Old Rally Cars Series #6 Hillman Imp

[@osborne9255]

Back in 1986 when I was a boy, my dad blew our Imp up on the motorway. The speedo only went up to 90mph, but he'd been hard on that pin for over 20 mins. We shut the windows and must have got an extra 5mph out of it! We had to pull over because of the trail of smoke but after all that , it just needed a new gasket. A tiny, unassuming car with a big heart and powered by a mix of petrol and magic. :-D

[@petenikolic5244]

We Built a full works spec Rally Imp basically with hand tools in a lock up Garage years ago with a very nice Chesman 998 I forget the actual Chesman number pair of webber DCOE 45's R23 Cam i cant remember who's maniflold we used Oh and a Morris Marina Radiator in the front with 1.25" copper thru from the back Ha yes and an old central heating Back boiler with another bit of Marina brazed on the from to give the cap as a header tank great times it was quick .

[@jrushen4235]

The Hillman Imp was an automotive weapon.

[@standeluxe]

Very misunderstood car, is the Hillman Imp. Fantastic engine that will rev and rev ! Shame the yanks didn't see the potential when they took over the Rooted Group. Far superior car to the Mini, but consequently under-developed. Shame....

[@kickinon]

They sound awesome with a cam and some work done, the head was prone to warping as the block was made from aluminum but even 50 years later, I can daily mine with no issues.

[@duggy788]

fantastic little car, my first car was a super imp mk 2 wish I had it now .

[@Porshesmiles]

@@duggy788 mine toooooo !!

[@lyndonwatkins1]

Thay had fantastic headlights

[@ebingererich2204]

Mein erstes Auto ein Super Erlebnis aber schon lange her !

[@johnmoncrieff3034]

Rootes Group were shafted by both the government of the day (they reneged on the second traunch of money they should have given for Linwood), & Chrysler who just hated the IMP and refused to allow any proper development to make it a far better and more reliable vehicle with an expanded model range!

[@limjamrace]

Going far to fast for my capabilities to match

[@gothicpagan.666]

Funny little cars. Just too fragile to keep it going properly on a rally. The mini as a 1293 was just that bit easyer over a hole event

[@dennisfoster4054]

1000 cc imp would eat a 1275 mini

[@gothicpagan.666]

@@dennisfoster4054 Difficult to compare apples with apples but the records would indicate differently.

[@dennisfoster4054]

@@gothicpagan.666 I owned an imp,my friends minis,my Sunbeam imp was superior in so many different ways.

[@gothicpagan.666]

@@dennisfoster4054 As a road car they are much better, a competition car is quite different. Back in the days of the CCC rally championship Jonathan Lloyd had the upper hand over Terry Kabey in the mini provided 1120 motor was was fitted but reliability was the problem. The 998 unit was not good enough against the 1293 mini unit. Even the last of the works imps had a Hewland. Conversely when BMC last competed with the mini using the 8port head their boxes broke ever event entered. A Group 5 Fiat is probably the best bet?