just had our 50th. anniversary. We drove away from our wedding reception in that car for our honeymoon at our new house which only had a cold tap and some surface wired electric lights. Spent our honeymoon doing DIY. I don't recommend papering a ceiling together, it's a good way to test a marriage:)
@@MrOldhoot What a fantastic story, a good old memory from yesteryear. I loved going to the drive-in pictures on a hot night in the mini, wasn't too comfortable if you wanted a cuddle. Thanks for your story. Brian. Western Australia
Yes..whinging poms and strongmen unions payed for their own funeral, we had one,i coasted backwards into our newly build double garage as a 13yr old kid but forgot to close the door! The centre pillar came off worse,oh and my arse when the old man came home! LOL. love from NZ.
@@toyotaprius79 My first job was in spareparts and the union guys were all english and quite lazy, if you pick a fight with a bear you might come off second best is all.
@@toyotaprius79 nowhere near it. Maggie destroyed the power of the unions. In the 70s they were striking every 10 minutes for any reason. Just militant lazy bastards. Maggie starved then back in 👍👍👍👍
Yep hope could anyone look a design like that and think ? That’s good ? What AND THEN THEY BUILT A FACTORY TO MAKE IT WITH HUNDREDS OF GLASGOW DOCKERS ?
My Dad competed in the British Saloon Car Championships in 1972 with a Hillman Imp, winning the private entrants award that year. Really enjoyed the video, thank you
Jon, have you a copy of 'The British Saloon Car Championship (1958-1972)' by Martyn Morgan Jones. It concentrates on the Bevan McGovern Imp and its 3 times victory in the BSCC, but has a great article on your Dad. It was a limited edition publication of only 500 but It is well worth chasing!
Worked on a building site during the summer school holidays in 1981 and my payment was a 1960’s white Hillman imp (£50). I learnt to drive in the imp and passed my test in 1982. I drove that car for another 2 years, sharing it with my Mother before eventually upgrading to a bigger engined car. The imp was great fun, steering wheel like a bus but handling was good…between the mini and the imp, the imp was more impressive for me💪🏻
My dad had a forest green Hillman Imp. I remember as a kid going with him to pick it up. I also remember there was fear about the aluminum engine and head overheating (which never happened on our car), although the clutch would overheat in stop-start traffic. We loved that car, and my dream car as a student was a clan crusader.
When Chrysler took over the Rootes group the Australian factory had ‘Rootes Australia’ in big letters atop the roof. Chrysler wanted to add their name to make it say ‘Chrysler Rootes Australia’ until it was explained to the Americans what that meant in the local vernacular.
I had 2 Imps and absolutely loved them. They were so easy to throw round corners and wave the front inside wheel in the air while doing so! My friend rallied an Imp with his brother and I spent many long nights working to get the car ready for its next Rally. I used to compete in Production Car Trials in an Imp as well...
I think it was a product that had it been built close to Hillmans main production and engineering facilities could had the teething problems solved quickly and made a serious competitor to other small cars. It was a nice looking car and with Chryslers help could had been a winner for Hillman.
The engine from the Imp was still used into the late 1980's as the power unit for the Rapier missile system. It was used to power a generator to produce the 3 phase supply required.
Back in the early 70's I had a twin headlamp, coupe roof Sunbeam Stiletto with a tuned 998cc engine, there was twin Weber DCOE40 carbs, loud tubular exhaust manifold, hot cam, ported head etc and the car made nearly 100 bhp on Jon Mowatts rolling road in Basildon Essex when I got Jon to set the engine up. The rev limit was over 8K and with lowered suspension, upgraded brakes and wide wheels and painted Daytona yellow bodywork and with gloss black wheels the car looked brilliant and was seriously quick with it's light weight and 100 bhp and was an absolute riot to drive on the road with the most perfectly controllable oversteer you can imagine, I had so much fun with that little car you can't imagine! If only they came that way from the dealer Roots might have had a real hit on their hands like Ford did with their RS2000 cars
My first car was an Imp. Tuned it over a year or so keeping the 875 rather than the 998. They could be sleeved out to 1140cc and Hartwell had a 998 at 118bhp. Mine drove well on the 875 with about 85bhp and a 4 speed jack knight box. One inch driveshafts and a special tool to change the doughnuts! Neg camber kit and triumph herald discs. Shocked many a so called sports car on the road.
@@ethelmini If I recall correctly, even the Escort aficionados were not at all impressed with the RS2000...preferring the RS1600 (Peter Cooper confirms I now see.)(Sorry Peter, your comment was below when I replied to erhelmini)
I had my Imp in 1986 for commuting in South London. Best memories were in fresh heavy winter snow just breezing up the steep hill to Crystal Palace and leaving the rest of the cars slipping and sliding at the base. Weight of the engine over the drive wheels and a flat floor pan and the front just lifted up like a sled and the front wheels steered more like a steerable bob sleigh not touching the road surface!
I remember that hill, Anerley hill if remember correctly, we lived in Beckenham and my sister ran a pub In Brixton, going to visit meant going up Anerley hill, my dad had an old camper van that was down to first gear by the time we got near the top, I always got worried in case it didn’t make it.
Just like my Isetta bubble car. I took 2 mates to the pub on Christmas day after an overnight snowfall about 8 inches deep. We were the only car on the road. It steered just like your Imp with the front wheels off the ground like a steerable bob sleigh. I did own an Imp much later but never had deep snow to contend with.
My dad had a blue one.. apparently I called it the "broom broom'!! no doubt because of the noise the engine made. He said it had a great engine and could cruise at 70mph all day. I also remember our neighbour had a Stilletoe version.. posher version with more dials.. happy days. I can even remember the day we went and changed it for a Hillman Avenger in 1974... now that was a great car!
I had a couple of Avengers, if I remember correctly, a 1275cc version and 1500 GT, they were like chalk and cheese. I really liked the GT, not so much the other one.
We had a GT .. was the envy of the cortina L boys😅 after that my dad had fiat 131 racing … my fav dad car if all time… it was so much better than the Ford rubbish !
I learned to drive in my mum's Hillman Imp and then appropriated it when required, haha. It was a great wee car, great fun to drive on the winding Scottish roads.
I watched this car rip around Penang GP in late 70s till early 80s driven by part time drivers full time RAF pilots base in North Malaysia Butterworth airbase. It was awesome
My mum was a Rootes sales manageress in Kensington in the mid sixties and as a result we had a Hillman imp. I thought it was brilliant. I learned how to drive in one. I later drove the Mini, I'd take the imp in a heartbeat.
I found one of these 15 years ago in an abandoned garage in Hamilton Ohio. The garage was being torn down. I tried to get it but the new property owner was a jerk about it. I watched them drag it out with a backhoe and proceeded to destroy it and threw the pieces in a dumpster. It's the only one I've ever seen in my life.
@@BigCar2 It was very sad. When I saw it I had no idea what it was and had to look it up on my phone. Someone cared enough to ship it from the other side of rhe world only to have some 400 pound douche destroy it.
You should have gone to him the following day exclaiming it was a rare, valuable classic and he was now a very wealthy man! - provided he still had the car.....oh....
Really enjoyed the video, thanks. My mate, Mike, who looked a bit like Marty Feldman had an imp when we were in our late teens early 20's, late 1970's. We had a long weekend in Dorest near Lulworth Cove and travelled from NW London near Uxbridge. Mike usualyy carried a spare cylinder head as his experience was they used to warp easily and cause huge problems. He would just replace the head and drive on if this happened. On this particukar trip he did not have one as the car was full with our stuff. On the way down the head started leaking. By the time we needed to go home it was really bad. As we drove along we looked like a steam engine, we had to make sure the ngine did not tirn off or it would not start due to water in the cylinders. So we stopped at every oppertunity to put water in the radiator and fill up bottles while the engine kept running and a huge steam cloud built up at the back of the car. Amazingly we got home and Mike managed to get to his house and later fix the car. These are now of course happy memories but at the time it was a bit of a worry. I laugh at young peolpe now who dont have a clue about the cars they are driving as the cars are so reliable, can often only be fixed at a dealer if they do go wrong, often for something so silly its not funny eg a circuit to the petrol injectors being cracked and needing replacing, no idea of "points", capaciotrs, solenoids, tuning to get the timng on the points correct to make the engine run well, just call the AA (NRMA in OZ) , get a tow and replace a circuit. No nursing of cars now. I am not sure what I prefer, the fun of tuning doing it yourself etc or just press a button and go with very few breakdowns, for which you just outsource. Solution ride a great motorcycle, I think. Always liked the imps.
i live quite near the old linwood factory and the hillman imp is still considered a cool car around here. dude in the workshop across the street has 3 of them and loves em.
I currently own two hill man imps , and absolutely love it , I’ve never had so much fun in a car , I used mine daily for many years , as long as you keep up with the maintenance, that are great , thanks for the video mate , best of luck to everyone x
When I was younger and playing with Mini's, a guy told me you could turn a Mini 1100cc motor into 1220cc by using Hillman Imps pistons. So I did. Fantastic car. More torques than a Cooper S and better fuel economy. Perfect for city driving and cheaper.
I had a MK1 Imp when I Started work in 1971. It served me well, everything about the car worked well except that I had to change the clutch three times in a year, it was tiny and just wore out quickly, MK2 cars had a larger clutch. Second problem was the heater, it didn't work well at all. In winter I had to drive with the windows open and wear enormous coat hat scarf and gloves to avoid windows steaming up. The heater hoses passed through the sills and up to behind the dash, so long that hot water cooled before reaching the heater matrix, it improved slightly after I blew it through with garden hose. No it wasn't air locks. Later on in life I had a Mini and I have to say I thought the Imp was the better car, engine, transmission and suspension wise, it was also a true unitary car without those rust prone and heavy Mini subframes and proper coil springs and shockers.
Had no problem with heater output on my '66 Super but things were vastly improved by fitting a blower/fan as the car didn't come with one. I used one intended IIRC for a Vauxhall Cresta that had the same mounting flange but a different output spigot, so the short original airbox flange was body-fillered onto the output at a slight angle needed to connect neatly to the trunking/hose.
@@Graham_Langley That sounds like a successful upgrade. My car had the original choke and throttle mechanisms, they worked as they should. I guess different owners had different problems, with me it was heater and clutch, everything else was fine. I liked the car particularly the opening rear window. It was an easy car to work on, clutch changes done on Saturday mornings before lunch, I compressed the rubber doughnuts with three jubilee clips joined together. Those parts were also used in Lotus Elan.
@@philiptownsend4026 It was. Also made enough noise to use to warn pedestrians of your presence when the horn wasn't appropriate, as in the entrance to a car park I regularly used some 40 years ago. Clutches were done Sunday mornings in my case. Three bottle/screw jacks - transaxle, sump and exaust manifold - and push the car away. Putting the transaxle one on a bit of hardboard made alignment easier on putting it back in. Still got the donut compressors somewhere, made from a make any size clamp kit.
@@Graham_Langley yup almost exactly the same clutch change scenario as me. I made sure to keep the rear cross member fixing bolts clean and greased for easy removal next time. The job took very few tools and I would lay them out neatly in preparation. An easy DIY home mechanic job, how many modern cars could claim that?
Enjoyed this and brought back memories! My father bought a new metallic Aqua Marine Sunbeam Sports Imp in 1972, can still remember it’s reg EOX 277L. We were a family of 6 and I can remember the Summer Holiday trip to Devon from Birmingham where we spent 13 hours in the thing. It spent more time back in Coventry than our drive, replacement engine, replacement gearbox and assorted bodywork issues. After a year he and we had had enough and he changed it for a Hillman Hunter. My mother would never let him forget what a lemon and poor choice the Imp was!
In the 1960's I worked for a company that owned a Hillman Imp van. Because the engine was in the back end of the van, it was very light on the steering. If we wanted to carry anything in the back of the van we had to place a 1 cwt bag of cement under the bonnet to even out the weight. If we didn't do this the van was impossible to steer and would wander all over the road. It was a horrible vehicle to drive. Thankfully vehicles like the Hillman Imp van are no longer produced.
Great video. I recall a holiday back in the mid 70's, my sister and I were probably 8 and 9 and squashed in the back of our gold colored Imp sitting atop a suitcase or two. We were traveling in convoy with our uncle and aunt and their kids, they were fortunate to have a big Ford Granada. I recall the Imp really struggling up the hills on the M62, my uncle had to keep stopping to wait for us. The journey from Lancashire to Scarborough can be done in less than a couple of hours but I recall it taking us most of the day! Got to say the car had a lot of character. I now live in the US and I see them popping up for sale every now and again on specialist websites.
Nostalgic. My best friend and I both had Singer Chamois. Really loved that car.. HUL 736C . Funny how you can always remember your early car number plates but struggle to remember your current one!. Nice video, thanks.
I have a 1970 Hillman Super Imp. I use it whenever the roads are dry and it’s great! Loads of fun, exempt from everything and very efficient. I love it!
Had one in 73 in Singapore when I rode a Honda 750. Used the Imp as an umbrella during the Monsoon season. Actually it was a fun little car but used to overheat due to the extreme tropical climate and lack of maintenance. It was given to me by a departing colleague and only had about three months road tax left on it and which I did not renew. Found a fitting home when it was gutted, floor pan removed and the lightened shell space-framed and then fitted over an Elfin 600 F2 for track use. Wonder what happened to it. Oh, the memories. Those were the days.
I was a schoolboy at Linwood High when the factory shut. It devastated the place and it never recovered- at least as of 2022. The Imp was a decent enough car, but relations between workers an management were never good. Stories of mass stealing were common, although I can't say how true they were. When Chrysler shut the place, the Unions thought they had prevailed- but the workers were on the buroo!
I worked for Chrysler at their Belvedere, Illinois assembly in the 60s through the late 80s. Those were bad times for Chrysler, they had no business buying rootes in the 70s.
It's really easy to blame the unions any time UK industry is mentioned. But you only need to look at this story to see how incredibly inept UK management was (and my experiences suggest that it was significantly WORSE in the 80s and 90s - I can't say beyond that as I left); one sensible decision, to build a small, economic car, followed by daft decision followed by daft decision followed by... guess what? a f**king mad decision. It doesn't take a genius to realise that having a rear engine was going to cause all sorts of packaging problems, and WHY? I get that the FIAT and Beetle had rear engines, but it's hardly as if that was the whole market, there were plenty of other cars with front engines. And it's all well and good to take the government money for building the plant, but if you don't have the skills, what really was the point? And then deliberately creating a division between workers in one plant vs another one... wtf thought THAT was a good idea? But the unions got the blame, not the terrible management, not the idiotic decisions, not the wasteful processes. Because that's not what our lords and masters want us to think, they want us to think that we're better off without anyone to fight for us... Yeah, that's worked out well for the UK, hasn't it?
@@ryanthompson2893 In the US Chrysler had only the "muscle car" market keeping them in the red, and that was coming to an end by 1970 which everyone foretold. They knew Ford and GM were developing small economy cars and they thought the best way to compete there was to buy into someone already making such cars, which was probably a good idea seeing how badly the Pinto and Vega ended up. They simply chose the wrong place to put their money. TBH, at the time there was probably no company in Europe which would have been a good choice for the American market where the people expected automatic transmissions, A/C, less 'spartan' interiors, and a softer ride quality. And TBH, the American companies couldn't do what was needed either so they lost large chunks of money with only Ford and GM having the financial resources to survive their mistakes. In the meantime the Japanese car makers were learning how to give the world what it wanted.
I bought a Forest Green Singer Chamois - a posh Imp with a bit of plastic wood stuck on - in 1968, a 1964 model some four years old. I didn't intend to buy it - I went out with the intention of purchasing a Mini - but my father talked me into it on the basis that the Chamois was a classier product. Thanks, Dad, for giving me the benefit of your technical expertise. It was, of course, a disaster, saddling me in the four years I owned it with the usual problems: water pumps, seized steering, multiple clutches, terminal body rot - and the transaxle blew up on the M62. Radiator failure and cylinder head gaskets also featured prominently. One thing in its favour, however, was the bargain price of a new exhaust - £2.50 for a complete system, one of the few advantages of a rear engine layout. I got £30 for it when I eventually relinquished ownership which, to be fair, only cost me £83 a year in depreciation, probably a little less than a Mercedes S class would shed over the same period. But of course the never-ending catalogue of repairs cost me many times the figure lost in depreciation. My next car was a second hand Viva HB, which felt and drove like a Bentley Continental by comparison. Do I feel any retrospective yearning or affection for the Chamois all these years later? Sadly, no.
The engineering department at uni had an entire Imp drive train to hand; whenever they wanted to demonstrate a design fault like an inconvenient stress concentration or a wrong choice of material, they picked up a piece of Imp to demonstrate. Having invested in an expensive alloy casting plant to make the entire engine and gearbox casing out of cast alloy they went on to cast lots of brackets and other stuff out of alloy when a piece of bent steel would have been a better choice.
@jerry calvert on sports cars.... or since alloy became cheap. it wasnt back in the time of the imp. one can only imagine a front wheel drive imp... could've worked rather well, the coventry engine being lighter and more refined than the bmc did. that and giving the thing a 1500cc to beat the cooper S.
University of Strathclyde had a cutaway gearbox in a corridor of the Engineering Department. All sorts of people could have reason to use that corridor. Very educational.
Great documentary on not only the Hillman Imp, but the Rootes Group. Starting with a newly-married employee couple who were on different shifts and strike-action was taken to pressure management to place them on the same shift, the workers and union used strike-action at their whims and fancies. At the time when the Japanese were emerging as a player in the car manufacturer and exporter scene, Rootes was in trouble, and had to be rescued by the American Chrysler group. But production of Chrysler cars also involved sourcing components from different countries, hence affecting time and cost. Reliability was also a big issue. While the Dodge Avenger/Chrysler Avenger/ Dodge Arrow/Plymouth Cricket/Talbot Avenger had fair success worldwide in the 1970s after the Chrysler takeover, It was the long-drawn funeral for the Rootes Group and a massive blow for the British automobile industry. Trinidad & Tobago. West Indies.
I was born in 1970 in the island of Malta. When I was young my father used to take my brother and I every Sunday to an old RAF airbase and where car and motorbike races were performed by entusiasts. I remember very well Hillman Imps taking part in these races thrown in the midst of Mini Minors, Ford Escorts and Ford Capris, Fiats 600 Abarth and Simcas. Those were the good old days.
Drove an Imp this weekend just gone for the first time 34 years at the Drive Dads Car experience in Derbyshire. Though it seems very basic by modern standards it was a fun experience more akin to a giant go-kart and I have to say out of the three cars I drove (XJS and MG Maestro) it was the one that brought the biggest smile!
My Dad had one of these for a short time back in the day. Because the Imp has its engine in the rear, he soon discovered that he required to put some ballast in the luggage compartment in the front the day that he drove over the Forth Road Bridge. As he drove across the bridge, the front end was suddenly lifted off the road by the breeze blowing up from below through the grid between the bridge supports and my Dad was, in essence, doing a wheelie at 50 mph! It scared the bejeesus out of him. Needless to say, he got rid of it soon afterwards.
I had a Green Hillman Imp around 1967 in Australia. They were made by Rootes Group in Sydney. Great little car, I had it for 3 years before I wrote it off, a telegraph pole jumped out at me, lol.
Based in Germany in the 60s my brother and I had bought a second hand Opel Capitan. As I was going back to the UK for a year I gave him full ownership. When I returned to Germany I found that he had bought a brand new Hillman Imp and I wasn't even allowed to drive it. It wasn't unusual to drive home on leave to the UK so one time I was a passenger in the Imp. We got to Lewisham where the clutch pedal hit the floor and stayed there. A family friend drove down from Dundee with the intention of towing the car to Dundee where it could be repaired while we enjoyed our time off. The friend decided that the car could be driven using the double de clutch method, matching engine and road speed which my brother couldn't do so the only time I got to drive the Imp was from Lewisham to Dundee. It turned out that the release fork had broken and another time the wiring loom caught fire when the car was parked. Not a great advert for the Imp.
Thanks for the video. My late father in law was lead engineer at Rootes for the Imp engine and he once told me of the cylinder block quality issues. Apparently the supplier had previously only cast beer barrels and had no understanding of geometrical tolerances and the precision required for engine manufacture.
The gap between cylinder and water jacket was only 1/4 inch or so. Easily eroded if anti corrosion additive wasn't sufficient. Too light in front and I added a 25kg bag of gravel to steady the ride. This after a neighbour's wife was killed when car went off road in a sidewind.
@@geoffcrumblin9850 I have definitely seen cast beer barrels. They do exist - though not so much these days. Now they are mostly rolled/pressed beer barrels.
@@robharris5467 Ha! I was wondering how many comments I would have to read before coming across a mention of the weight-at-the-front issue! An Imp was my first car, and I often heard of people putting a bag of sand or a breeze block in the front to even things up. Sorry to hear about your neighbour's missus, awful.
I was always a mini man. Sad end to all the famous UK marques, quality control, labour issues, management issues etc. I remember seeing my first Datsun Cherry and thought then this will conquer all the small cars.
I have just found this u-tupe video. I thought I would tell you this interesting story. In the sixties and seventies I was a lorry driver. I was driving from Reading to Norwich. In those days you had to drive through Towns (very few bypasses) When you leave Newmarket there is a light controlled junction with one road going to Bury St. Edmunds and the other going to Norwich. In front of me was a Hillman Imp. The only time the road to Norwich changed to red was when a jockey and horse pulled the chain when wanting to cross the road. Having travelled though Newmarket many times I knew the lights would not change to red for Norwich bound traffic unless they was a horse and jockey there. The Hillman driver did not know and and on seeing the light on red for the Bury bound traffic even though she was in the Norwich bound lane, suddenly slammed on her brakes, I had no time to react and ran into the back of the Hillman. The hillman driver got out of the car looking very shaken, I said to her why did she stop on a green light. She said she was sorry, but she saw the red light at the last moment and slammed on her brakes thinking it was meant for her. I said no harm done there is just a dent in your boot. I opened the boot and to my horror they was the engine laying on the rear seat! This was the first time I had seen a rear engine car. The police were called and we exchanged details. I never heard any more about it.
My brother was running a business for most of the 90's and early 00's rebuilding New Zealand assembled Imp's and exporting them back to the UK and to Japan and the US. Made a good living at it, exporting ~15 cars a year. Funded his classic racing fix where he ran a race Imp, beating Minis constantly.
@@iatsd Australia Mini in those Knock Down kits up until 1964. I owned a 1961 English assembled Morris 850 Deluxe with a Turbo charged and heavily modified MK1 Cooper S motor under the bonnet, putting out 200+BHP at the wheels. I added a 5 speed G'box and a Quafe LSD in the mid 80's to it. Everything was hand built and modified by an engineer who worked for Qantas. Fastest and most mental car on the road, at the time.
I spent many a cold winters night sitting on a warm Imp engine running at the equivalent RPM of 70Mph. The Imp engine was used in the 80s and 90s by the British Army and RAF as a generator to provide 3 phase power to the Rapier anti aircraft missile system.
The pipe between the radiator at the back and the heating system at front ran inside the quarter panels. When fitting trim strips resulted in the drilling through the panels into the hidden water pipes. Aaa water everywhere.
The Imp had a very busy suspension. They would rotate super easy, which is great for rally but not so much for a daily driver for most people. You could make them dance like a dragonfly if you could move the weight around though 😆
I had a '67 Imp Californian. One of the tricks was to replace the radial tyres with cross-plies - the back end broke away sooner but very, very controllably. Don't ask me how I know. Another common and cheap tweak was to replace the points with much stronger ones from a Cooper S. It cured points bounce and was a cheap way of allowing the gem of an engine to rev to 8000 rpm. The rubbish carb meant that nothing except noise happened after 6000 though. I remember that operating the windscreen washers meant pushing a rubber bulb on the side of the instrument binnacle. Push hard to clean the top of the screen, push gently to clean the bottom. Automotive genius.
Thank you for this, I have a used toy corgi replica Hilman Imp from the 60’s. I was lucky to have my Dad to give me a version of its being while he was still alive. You sir have cleared up the whole picture with this detailed video. Thank you from South Africa 🇿🇦
Great work, Big Car. I have had a few Imps, and still have a modified Imp Californian. Great handling cars when lightly modified. The gearbox is still the best I have ever used. I can change gears so quickly that it sounds like like a motorbike or a modern dual clutch gearbox.
12:41 - The Lady Imp was definitely not the first car made to supposedly sell to women, since it was preceded (at least) by the 1956 Dodge LaFemme in the US. This was entirely pink, accessorized with such goodies as matching pink plastic raincoat and umbrella. Not surprisingly, it proved to be the answer to a question that no one asked.
I took my test on one of these. It was rally/race tuned and could''t use third gear in built up areas. It was incredibly fast. I failed on improper use of gears. The examiner had never been in a fast sports car.
First car I ever had, worst car I ever had. The radiator would run dry quickly, then the warning light gave you seconds to notice and stop before the head gasket blew, warping the aluminium block. Cue new engine. The day the scrappers towed it away was one of the happiest of my teenage years.
In the 70's my dad got one in response to the fuel crises. We didn't have it long and i remember it breaking down on a uk holiday trip to scotland. I think he said it wasn't that economical either as the tiny engine was always having to be worked hard.
Your dad was right. I never owned an Imp but I did have a Mini. Living in the heart of the Pennines where 12% gradients are normal, it was constantly in second gear and being revved, so 30mpg was the best you could hope for. Not great for an "economical" car.
Simple mistake. You just have to drive them downhill everywhere. Takes a bit of planning and m.c.escher'esque navigation but I assure you I once did it and only trifling amounts drugs were involved.
Bravo, at last somebody gives credit to the Corsair as an influencer of so many car designs, from BMW, Fiat, Renault and so many others. And what a treat to see a cover page from Small Car (& Mini) Magazine, which later became just ‘CAR’ and is to this day. I love the quote which went something like “The Scots went on strike over a broken Pie Vending Machine” are we sure it wasn’t a Deep Fried Mars Bar Dispenser?
Errata: The smallest Mini engine was 848cc, not 875cc. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini Clearly my very simple depiction of the Suez crisis could have been better, and is pretty one sided. More study needed.
The Pie Machine Strike was a wildcat strike with the union steward taking the side of the management. The Pie Machine wasn't heating the pies and a strike wasn't helping. Sounds mad when you write it down.
Big Car, what was the front to rear weight distribution of the humble IMP? What was the front to rear weight distribution of the sort after Porsche 911 of that time?
My uncle had one and when he visited us, the asked my dad to have a look at he car as his drivers side floor was damp. On looking under the car, he found the problem… there was no floor; it’s was only the mat/carpet that was stopping his feet from hitting the road! I kid you not
@BigCar I will not repeat myself, but as car history lover, ex car seller etc. I must say, that the details in your history narrating are truly spot on, describing in few sentences the world that existed around yhe time the car reached the market are so well chosen, as so you get the true picture of what went on in those days. I love British car manufacturing history, if you dive deep enough, past the great businessmen that were responsable for the "good cars", you always find the bad apples that often produced nightmares that never went away in certain countries and their car manufacturing histories. The two biggest car manufacturers in official registered car brands(Britain ca. 430 and Italy ca. 370), have great stories of success, but also of the struggle of the car industry, managed by very often the same bad apples. GREAT VIEO.
The first car I remember was my parents Hillman Husky (the imp estate version). It was very funky but drove my dad crazy as if you left it parked after a run it wouldn’t start. Turned out with the engine under the load floor the heat was making fuel evaporate in the carb and it wouldn’t start. I think the factory did a mod but my dad lost patience and sold it. I have fond memories of it in the pale blue colour.
My mate had an imp as his first car in about 1980, I loved it and as far as I remember he never had any problems with it in the years he had it and after he traded it in after owning it for about 3 years it was still running around for quite some time, an elderly lady bought it and she used to wave at my mate every time she saw him.
My dad had a blue Hillman Imp in the early 70's in Rhodesia, after collecting me from school one day and on heading home in a split second we both noticed a wheel shooting off in front of us, my Dad said where the hell did that come from? Next thing we knew the front of the Hillman collapsed on its right hand wheel hub/axle...we walked the rest of the way home! Fond memories.
Actually, they drove very well and were great fun. My brother and I had a modified one that we used for trials… it had excellent traction, and sprint racing… once the technique had been learned for driving a rear engine car, they cornered brilliantly.
yes they did i had one for autograss racing in the mid 70s was very good once you got used to the rear engine rear drive it was better than a mini i drove both
Singer Chamois JBH 635C decambered - would love to have it all over again. As long as you torqued to the book you never had a problem - first time I did the shims was 1.5 days second time I bought a micrometer and took two hours! Evidently 4 hours in the garage manual so doing well. Fantastic car - brilliant holding the corners and 80 in third gear-the only thing I could never shake off was the Ford Cortina - but those were the days when you could have fun......
My Granddad was part of the management at Linwood, he had little good to say about the workers, as you'd imagine, and said that any car produced on a Friday or immediately before the lunch break was completely unsalable. There was also apparently instances of workers literally throwing spanners into the works because they wanted a break. Safe to say I did not hear a fair or balanced account of life at Linwood, so it's interesting to hear it fleshed out a little! There was a BBC documentary about it in about 2007, he was interviewed and his views had not mellowed with the passage of time.
I loved my Imp. I remember one of the first things I did was paint a yellow Starsky and Hutch go faster stripe. I then proceded to fit a roof rack and loaded with a frame tent and a load of camping gear went on a tour of Europe through France, Belgium, Luxembourg. Switzerland and in to Italy ending up in Naples then it was off back into France and up into Andorra ending up south of Barcelona then back to Blighty. This was with the wife navigating and 2 kids crammed into the back. The only problem was a blowing exhaust which was temporarily fixed with a gun gum bandage. An amusing moment was coming out of Andorra into Spain when a grumpy spanish border guard insisted on me getting out of the car and opening the boot for inspection. The look on his face as he saw the engine and not the load of smuggled contraband he was hoping for was priceless. Like other comments I was a bit surprised no mention was made of the Clan Crusader which was always a dream car of mine.
@@grandadians2362 Wow, 3 or 4 years before i was hatched 😆 im livn in that area now so have done my bit of drivn also but not in an imp and im sure things were much nicer back then... great journey.
A buddy of mine had a 1957 Hillman Minx , backwards 4 speed on the column . He paid 50dollars for it in 1976 and used it as a daily driver in high school , he always left the keys in the ignition ! Once he came back and found it had been moved a few feet . Nobody could figure out the shift pattern .
I nearly bought a second hand one, glad I didn't. Remember Bill McGovern driving the George Bevan, 1000 cc class dominating blue Sunbeam Imp, in the British Saloon Car Championship, when it won in 1971 and 1972, against the ever present Minis! I made a poster of a photo taken at "Druids", where it was very low on the ground. He was racing along with Frank Gardner in a 6 litre V8 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 (different class, Imps and Giants). Found out recently that they were local lads to me, I'd seen them at Crystal Palace and Brands Hatch. There was also a Black Imp with yellow side stripe, which came second at Crystal Palace 1966 (Railway sleepers as "barriers"!), against a Mini, beating an Anglia. A certain James Hunt also had a go in an Imp.
First car I every owned. Bought it for £165 to learn to drive in. Passed my test, bought something newer and left the Imp to rust on my mum's driveway for nearly two years. Then one day, out of the blue, I was contacted by a "cherished" registration plate outfit, who offered to take the vehicle for £250. Decided to try for a cheeky £500, but happily to settled on £300.
I was working in Coventry in the early 60s at GEC and my cousin was working at Rootes on Imp development. I had a lot of rides in Imp prototypes, which, considering Derek was also racing karts at the time, were quite exciting :) He once scrubbed off a set of tyres in 500 miles circuit testing. He was also on the team that went to Kenya, testing over the Safari Rally routes. They were once having gearbox problems and he was set to driving up and down the motorway without changing gear, even at the turn rounds (possible in those days). He claimed he could get up to 90mph if he got close enough to a faster car. IIRC the automatic choke and pneumatic throttle were abandoned quite early. One advantage of the rear engine was that a gearbox could be swapped for checking as he was having lunch. I'm probably biassed but I always liked Imps. Derek moved to Lotus in the late 60s and I feared for his life but, strangely, he drove the much quicker cars much more slowly than the Imps :) I never owned an Imp (I was always more interested in motorcycles) but I 'married' a 1965 Mini in 1967 and competed with it in auto-tests with moderate success. Never saw an Imp competing, though. The 3 wheeler Bond Bug also used a (detuned) Imp engine and they were frightenly fast!
@@BigCar2 Thanks for that. I just looked and there is! He's sitting in the LHG seat of an Imp and named as Derek Sleath. He was like my big brother and introduced me to lots of my pastimes - particularly motorbikes and sailing - and died just 3 years ago.
I owned 3 Imps, one underwent a 998cc conversion by Ray Payne at Team Hartwell in Bournemouth. I never had any trouble with them and paid little attention to the 'Put a bag of cement in the boot/they overheat all the time/ they blow head gaskets brigade. There definitely were production problems at Linwood: the car was launched too soon - before it was properly sorted; some requirements of the alloy engine such as correct torqueing of head bolts and the necessity of using coolant containing inhibitor to prevent corrosion were not understood by a lot of owners thus causing some of the problems mentioned above. But I became a staunch supporter of this little car in competition and remember not only Bevan/McGovern but great drivers such as Alex Clacher, John Homewood, Melvyn Adams, Les Nash, Jeff Ward, Ray Payne and Ray Calcutt who swept all before them in the early 70's winning many special saloon car championships such as the 'Kent Messenger' 'Esso Uniflow' and 'Forward Trust.' I would recommend anyone who has a genuine interest in the Imp to obtain and study back numbers of 'Autosport' magazine for, say, 1973 to see just how successful this car was in motorsport.
Agree with you,Peter. A friend of mine did the Rootes mechanics service training courses on maintaining the alloy Imp engines and he always highlighted the importance of correct type of coolant additive and proper head tightening. If those simple things were observed then the Imp engine was a very dependable unit.
Ever tried changing the starter motor on a hillman imp outside at night in the rain? I have, and it's a nightmare, you need extra long extensions for the sockets and long arms!
I always enjoy reading the comments here from people who once owned the car from the video and their experiences. Being 43 years old and not British, I rarely ever saw an imp, but its angular shape with subtle curves in to me looks more attractive than that of a mini. With its layout and engine, it must have been much fun to drive I think, especially the imp sport and the stylish stiletto. The conclusion I can come to then must be that the imp is probably the greatest missed opportunity in British car history, as its design had so much potential. A rear engine-layout wasn't that outdated either in 1963, if you consider that a year later Fiat and Skoda still launched new models with it.
I'm 45 and I don't recall seeing all that many either, despite living in Scotland. I do remember that one of my primary school teachers had one in the early '80s. It looked so old-fashioned compared to the other cars in the staff car park.
Yes it was sad that the Imp wasn't so successful. They had lots of quality problems from the factory. I heard a story that the engine block castings were affected by the water supply dropping every time the workers had their tea-breaks. We have had many missed opportunities in the British car industry. We built some of the most innovative and beautiful cars ever. Sadly we often had quality problems. I think we should have licenced everything to be built in Germany and Japan. They are usually better with production quality.
@@jagolago-bob There are examples of British cars that were solid and had a beautiful or innovative design I think, though perhaps not as much in the 1960s and 70s. Reading the comments regarding the more controversial British cars, it always seems to me like there was a 50/50-chance to get lucky and have a car with no real issues. Which of course is not really acceptable. On German cars: these days they aren't as good as they used to be anymore. Build quality may be ok, but I hear and read a lot about technical issues with them that usually are expensive to fix. I imagine that would have been different in 1960s/70s-Britain with technology being less complex (sometimes a little old-fashioned too). Anyway, I don't regard German cars as really superior anymore to British, French or Italian ones; maybe back in the day they were, but not in 2022.
One of the top car channels on YOU Tube, SINCE I always look out for those kind of channels, but most are far away from being good in explaining or telling something. Good Sunday, and arrivederci dear car friend.
Well-sorted Imps and Minis are both extremely good to drive. Given enough power to reach 100mph with the right suspension and brakes there was little else in the 60's and 70's to match them on fast 'B' roads. I feel very lucky to have enjoyed owning several of both marques and hold them in equal high regard.
Navigated for a friend in the Exeter Trial in a Sunbeam Imp. In the Lands End Trial a year later he ran a similar car but modified for trials, raised suspension, lower gearbox ratios etc. We did well getting an award and it was real fun. I drove part of the way back to the Midlands. Fantastic on twisting roads and up hills, but top speed poor. due to the low ratios.
I remember one of these way back in 1974 when I was looking for my first ever car I ever bought with my own savings. It was a green E reg used one in a dealer's lot. I was granted a test drive, but the first thing I had trouble with was getting it started as it sat on the forcourt for so long the battery went dead. A quick replacemnt later I was driving round town going through the gears, or should I say grinding through the gears because shifting it was like stirring a bucket of bricks (It obviously needed a replacement clutch). Needless to say I didn't buy it, but shortly later bought an H reg Ford Escort instead. I loved the Escort and was a little sad to have to trade it in for my first ever new car, a new R reg Fiesta later on. 😄
One reason the Imp was rushed into production: the Linwood plant was located where it was to bring jobs to a depressed area. At some point they had announced that Imp production would start on a certain date, so they thought they had to keep their word.
Couldv'e had them paint and clean up the factory until it was ready. There are many ways to employ people. Paying a bit more in the short run to keep people fed and happy can reap great rewards when you have loyal workers in the long run.
To say that the Imp was a "Mass Market car" they were not a common sight where I lived in North Yorkshire. Minis were everywhere, Imps were more of a not often seen oddball rarity and after watching this I can see why....They were clearly crap!
I remember, distinctly, seeing the first example of an Imp in my local Rootes dealer showroom, at launch. The car was finished in Powder Blue, or similar, and the first thing I noticed was a jagged hole in the metal of the roof on the off-side, where it curved down to the windscreen, just above the A-pillar - about an inch long and three eighths of an inch wide - which clearly showed from a distance (like someone had drawn on the paint with a black ‘Sharpie’!). The edges of the metal were covered in paint, so the hole had obviously been present at the time of assembly… And this was the car ON DISPLAY 🥴‼️ No wonder hardly anyone bought it!
my first car, second hand but smashing in white with light blue interior. Remember going to Brands Hatch to see a saloon car meeting, along with a friend who was a Mini fanatic. Was delighted to see the McGovern Imp lead a mass of MInis over the finish line ! Happy days.
Very informative video. A brave design blighted by poor management/ workforce/ planning… well loads of stuff really! Had a Imp as my 1st car bought via local newspaper advertisement, as you did in the day. XAB308G in white was a series 2 , round dials on the dash , rather than linear etc; never any over heating problems, despite thrashing it round everywhere. Unfortunately it did burn oil prematurely, due to myself over -using the fiddly floor operated choke. You run any car on an over rich mixture too long , it will get piston wash , wear rings early, at that’s the result! But credit to her she was generally reliable, despite their reputation. Engined revved forever . BTW you forgot to mention the Clan Crusader and Ginetta G15 , who proved what you could do in the right package. Good vid though.
It's a very informative video. I own a Hillman Imp (875cc) in Japan. It was not sold in Japan, so there is no information or parts. It's not fast at all, but it's great for driving around town alone. Summer in Japan is so hot that I don't feel like driving. haha
I found an abandoned Imp Mk 2 in a quarry in the '90s. Got it going with little effort and commuted to work for a couple of years in it. A nice little car. I have also had a FIAT 850 sport that was sold in the same time period and also rear engined. The FIAT was prettier and went better but then it was the sport version...
In the late '50s and early '60s I had a flat next to one of the Rootes engineers on this project - when he wasn't at Linwood! He recounted that the original low density alloy engine castings leaked oil overnight, so design was changed to higher density. This made the rear end heavier and resulted in design changes to the front wheel geometry, hence the alarming toe-in and camber angles, all of which affected the car's stability and dreadful oversteer - a sack of potatoes in the front helped! I had a Mini and one of our 'sports' was to find an 'Apex' (pre-production name for the Imp) on test runs around the local roads and lead it at high speed into trouble! Much as we did to Humbers and Standards into the roundabouts on the Coventry ring-road. Great fun!
My dad had a Hillman Huskey. I was a baby and used to sleep on a blanket on top of the engine cover... No pesky child seats in those days. How did so many of us survive?
I had an Imp, in Canada. Not the smartest move on my part considering heating in winter and braking on ice are important requirements. But what I remember most about the car is that I once parked it near Yorkville (Toronto's very small version of Soho) and at the end of the night went back to my car, unlocked it, got in, started the engine and then realised that my car had gained a radio while I was away. Roots had obviously decided to save money by putting the same lock in all Imps. I decided I should find my car, although the radio was a temptation.......🤣🤣
Well done. The car had a decent chance of success. Too bad Rootes didn't stay in Coventry to build it. A lot of issues would have been quickly resolved or avoided altogether.
When I was growing up, pretty much nobody had a car. One family over the road however had an Hillman Imp! It seemed incredibly glamorous and unbelievable that anyone on the street could afford such a thing. I’ve never driven one, nor even been in one but I’ve always had a soft spot for the HI.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
I had an Imp some years ago, and I loved driving it; the handling was superb. One night I was trying to outrun a Ford Granada behind me, I would lose them easily on the bends, but they would catch up on the straight. Then they put on their police lights and pulled me over, fortunately it was all very amicable.
What a great story, well told. The IMP was 4 or 5 years too late. If it had been launched in 1962 and all the bugs ironed out, it would have given the Mini 850 a run for the money. I have a 16mm colour film of the design and building of the IMP and shows the enormous amount of work that went into the design of the body and the motor.
But I bought a Morris 850 in 1962, thank goodness!
@@brianmuhlingBUM I had a Sunbeam Stiletto which I think I bought somewhere around 1969. It was an ex demo, light blue. I guess this was the luxury version of the Imp at the time, manufactured by Chrysler using the Coventry Climax engine. Whilst courting we used to go to the same pub most evenings and would often see a Ford Granada which would stop there as well. I remember one day at the start of our trip to the pub it turned out in front of us and he put his foot down. I put my foot down, although I could just about keep up I didn't have the power to overtake. I had a lot of problems with the head gasket which was forever blowing, in the end we used some gunk and stuck it down. I had it for about 4-5 years but got rid of it as it was getting costly due to various problems but I had a lot of fun in it, although it would have been fatal if one had a head on crash with so little in the front, plus a fuel tank! Oh yes, and the windscreen leaked like mad. Never did solve that one despite having a new screen fitted.
I married my then girlfriend in 1972, just had our 50th. anniversary. We drove away from our wedding reception in that car for our honeymoon at our new house which only had a cold tap and some surface wired electric lights. Spent our honeymoon doing DIY. I don't recommend papering a ceiling together, it's a good way to test a marriage:)
@@MrOldhoot What a fantastic story, a good old memory from yesteryear. I loved going to the drive-in pictures on a hot night in the mini, wasn't too comfortable if you wanted a cuddle. Thanks for your story. Brian. Western Australia
@@brianmuhlingBUM 60mm trust me you
@ Mr Old hoot my cousin used to own a Stilleto back in the early '80's. Do not think I ever seen another one after he sold it.
The story of the Hillman Imp really sums up the story of the entire British car industry.
Yes..whinging poms and strongmen unions payed for their own funeral, we had one,i coasted backwards into our newly build double garage as a 13yr old kid but forgot to close the door! The centre pillar came off worse,oh and my arse when the old man came home! LOL. love from NZ.
@@koro287
Are these strongmen unions anything to be said about the union leaders taking action today?
@@toyotaprius79 My first job was in spareparts and the union guys were all english and quite lazy, if you pick a fight with a bear you might come off second best is all.
@@toyotaprius79 nowhere near it. Maggie destroyed the power of the unions. In the 70s they were striking every 10 minutes for any reason. Just militant lazy bastards. Maggie starved then back in 👍👍👍👍
Yep hope could anyone look a design like that and think ? That’s good ? What AND THEN THEY BUILT A FACTORY TO MAKE IT WITH HUNDREDS OF GLASGOW DOCKERS ?
My Dad competed in the British Saloon Car Championships in 1972 with a Hillman Imp, winning the private entrants award that year. Really enjoyed the video, thank you
Mad melvyn is your old man? What a legend
@@nothanksguy yep that’s him! he really was a legend 😊
Remember Bill McGovern in the George Bevan imp brilliant
@@jonharnew yes, a rival of my Dads, the Bevan imp was hard to beat! My Dad kept in contact with George Bevan for many years
Jon, have you a copy of 'The British Saloon Car Championship (1958-1972)' by Martyn Morgan Jones. It concentrates on the Bevan McGovern Imp and its 3 times victory in the BSCC, but has a great article on your Dad. It was a limited edition publication of only 500 but It is well worth chasing!
Worked on a building site during the summer school holidays in 1981 and my payment was a 1960’s white Hillman imp (£50). I learnt to drive in the imp and passed my test in 1982. I drove that car for another 2 years, sharing it with my Mother before eventually upgrading to a bigger engined car. The imp was great fun, steering wheel like a bus but handling was good…between the mini and the imp, the imp was more impressive for me💪🏻
My dad had a forest green Hillman Imp. I remember as a kid going with him to pick it up. I also remember there was fear about the aluminum engine and head overheating (which never happened on our car), although the clutch would overheat in stop-start traffic. We loved that car, and my dream car as a student was a clan crusader.
Yes I thought the Clan would have gotten a mention rather than the Probe as they were (still are!) highly regarded and a helluva lot prettier!
Forest Green was what my '66 Super was. Same colour as British Racing Green according to rattle cans.
Green was dangerous.
Could be mistaken for moss.
Red was best.
Happen on our car as well
Well good luck with your white supremacy goals but id keep wanting to join on the low my man
When Chrysler took over the Rootes group the Australian factory had ‘Rootes Australia’ in big letters atop the roof. Chrysler wanted to add their name to make it say ‘Chrysler Rootes Australia’ until it was explained to the Americans what that meant in the local vernacular.
Ah! Nice one....
Someone help me, what does root mean to aussies?
Would it have been inaccurate though?
@@xijinpingsfavoritehemorrho1328 it means to have sex. For example the roof message would read Chrysler fu*ks Australia. Not a great marketing plan ;)
It means the ‘f’ word.
I had 2 Imps and absolutely loved them. They were so easy to throw round corners and wave the front inside wheel in the air while doing so! My friend rallied an Imp with his brother and I spent many long nights working to get the car ready for its next Rally. I used to compete in Production Car Trials in an Imp as well...
I think it was a product that had it been built close to Hillmans main production and engineering facilities could had the teething problems solved quickly and made a serious competitor to other small cars. It was a nice looking car and with Chryslers help could had been a winner for Hillman.
The engine from the Imp was still used into the late 1980's as the power unit for the Rapier missile system. It was used to power a generator to produce the 3 phase supply required.
Very easy to strip and recondition - 875 overhead cam - loved working on it.
Fire engine pumps too.
Back in the early 70's I had a twin headlamp, coupe roof Sunbeam Stiletto with a tuned 998cc engine, there was twin Weber DCOE40 carbs, loud tubular exhaust manifold, hot cam, ported head etc and the car made nearly 100 bhp on Jon Mowatts rolling road in Basildon Essex when I got Jon to set the engine up. The rev limit was over 8K and with lowered suspension, upgraded brakes and wide wheels and painted Daytona yellow bodywork and with gloss black wheels the car looked brilliant and was seriously quick with it's light weight and 100 bhp and was an absolute riot to drive on the road with the most perfectly controllable oversteer you can imagine, I had so much fun with that little car you can't imagine! If only they came that way from the dealer Roots might have had a real hit on their hands like Ford did with their RS2000 cars
My first car was an Imp. Tuned it over a year or so keeping the 875 rather than the 998. They could be sleeved out to 1140cc and Hartwell had a 998 at 118bhp. Mine drove well on the 875 with about 85bhp and a 4 speed jack knight box. One inch driveshafts and a special tool to change the doughnuts! Neg camber kit and triumph herald discs. Shocked many a so called sports car on the road.
I don't think the RS2000 could be called a hit commercially. It might have helped a bit with the Escort's image generally.
Great cars. good to hear people who've had similar experiences. People often overlook the cheaper cars, but they are brilliant to drive.
@@ethelmini The RS 1600 was the escort to go for with its Cosworth BDA engine.
@@ethelmini
If I recall correctly, even the Escort aficionados were not at all impressed with the RS2000...preferring the RS1600
(Peter Cooper confirms I now see.)(Sorry Peter, your comment was below when I replied to erhelmini)
I had my Imp in 1986 for commuting in South London. Best memories were in fresh heavy winter snow just breezing up the steep hill to Crystal Palace and leaving the rest of the cars slipping and sliding at the base. Weight of the engine over the drive wheels and a flat floor pan and the front just lifted up like a sled and the front wheels steered more like a steerable bob sleigh not touching the road surface!
Rather like a Beetle.
Railway sleeper land!
I remember that hill, Anerley hill if remember correctly, we lived in Beckenham and my sister ran a pub In Brixton, going to visit meant going up Anerley hill, my dad had an old camper van that was down to first gear by the time we got near the top, I always got worried in case it didn’t make it.
Just like my Isetta bubble car. I took 2 mates to the pub on Christmas day after an overnight snowfall about 8 inches deep. We were the only car on the road. It steered just like your Imp with the front wheels off the ground like a steerable bob sleigh. I did own an Imp much later but never had deep snow to contend with.
I had one and put a paving slab in the front to keep the front down
My dad had a blue one.. apparently I called it the "broom broom'!! no doubt because of the noise the engine made. He said it had a great engine and could cruise at 70mph all day. I also remember our neighbour had a Stilletoe version.. posher version with more dials.. happy days. I can even remember the day we went and changed it for a Hillman Avenger in 1974... now that was a great car!
I had a couple of Avengers, if I remember correctly, a 1275cc version and 1500 GT, they were like chalk and cheese. I really liked the GT, not so much the other one.
We had a GT .. was the envy of the cortina L boys😅 after that my dad had fiat 131 racing … my fav dad car if all time… it was so much better than the Ford rubbish !
The IMP shook violently above 60mph
My dad made the Hillman Stiletto in Australia. Only one hundred were made. He went by the pseudonym Jack Eiffeltower. I never saw one.
I learned to drive in my mum's Hillman Imp and then appropriated it when required, haha.
It was a great wee car, great fun to drive on the winding Scottish roads.
I watched this car rip around Penang GP in late 70s till early 80s driven by part time drivers full time RAF pilots base in North Malaysia Butterworth airbase. It was awesome
My mum was a Rootes sales manageress in Kensington in the mid sixties and as a result we had a Hillman imp. I thought it was brilliant. I learned how to drive in one. I later drove the Mini, I'd take the imp in a heartbeat.
I found one of these 15 years ago in an abandoned garage in Hamilton Ohio. The garage was being torn down. I tried to get it but the new property owner was a jerk about it. I watched them drag it out with a backhoe and proceeded to destroy it and threw the pieces in a dumpster. It's the only one I've ever seen in my life.
Sad.
@@BigCar2
It was very sad. When I saw it I had no idea what it was and had to look it up on my phone. Someone cared enough to ship it from the other side of rhe world only to have some 400 pound douche destroy it.
You should have gone to him the following day exclaiming it was a rare, valuable classic and he was now a very wealthy man! - provided he still had the car.....oh....
Should've told him it was rare and valuable the moment he destroyed it.
Hamilton! Oh, forgot, you guys dropped the ! Lol
My neck of the woods. That’s a shame about the little car. What jerks….
Really enjoyed the video, thanks. My mate, Mike, who looked a bit like Marty Feldman had an imp when we were in our late teens early 20's, late 1970's. We had a long weekend in Dorest near Lulworth Cove and travelled from NW London near Uxbridge. Mike usualyy carried a spare cylinder head as his experience was they used to warp easily and cause huge problems. He would just replace the head and drive on if this happened. On this particukar trip he did not have one as the car was full with our stuff. On the way down the head started leaking. By the time we needed to go home it was really bad. As we drove along we looked like a steam engine, we had to make sure the ngine did not tirn off or it would not start due to water in the cylinders. So we stopped at every oppertunity to put water in the radiator and fill up bottles while the engine kept running and a huge steam cloud built up at the back of the car. Amazingly we got home and Mike managed to get to his house and later fix the car.
These are now of course happy memories but at the time it was a bit of a worry. I laugh at young peolpe now who dont have a clue about the cars they are driving as the cars are so reliable, can often only be fixed at a dealer if they do go wrong, often for something so silly its not funny eg a circuit to the petrol injectors being cracked and needing replacing, no idea of "points", capaciotrs, solenoids, tuning to get the timng on the points correct to make the engine run well, just call the AA (NRMA in OZ) , get a tow and replace a circuit. No nursing of cars now.
I am not sure what I prefer, the fun of tuning doing it yourself etc or just press a button and go with very few breakdowns, for which you just outsource.
Solution ride a great motorcycle, I think.
Always liked the imps.
i live quite near the old linwood factory and the hillman imp is still considered a cool car around here. dude in the workshop across the street has 3 of them and loves em.
Despite all the disastrous decisions that destroyed this little car, overall it was very cool and interesting 👍
They were shite
I currently own two hill man imps , and absolutely love it , I’ve never had so much fun in a car , I used mine daily for many years , as long as you keep up with the maintenance, that are great , thanks for the video mate , best of luck to everyone x
You lucky bloke, i love those things
I still have a special drift , made as a “govie” job in a local works, for removal and refitting of the kingpin bushes which wore out regularly.
What a fantastic channel this is, so professionally done, bags of research and interesting footage - this should be on TV!!
If you have the YT app on your TV, it can!
My dad and grandad had Imps. I drove them many times and loved them. A hoot to drive!
When I was younger and playing with Mini's, a guy told me you could turn a Mini 1100cc motor into 1220cc by using Hillman Imps pistons. So I did. Fantastic car. More torques than a Cooper S and better fuel economy. Perfect for city driving and cheaper.
I had a MK1 Imp when I Started work in 1971.
It served me well, everything about the car worked well except that I had to change the clutch three times in a year, it was tiny and just wore out quickly, MK2 cars had a larger clutch.
Second problem was the heater, it didn't work well at all. In winter I had to drive with the windows open and wear enormous coat hat scarf and gloves to avoid windows steaming up. The heater hoses passed through the sills and up to behind the dash, so long that hot water cooled before reaching the heater matrix, it improved slightly after I blew it through with garden hose. No it wasn't air locks.
Later on in life I had a Mini and I have to say I thought the Imp was the better car, engine, transmission and suspension wise, it was also a true unitary car without those rust prone and heavy Mini subframes and proper coil springs and shockers.
Had no problem with heater output on my '66 Super but things were vastly improved by fitting a blower/fan as the car didn't come with one. I used one intended IIRC for a Vauxhall Cresta that had the same mounting flange but a different output spigot, so the short original airbox flange was body-fillered onto the output at a slight angle needed to connect neatly to the trunking/hose.
@@Graham_Langley That sounds like a successful upgrade. My car had the original choke and throttle mechanisms, they worked as they should. I guess different owners had different problems, with me it was heater and clutch, everything else was fine. I liked the car particularly the opening rear window. It was an easy car to work on, clutch changes done on Saturday mornings before lunch, I compressed the rubber doughnuts with three jubilee clips joined together. Those parts were also used in Lotus Elan.
@@philiptownsend4026
It was. Also made enough noise to use to warn pedestrians of your presence when the horn wasn't appropriate, as in the entrance to a car park I regularly used some 40 years ago.
Clutches were done Sunday mornings in my case. Three bottle/screw jacks - transaxle, sump and exaust manifold - and push the car away. Putting the transaxle one on a bit of hardboard made alignment easier on putting it back in.
Still got the donut compressors somewhere, made from a make any size clamp kit.
@@Graham_Langley yup almost exactly the same clutch change scenario as me. I made sure to keep the rear cross member fixing bolts clean and greased for easy removal next time. The job took very few tools and I would lay them out neatly in preparation. An easy DIY home mechanic job, how many modern cars could claim that?
@terry lester Is just as well with the tiny cardboard clutch. Seems you had the same issue.
Enjoyed this and brought back memories!
My father bought a new metallic Aqua Marine Sunbeam Sports Imp in 1972, can still remember it’s reg EOX 277L. We were a family of 6 and I can remember the Summer Holiday trip to Devon from Birmingham where we spent 13 hours in the thing.
It spent more time back in Coventry than our drive, replacement engine, replacement gearbox and assorted bodywork issues.
After a year he and we had had enough and he changed it for a Hillman Hunter. My mother would never let him forget what a lemon and poor choice the Imp was!
Registration 249 XBB my first car a Hillman Imp 1968, I also called it Rupert Rust.
In the 1960's I worked for a company that owned a Hillman Imp van. Because the engine was in the back end of the van, it was very light on the steering. If we wanted to carry anything in the back of the van we had to place a 1 cwt bag of cement under the bonnet to even out the weight. If we didn't do this the van was impossible to steer and would wander all over the road. It was a horrible vehicle to drive.
Thankfully vehicles like the Hillman Imp van are no longer produced.
Great video. I recall a holiday back in the mid 70's, my sister and I were probably 8 and 9 and squashed in the back of our gold colored Imp sitting atop a suitcase or two. We were traveling in convoy with our uncle and aunt and their kids, they were fortunate to have a big Ford Granada. I recall the Imp really struggling up the hills on the M62, my uncle had to keep stopping to wait for us. The journey from Lancashire to Scarborough can be done in less than a couple of hours but I recall it taking us most of the day! Got to say the car had a lot of character. I now live in the US and I see them popping up for sale every now and again on specialist websites.
great story i live close to the m62 had a few imps and loved em .
I live in Jamaica which is hilly and the Imp do struggle on the hill.
Nostalgic. My best friend and I both had Singer Chamois. Really loved that car.. HUL 736C . Funny how you can always remember your early car number plates but struggle to remember your current one!. Nice video, thanks.
I have a 1970 Hillman Super Imp. I use it whenever the roads are dry and it’s great! Loads of fun, exempt from everything and very efficient. I love it!
Had one in 73 in Singapore when I rode a Honda 750. Used the Imp as an umbrella during the Monsoon season.
Actually it was a fun little car but used to overheat due to the extreme tropical climate and lack of maintenance. It was given to me by a departing colleague and only had about three months road tax left on it and which I did not renew.
Found a fitting home when it was gutted, floor pan removed and the lightened shell space-framed and then fitted over an Elfin 600 F2 for track use. Wonder what happened to it.
Oh, the memories. Those were the days.
I was a schoolboy at Linwood High when the factory shut. It devastated the place and it never recovered- at least as of 2022. The Imp was a decent enough car, but relations between workers an management were never good. Stories of mass stealing were common, although I can't say how true they were. When Chrysler shut the place, the Unions thought they had prevailed- but the workers were on the buroo!
for non-Scots reading this.. 'buroo' refers to the Labour Bureau, thus unemployment benefits.
I worked for Chrysler at their Belvedere, Illinois assembly in the 60s through the late 80s. Those were bad times for Chrysler, they had no business buying rootes in the 70s.
It's really easy to blame the unions any time UK industry is mentioned.
But you only need to look at this story to see how incredibly inept UK management was (and my experiences suggest that it was significantly WORSE in the 80s and 90s - I can't say beyond that as I left); one sensible decision, to build a small, economic car, followed by daft decision followed by daft decision followed by... guess what? a f**king mad decision.
It doesn't take a genius to realise that having a rear engine was going to cause all sorts of packaging problems, and WHY? I get that the FIAT and Beetle had rear engines, but it's hardly as if that was the whole market, there were plenty of other cars with front engines.
And it's all well and good to take the government money for building the plant, but if you don't have the skills, what really was the point? And then deliberately creating a division between workers in one plant vs another one... wtf thought THAT was a good idea?
But the unions got the blame, not the terrible management, not the idiotic decisions, not the wasteful processes.
Because that's not what our lords and masters want us to think, they want us to think that we're better off without anyone to fight for us...
Yeah, that's worked out well for the UK, hasn't it?
@@ryanthompson2893 In the US Chrysler had only the "muscle car" market keeping them in the red, and that was coming to an end by 1970 which everyone foretold. They knew Ford and GM were developing small economy cars and they thought the best way to compete there was to buy into someone already making such cars, which was probably a good idea seeing how badly the Pinto and Vega ended up. They simply chose the wrong place to put their money. TBH, at the time there was probably no company in Europe which would have been a good choice for the American market where the people expected automatic transmissions, A/C, less 'spartan' interiors, and a softer ride quality. And TBH, the American companies couldn't do what was needed either so they lost large chunks of money with only Ford and GM having the financial resources to survive their mistakes. In the meantime the Japanese car makers were learning how to give the world what it wanted.
@@davidcolin6519 Nicely said. That part of the story rarely gets told.
I bought a Forest Green Singer Chamois - a posh Imp with a bit of plastic wood stuck on - in 1968, a 1964 model some four years old. I didn't intend to buy it - I went out with the intention of purchasing a Mini - but my father talked me into it on the basis that the Chamois was a classier product. Thanks, Dad, for giving me the benefit of your technical expertise. It was, of course, a disaster, saddling me in the four years I owned it with the usual problems: water pumps, seized steering, multiple clutches, terminal body rot - and the transaxle blew up on the M62. Radiator failure and cylinder head gaskets also featured prominently. One thing in its favour, however, was the bargain price of a new exhaust - £2.50 for a complete system, one of the few advantages of a rear engine layout. I got £30 for it when I eventually relinquished ownership which, to be fair, only cost me £83 a year in depreciation, probably a little less than a Mercedes S class would shed over the same period. But of course the never-ending catalogue of repairs cost me many times the figure lost in depreciation. My next car was a second hand Viva HB, which felt and drove like a Bentley Continental by comparison. Do I feel any retrospective yearning or affection for the Chamois all these years later? Sadly, no.
The engineering department at uni had an entire Imp drive train to hand; whenever they wanted to demonstrate a design fault like an inconvenient stress concentration or a wrong choice of material, they picked up a piece of Imp to demonstrate.
Having invested in an expensive alloy casting plant to make the entire engine and gearbox casing out of cast alloy they went on to cast lots of brackets and other stuff out of alloy when a piece of bent steel would have been a better choice.
@jerry calvert on sports cars.... or since alloy became cheap. it wasnt back in the time of the imp. one can only imagine a front wheel drive imp... could've worked rather well, the coventry engine being lighter and more refined than the bmc did. that and giving the thing a 1500cc to beat the cooper S.
@jerry calvert Yes it has, but you have to design them to take account of the different material properties which they failed to do.
University of Strathclyde had a cutaway gearbox in a corridor of the Engineering Department.
All sorts of people could have reason to use that corridor. Very educational.
For a engine at back, you need those lightweight alloys, even with a small engine, because a heavy one would make the car undrivable.
@@polentusmax6100 Nope, not the great clunky (cracked) brackets and fittings they cast in alloy instead of pressing out of steel.
Great documentary on not only the Hillman Imp, but the Rootes Group.
Starting with a newly-married employee couple who were on different shifts and strike-action was taken to pressure management to place them on the same shift, the workers and union used strike-action at their whims and fancies. At the time when the Japanese were emerging as a player in the car manufacturer and exporter scene, Rootes was in trouble, and had to be rescued by the American Chrysler group. But production of Chrysler cars also involved sourcing components from different countries, hence affecting time and cost. Reliability was also a big issue. While the Dodge Avenger/Chrysler Avenger/ Dodge Arrow/Plymouth Cricket/Talbot Avenger had fair success worldwide in the 1970s after the Chrysler takeover, It was the long-drawn funeral for the Rootes Group and a massive blow for the British automobile industry.
Trinidad & Tobago.
West Indies.
Another brilliant video, thanks!!
Never driven or been in an Imp, but always remember my dad's Hillman Hunter estate.
16:49
"Kids fight back show this ad to Dad"
'pester power' started earlier than i thought.
I had both an imp and a mini and loved both for totally different reasons. To try and compare both would be like comparing apples to pears.
I was born in 1970 in the island of Malta. When I was young my father used to take my brother and I every Sunday to an old RAF airbase and where car and motorbike races were performed by entusiasts. I remember very well Hillman Imps taking part in these races thrown in the midst of Mini Minors, Ford Escorts and Ford Capris, Fiats 600 Abarth and Simcas. Those were the good old days.
Drove an Imp this weekend just gone for the first time 34 years at the Drive Dads Car experience in Derbyshire. Though it seems very basic by modern standards it was a fun experience more akin to a giant go-kart and I have to say out of the three cars I drove (XJS and MG Maestro) it was the one that brought the biggest smile!
My Dad had one of these for a short time back in the day. Because the Imp has its engine in the rear, he soon discovered that he required to put some ballast in the luggage compartment in the front the day that he drove over the Forth Road Bridge. As he drove across the bridge, the front end was suddenly lifted off the road by the breeze blowing up from below through the grid between the bridge supports and my Dad was, in essence, doing a wheelie at 50 mph! It scared the bejeesus out of him. Needless to say, he got rid of it soon afterwards.
Well, that made me laugh. Scary of course.
I had a Green Hillman Imp around 1967 in Australia. They were made by Rootes Group in Sydney. Great little car, I had it for 3 years before I wrote it off, a telegraph pole jumped out at me, lol.
My late grandmother had one too in the 70's in Queensland... green, manual & i can remember it was a Smokey thing but reliable.... Ho yes... memories.
Based in Germany in the 60s my brother and I had bought a second hand Opel Capitan. As I was going back to the UK for a year I gave him full ownership.
When I returned to Germany I found that he had bought a brand new Hillman Imp and I wasn't even allowed to drive it.
It wasn't unusual to drive home on leave to the UK so one time I was a passenger in the Imp.
We got to Lewisham where the clutch pedal hit the floor and stayed there. A family friend drove down from Dundee with the intention of towing the car to Dundee where it could be repaired while we enjoyed our time off.
The friend decided that the car could be driven using the double de clutch method, matching engine and road speed which my brother couldn't do so the only time I got to drive the Imp was from Lewisham to Dundee.
It turned out that the release fork had broken and another time the wiring loom caught fire when the car was parked.
Not a great advert for the Imp.
Thanks for the video. My late father in law was lead engineer at Rootes for the Imp engine and he once told me of the cylinder block quality issues. Apparently the supplier had previously only cast beer barrels and had no understanding of geometrical tolerances and the precision required for engine manufacture.
Beer barrels are not cast, better check your facts.
The gap between cylinder and water jacket was only 1/4 inch or so. Easily eroded if anti corrosion additive wasn't sufficient. Too light in front and I added a 25kg bag of gravel to steady the ride. This after a neighbour's wife was killed when car went off road in a sidewind.
@@geoffcrumblin9850 I have definitely seen cast beer barrels. They do exist - though not so much these days. Now they are mostly rolled/pressed beer barrels.
@@geoffcrumblin9850 aluminium beer kegs are though and that is what he probably meant.
@@robharris5467 Ha! I was wondering how many comments I would have to read before coming across a mention of the weight-at-the-front issue! An Imp was my first car, and I often heard of people putting a bag of sand or a breeze block in the front to even things up. Sorry to hear about your neighbour's missus, awful.
Fascinating - I knew next to nothing abiout any of this. Great vid.
I was always a mini man. Sad end to all the famous UK marques, quality control, labour issues, management issues etc.
I remember seeing my first Datsun Cherry and thought then this will conquer all the small cars.
I have just found this u-tupe video. I thought I would tell you this interesting story. In the sixties and seventies I was a lorry driver. I was driving from Reading to Norwich. In those days you had to drive through Towns (very few bypasses) When you leave Newmarket there is a light controlled junction with one road going to Bury St. Edmunds and the other going to Norwich. In front of me was a Hillman Imp. The only time the road to Norwich changed to red was when a jockey and horse pulled the chain when wanting to cross the road. Having travelled though Newmarket many times I knew the lights would not change to red for Norwich bound traffic unless they was a horse and jockey there. The Hillman driver did not know and and on seeing the light on red for the Bury bound traffic even though she was in the Norwich bound lane, suddenly slammed on her brakes, I had no time to react and ran into the back of the Hillman. The hillman driver got out of the car looking very shaken, I said to her why did she stop on a green light. She said she was sorry, but she saw the red light at the last moment and slammed on her brakes thinking it was meant for her. I said no harm done there is just a dent in your boot. I opened the boot and to my horror they was the engine laying on the rear seat! This was the first time I had seen a rear engine car. The police were called and we exchanged details. I never heard any more about it.
Assured clear distance
My brother was running a business for most of the 90's and early 00's rebuilding New Zealand assembled Imp's and exporting them back to the UK and to Japan and the US. Made a good living at it, exporting ~15 cars a year. Funded his classic racing fix where he ran a race Imp, beating Minis constantly.
Its that where they all went? 😆 Haven't seen one in NZ for ages.
Are you telling me the Imp was assembled in NZ? Were they Knock Down Kits by chance?
@@doraexplora9046 Yes, CKD kits. Assembled by Todd Motors in Wellington, I think.
@@iatsd Australia Mini in those Knock Down kits up until 1964. I owned a 1961 English assembled Morris 850 Deluxe with a Turbo charged and heavily modified MK1 Cooper S motor under the bonnet, putting out 200+BHP at the wheels. I added a 5 speed G'box and a Quafe LSD in the mid 80's to it. Everything was hand built and modified by an engineer who worked for Qantas. Fastest and most mental car on the road, at the time.
@@iatsd Yeah, in Petone.
I spent many a cold winters night sitting on a warm Imp engine running at the equivalent RPM of 70Mph. The Imp engine was used in the 80s and 90s by the British Army and RAF as a generator to provide 3 phase power to the Rapier anti aircraft missile system.
My first car. It was of course, pretty rubbish. But like your first love, your first car is always somehow special and memorable.
The pipe between the radiator at the back and the heating system at front ran inside the quarter panels. When fitting trim strips resulted in the drilling through the panels into the hidden water pipes. Aaa water everywhere.
My aunt had an imp. She said it was prone to spontaneous outbursts of adverse handling. I think it may have been broken, or her driving!
The Imp had a very busy suspension. They would rotate super easy, which is great for rally but not so much for a daily driver for most people. You could make them dance like a dragonfly if you could move the weight around though 😆
I had a '67 Imp Californian. One of the tricks was to replace the radial tyres with cross-plies - the back end broke away sooner but very, very controllably. Don't ask me how I know.
Another common and cheap tweak was to replace the points with much stronger ones from a Cooper S. It cured points bounce and was a cheap way of allowing the gem of an engine to rev to 8000 rpm. The rubbish carb meant that nothing except noise happened after 6000 though.
I remember that operating the windscreen washers meant pushing a rubber bulb on the side of the instrument binnacle. Push hard to clean the top of the screen, push gently to clean the bottom. Automotive genius.
Thank you for this, I have a used toy corgi replica Hilman Imp from the 60’s. I was lucky to have my Dad to give me a version of its being while he was still alive. You sir have cleared up the whole picture with this detailed video. Thank you from South Africa 🇿🇦
Great work, Big Car. I have had a few Imps, and still have a modified Imp Californian. Great handling cars when lightly modified.
The gearbox is still the best I have ever used. I can change gears so quickly that it sounds like like a motorbike or a modern dual clutch gearbox.
12:41 - The Lady Imp was definitely not the first car made to supposedly sell to women, since it was preceded (at least) by the 1956 Dodge LaFemme in the US. This was entirely pink, accessorized with such goodies as matching pink plastic raincoat and umbrella. Not surprisingly, it proved to be the answer to a question that no one asked.
I took my test on one of these. It was rally/race tuned and could''t use third gear in built up areas. It was incredibly fast. I failed on improper use of gears. The examiner had never been in a fast sports car.
I love your dry humour! Great video, I remember these from when I was little but didn't know much about them, so thanks for another interesting video.
Had one in the 80 s in London. Loved it. Never let me down, even when I accidentally filled it with diesel.
First car I ever had, worst car I ever had. The radiator would run dry quickly, then the warning light gave you seconds to notice and stop before the head gasket blew, warping the aluminium block. Cue new engine. The day the scrappers towed it away was one of the happiest of my teenage years.
In the 70's my dad got one in response to the fuel crises. We didn't have it long and i remember it breaking down on a uk holiday trip to scotland. I think he said it wasn't that economical either as the tiny engine was always having to be worked hard.
Your dad was right. I never owned an Imp but I did have a Mini. Living in the heart of the Pennines where 12% gradients are normal, it was constantly in second gear and being revved, so 30mpg was the best you could hope for. Not great for an "economical" car.
Simple mistake. You just have to drive them downhill everywhere. Takes a bit of planning and m.c.escher'esque navigation but I assure you I once did it and only trifling amounts drugs were involved.
Bravo, at last somebody gives credit to the Corsair as an influencer of so many car designs, from BMW, Fiat, Renault and so many others.
And what a treat to see a cover page from Small Car (& Mini) Magazine, which later became just ‘CAR’ and is to this day.
I love the quote which went something like “The Scots went on strike over a broken Pie Vending Machine” are we sure it wasn’t a Deep Fried Mars Bar Dispenser?
Errata: The smallest Mini engine was 848cc, not 875cc. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini
Clearly my very simple depiction of the Suez crisis could have been better, and is pretty one sided. More study needed.
@Uncle Joe The Imp was only ever 875 or 998cc.
The Pie Machine Strike was a wildcat strike with the union steward taking the side of the management.
The Pie Machine wasn't heating the pies and a strike wasn't helping.
Sounds mad when you write it down.
Big Car, what was the front to rear weight distribution of the humble IMP?
What was the front to rear weight distribution of the sort after Porsche 911 of that time?
I forgot to mention the VW Beetle which was also rear engine'd
@Uncle Joe NP
Great little car!
Handled like a go-cart! A really quick go-cart!! 😲
My uncle had one and when he visited us, the asked my dad to have a look at he car as his drivers side floor was damp.
On looking under the car, he found the problem… there was no floor; it’s was only the mat/carpet that was stopping his feet from hitting the road! I kid you not
That must have been the Fred Flintstone model.
All cars from that era rusted like a bastard.
That was normal for all cars back then - they would start rotting as soon as you got them out the showroom!
@BigCar I will not repeat myself, but as car history lover, ex car seller etc. I must say, that the details in your history narrating are truly spot on, describing in few sentences the world that existed around yhe time the car reached the market are so well chosen, as so you get the true picture of what went on in those days. I love British car manufacturing history, if you dive deep enough, past the great businessmen that were responsable for the "good cars", you always find the bad apples that often produced nightmares that never went away in certain countries and their car manufacturing histories. The two biggest car manufacturers in official registered car brands(Britain ca. 430 and Italy ca. 370), have great stories of success, but also of the struggle of the car industry, managed by very often the same bad apples. GREAT VIEO.
The first car I remember was my parents Hillman Husky (the imp estate version). It was very funky but drove my dad crazy as if you left it parked after a run it wouldn’t start. Turned out with the engine under the load floor the heat was making fuel evaporate in the carb and it wouldn’t start. I think the factory did a mod but my dad lost patience and sold it. I have fond memories of it in the pale blue colour.
My mate had an imp as his first car in about 1980, I loved it and as far as I remember he never had any problems with it in the years he had it and after he traded it in after owning it for about 3 years it was still running around for quite some time, an elderly lady bought it and she used to wave at my mate every time she saw him.
My dad had a blue Hillman Imp in the early 70's in Rhodesia, after collecting me from school one day and on heading home in a split second we both noticed a wheel shooting off in front of us, my Dad said where the hell did that come from? Next thing we knew the front of the Hillman collapsed on its right hand wheel hub/axle...we walked the rest of the way home! Fond memories.
Learned to drive & passed my test at 17 in 1967 in a green Hillman Imp.Great car.
Actually, they drove very well and were great fun. My brother and I had a modified one that we used for trials… it had excellent traction, and sprint racing… once the technique had been learned for driving a rear engine car, they cornered brilliantly.
The technique was basically to throw it into a corner.
yes they did i had one for autograss racing in the mid 70s was very good once you got used to the rear engine rear drive it was better than a mini i drove both
Singer Chamois JBH 635C decambered - would love to have it all over again. As long as you torqued to the book you never had a problem - first time I did the shims was 1.5 days second time I bought a micrometer and took two hours! Evidently 4 hours in the garage manual so doing well. Fantastic car - brilliant holding the corners and 80 in third gear-the only thing I could never shake off was the Ford Cortina - but those were the days when you could have fun......
My Granddad was part of the management at Linwood, he had little good to say about the workers, as you'd imagine, and said that any car produced on a Friday or immediately before the lunch break was completely unsalable. There was also apparently instances of workers literally throwing spanners into the works because they wanted a break. Safe to say I did not hear a fair or balanced account of life at Linwood, so it's interesting to hear it fleshed out a little!
There was a BBC documentary about it in about 2007, he was interviewed and his views had not mellowed with the passage of time.
Militant weegies, who'd have thought it 🤔
my mum had a dark purple one of these when I was little!!! I loved it! 😍
I loved my Imp. I remember one of the first things I did was paint a yellow Starsky and Hutch go faster stripe. I then proceded to fit a roof rack and loaded with a frame tent and a load of camping gear went on a tour of Europe through France, Belgium, Luxembourg. Switzerland and in to Italy ending up in Naples then it was off back into France and up into Andorra ending up south of Barcelona then back to Blighty. This was with the wife navigating and 2 kids crammed into the back. The only problem was a blowing exhaust which was temporarily fixed with a gun gum bandage. An amusing moment was coming out of Andorra into Spain when a grumpy spanish border guard insisted on me getting out of the car and opening the boot for inspection. The look on his face as he saw the engine and not the load of smuggled contraband he was hoping for was priceless. Like other comments I was a bit surprised no mention was made of the Clan Crusader which was always a dream car of mine.
Great story. What year was the roadtrip?
@@pmacc3557 I can't remember exactly but around 1973 or 1974.
@@grandadians2362 Wow, 3 or 4 years before i was hatched 😆 im livn in that area now so have done my bit of drivn also but not in an imp and im sure things were much nicer back then... great journey.
I loved my 1967 metallic blue Hillman Imp. A terrific car.
A buddy of mine had a 1957 Hillman Minx , backwards 4 speed on the column .
He paid 50dollars for it in 1976 and used it as a daily driver in high school , he always left the keys in the ignition !
Once he came back and found it had been moved a few feet .
Nobody could figure out the shift pattern .
I passed my driving test on a column shift Hillman Minx!
I nearly bought a second hand one, glad I didn't.
Remember Bill McGovern driving the George Bevan, 1000 cc class dominating blue Sunbeam Imp,
in the British Saloon Car Championship, when it won in 1971 and 1972, against the ever present Minis!
I made a poster of a photo taken at "Druids", where it was very low on the ground.
He was racing along with Frank Gardner in a 6 litre V8 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 (different class, Imps and Giants).
Found out recently that they were local lads to me, I'd seen them at Crystal Palace and Brands Hatch.
There was also a Black Imp with yellow side stripe,
which came second at Crystal Palace 1966 (Railway sleepers as "barriers"!), against a Mini, beating an Anglia.
A certain James Hunt also had a go in an Imp.
First car I every owned. Bought it for £165 to learn to drive in. Passed my test, bought something newer and left the Imp to rust on my mum's driveway for nearly two years. Then one day, out of the blue, I was contacted by a "cherished" registration plate outfit, who offered to take the vehicle for £250. Decided to try for a cheeky £500, but happily to settled on £300.
I was working in Coventry in the early 60s at GEC and my cousin was working at Rootes on Imp development. I had a lot of rides in Imp prototypes, which, considering Derek was also racing karts at the time, were quite exciting :) He once scrubbed off a set of tyres in 500 miles circuit testing. He was also on the team that went to Kenya, testing over the Safari Rally routes.
They were once having gearbox problems and he was set to driving up and down the motorway without changing gear, even at the turn rounds (possible in those days). He claimed he could get up to 90mph if he got close enough to a faster car. IIRC the automatic choke and pneumatic throttle were abandoned quite early. One advantage of the rear engine was that a gearbox could be swapped for checking as he was having lunch. I'm probably biassed but I always liked Imps.
Derek moved to Lotus in the late 60s and I feared for his life but, strangely, he drove the much quicker cars much more slowly than the Imps :)
I never owned an Imp (I was always more interested in motorcycles) but I 'married' a 1965 Mini in 1967 and competed with it in auto-tests with moderate success. Never saw an Imp competing, though. The 3 wheeler Bond Bug also used a (detuned) Imp engine and they were frightenly fast!
There are a lot of photos of the Kenya trip on imps4ever.info, you may see photos of him there.
@@BigCar2 Thanks for that. I just looked and there is! He's sitting in the LHG seat of an Imp and named as Derek Sleath. He was like my big brother and introduced me to lots of my pastimes - particularly motorbikes and sailing - and died just 3 years ago.
I owned 3 Imps, one underwent a 998cc conversion by Ray Payne at Team Hartwell in Bournemouth. I never had any trouble with them and paid little attention to the 'Put a bag of cement in the boot/they overheat all the time/ they blow head gaskets brigade. There definitely were production problems at Linwood: the car was launched too soon - before it was properly sorted; some requirements of the alloy engine such as correct torqueing of head bolts and the necessity of using coolant containing inhibitor to prevent corrosion were not understood by a lot of owners thus causing some of the problems mentioned above. But I became a staunch supporter of this little car in competition and remember not only Bevan/McGovern but great drivers such as Alex Clacher, John Homewood, Melvyn Adams, Les Nash, Jeff Ward, Ray Payne and Ray Calcutt who swept all before them in the early 70's winning many special saloon car championships such as the 'Kent Messenger' 'Esso Uniflow' and 'Forward Trust.' I would recommend anyone who has a genuine interest in the Imp to obtain and study back numbers of 'Autosport' magazine for, say, 1973 to see just how successful this car was in motorsport.
Agree with you,Peter. A friend of mine did the Rootes mechanics service training courses on maintaining the alloy Imp engines and he always highlighted the importance of correct type of coolant additive and proper head tightening. If those simple things were observed then the Imp engine was a very dependable unit.
Ever tried changing the starter motor on a hillman imp outside at night in the rain? I have, and it's a nightmare, you need extra long extensions for the sockets and long arms!
I always enjoy reading the comments here from people who once owned the car from the video and their experiences. Being 43 years old and not British, I rarely ever saw an imp, but its angular shape with subtle curves in to me looks more attractive than that of a mini. With its layout and engine, it must have been much fun to drive I think, especially the imp sport and the stylish stiletto. The conclusion I can come to then must be that the imp is probably the greatest missed opportunity in British car history, as its design had so much potential. A rear engine-layout wasn't that outdated either in 1963, if you consider that a year later Fiat and Skoda still launched new models with it.
And also the VW beetle had a flat rear engine
I'm 45 and I don't recall seeing all that many either, despite living in Scotland. I do remember that one of my primary school teachers had one in the early '80s. It looked so old-fashioned compared to the other cars in the staff car park.
Yes it was sad that the Imp wasn't so successful. They had lots of quality problems from the factory.
I heard a story that the engine block castings were affected by the water supply dropping every time the workers had their tea-breaks.
We have had many missed opportunities in the British car industry. We built some of the most innovative and beautiful cars ever. Sadly we often had quality problems.
I think we should have licenced everything to be built in Germany and Japan. They are usually better with production quality.
@@jagolago-bob but it would no longer be British
@@jagolago-bob There are examples of British cars that were solid and had a beautiful or innovative design I think, though perhaps not as much in the 1960s and 70s. Reading the comments regarding the more controversial British cars, it always seems to me like there was a 50/50-chance to get lucky and have a car with no real issues. Which of course is not really acceptable.
On German cars: these days they aren't as good as they used to be anymore. Build quality may be ok, but I hear and read a lot about technical issues with them that usually are expensive to fix. I imagine that would have been different in 1960s/70s-Britain with technology being less complex (sometimes a little old-fashioned too). Anyway, I don't regard German cars as really superior anymore to British, French or Italian ones; maybe back in the day they were, but not in 2022.
One of the top car channels on YOU Tube, SINCE I always look out for those kind of channels, but most are far away from being good in explaining or telling something. Good Sunday, and arrivederci dear car friend.
Well-sorted Imps and Minis are both extremely good to drive. Given enough power to reach 100mph with the right suspension and brakes there was little else in the 60's and 70's to match them on fast 'B' roads. I feel very lucky to have enjoyed owning several of both marques and hold them in equal high regard.
Navigated for a friend in the Exeter Trial in a Sunbeam Imp. In the Lands End Trial a year later he ran a similar car but modified for trials, raised suspension, lower gearbox ratios etc. We did well getting an award and it was real fun. I drove part of the way back to the Midlands. Fantastic on twisting roads and up hills, but top speed poor. due to the low ratios.
I remember one of these way back in 1974 when I was looking for my first ever car I ever bought with my own savings. It was a green E reg used one in a dealer's lot. I was granted a test drive, but the first thing I had trouble with was getting it started as it sat on the forcourt for so long the battery went dead. A quick replacemnt later I was driving round town going through the gears, or should I say grinding through the gears because shifting it was like stirring a bucket of bricks (It obviously needed a replacement clutch). Needless to say I didn't buy it, but shortly later bought an H reg Ford Escort instead. I loved the Escort and was a little sad to have to trade it in for my first ever new car, a new R reg Fiesta later on. 😄
One reason the Imp was rushed into production: the Linwood plant was located where it was to bring jobs to a depressed area. At some point they had announced that Imp production would start on a certain date, so they thought they had to keep their word.
Couldv'e had them paint and clean up the factory until it was ready. There are many ways to employ people. Paying a bit more in the short run to keep people fed and happy can reap great rewards when you have loyal workers in the long run.
To say that the Imp was a "Mass Market car" they were not a common sight where I lived in North Yorkshire. Minis were everywhere, Imps were more of a not often seen oddball rarity and after watching this I can see why....They were clearly crap!
I remember, distinctly, seeing the first example of an Imp in my local Rootes dealer showroom, at launch.
The car was finished in Powder Blue, or similar, and the first thing I noticed was a jagged hole in the metal of the roof on the off-side, where it curved down to the windscreen, just above the A-pillar - about an inch long and three eighths of an inch wide - which clearly showed from a distance (like someone had drawn on the paint with a black ‘Sharpie’!). The edges of the metal were covered in paint, so the hole had obviously been present at the time of assembly… And this was the car ON DISPLAY 🥴‼️
No wonder hardly anyone bought it!
Like the Fiats built with Russian steel that started rusting in the showrooms......
A fine example from the Scotts Workforce - Surely an Oxymoran?
my first car, second hand but smashing in white with light blue interior. Remember going to Brands Hatch to see a saloon car meeting, along with a friend who was a Mini fanatic. Was delighted to see the McGovern Imp lead a mass of MInis over the finish line ! Happy days.
Very informative video. A brave design blighted by poor management/ workforce/ planning… well loads of stuff really! Had a Imp as my 1st car bought via local newspaper advertisement, as you did in the day. XAB308G in white was a series 2 , round dials on the dash , rather than linear etc; never any over heating problems, despite thrashing it round everywhere. Unfortunately it did burn oil prematurely, due to myself over -using the fiddly floor operated choke. You run any car on an over rich mixture too long , it will get piston wash , wear rings early, at that’s the result! But credit to her she was generally reliable, despite their reputation. Engined revved forever . BTW you forgot to mention the Clan Crusader and Ginetta G15 , who proved what you could do in the right package. Good vid though.
'brave design blighted by poor management/ workforce/ planning'.. that's the Brits for you.
Kenny Blades and his Clan Crusader were a force to reckon with in early70's modsports racing!
It's a very informative video.
I own a Hillman Imp (875cc) in Japan.
It was not sold in Japan, so there is no information or parts.
It's not fast at all, but it's great for driving around town alone.
Summer in Japan is so hot that I don't feel like driving. haha
I found an abandoned Imp Mk 2 in a quarry in the '90s.
Got it going with little effort and commuted to work for a couple of years in it. A nice little car.
I have also had a FIAT 850 sport that was sold in the same time period and also rear engined.
The FIAT was prettier and went better but then it was the sport version...
The 850 Sport was a really pretty car.
In the late '50s and early '60s I had a flat next to one of the Rootes engineers on this project - when he wasn't at Linwood! He recounted that the original low density alloy engine castings leaked oil overnight, so design was changed to higher density. This made the rear end heavier and resulted in design changes to the front wheel geometry, hence the alarming toe-in and camber angles, all of which affected the car's stability and dreadful oversteer - a sack of potatoes in the front helped! I had a Mini and one of our 'sports' was to find an 'Apex' (pre-production name for the Imp) on test runs around the local roads and lead it at high speed into trouble! Much as we did to Humbers and Standards into the roundabouts on the Coventry ring-road. Great fun!
My dad had a Hillman Huskey. I was a baby and used to sleep on a blanket on top of the engine cover...
No pesky child seats in those days. How did so many of us survive?
I had an Imp, in Canada. Not the smartest move on my part considering heating in winter and braking on ice are important requirements. But what I remember most about the car is that I once parked it near Yorkville (Toronto's very small version of Soho) and at the end of the night went back to my car, unlocked it, got in, started the engine and then realised that my car had gained a radio while I was away. Roots had obviously decided to save money by putting the same lock in all Imps. I decided I should find my car, although the radio was a temptation.......🤣🤣
Lololol great story. I had to read it a couple times to figure it out😂
Well done. The car had a decent chance of success. Too bad Rootes didn't stay in Coventry to build it. A lot of issues would have been quickly resolved or avoided altogether.
They were forced to go to Scotland …
@@geoffreylee5199 labour government destroy everything.
My mum had a Green Hillman Imp and I love it so much!!
Loved the video. Seems to be a couple of similarities between the story of the imp, and that of the alfasud
True.
When I was growing up, pretty much nobody had a car. One family over the road however had an Hillman Imp! It seemed incredibly glamorous and unbelievable that anyone on the street could afford such a thing. I’ve never driven one, nor even been in one but I’ve always had a soft spot for the HI.
The imp was a great little car, so quiet and smooth to drive.
Had one in NZ, bought it from the neighbour for 70 dollars, used more oil than fuel but was fun to drive