LOOKING TO MAKE A QUICK PROFIT IN ’86
Andrew recalls rescuing an Imp Super with a dead engine back in 1986. Unfortunately, he scrapped an Imp Rallye in the process, a car that would be hugely desirable today.
The first time I can recall seeing a Hillman Imp was in the tiny village of Arbirlot near Arbroath in 1974 or 1975. I would have been about 7 and the trip up in an Escort Mexico seemed to take an eternity. I passed some of the time counting 1100s and 1300s on the M5 and M6, but I gave that up after reaching 100.
The Imp in question was sat, minus wheels and on its belly, in a driveway opposite the local church. An early red one, it would have been at least ten years old so it hadn’t done badly. I distinctly recall the odd indicator and light stalks protruding from the dash and how different it was to a Mini. Of course, in the 1970s Imps were plentiful, and not long after, Everett Snr did the clutch on a rare black one (ex MOD?), buying one of the old softback Haynes Manuals that I still have.
Around ten years later, I was to use that manual myself. In 1986 I was on the lookout for something to mess around with, get going and sell. That turned out to be a dark green 1966 Imp Super, the one with the nice trim, chromed ‘grille’ in the front panel as well as beauty rings for the wheels. This was bought, along with an absolutely rotten 1974 donor car with a ‘good engine mate’ for twenty quid. The ’66 car had a blown head gasket and the paint was like a chalkboard, but once it had been trailered home, ten minutes with some T-Cut saw two square feet of the bonnet polished up to an incredible shine. The thing was also absolutely rust-free.
So the donor car was dragged back as well and with a battery and some fuel, fired up. Imagine a couple of jack hammers inside an alloy Imp block and that’s how ‘good’ it was. I plucked a few bits from it, filled it with some junk from the workshop and weighed it in – for about twenty quid!
The engine in the ’66 was shorn of its cylinder head to find that it was absolutely knackered, with one head bolt broken off in the block and a bore with rusty water sloshing around. Forget it. But it didn’t take long to find a rusty Imp on a driveway in Bradfield Southend near Thatcham. This blue heap was a Singer or a Sunbeam if I remember right, and it was being sold by an RAC patrol man who couldn’t get it to run but was definitely ‘a good engine mate.’ I’d heard that one before...
I think the registration was HOJ 181D and it too came with a donor car, which I politely declined as it was rotten and had no engine. The blue Imp sported Cosmic alloy wheels, a nifty Mota-Lita steering wheel and a slotted engine cover for extra cooling. These and twin Strombergs made it worth the £80 asking price, so it was trailered back to base.
A quick adjustment to the points and she fired up and sounded very rorty. Being a 1966 car it was a MkII Imp with the better ‘straight edge’ cylinder block. What we didn’t realise was that it was very possibly a 998 Imp Rallye due to having a pair of 150CD Strombergs, a trio of Jaeger (Smiths) instruments next to the speedo pod and a set of Koni dampers. These rare Imps weren’t factory cars, but a dealer fit conversion on a used Imp with some cars being converted from new by Rootes.
Over two weekends the engine and gearbox were lowered out and trolley-jacked into the green car. All the other goodies were swapped over too – radiator, dampers, wheels (I had to buy a new set of Camac tyres though) and the Mota-Lita wheel, but not the extra instruments. With the original 875 engine thrown inside and a few choice bits pillaged, the blue Imp made its last trip on the back of a trailer to Gordon Passey’s scrapyard in Newbury. Back then there was sadly no thought of restoration, but in our defence, without the internet we wouldn’t have known what a 998 engine number would have been and in 1986 there was very little interest in Imps, or ‘Gimps’ as we called them.
Before selling it on again, the green Imp was polished to death, granted an MoT and insured. It was when I drove it to Newbury College one day and kept up with a mate’s Escort 1300 Sport that I realised this might be packing about 60 or 70bhp. With the Konis and 165 tyres, it handled superbly aided by a 50kg bag of potatoes in the front, but it was sold locally for about £500 with the standard wheels refitted and the Cosmics going to a local 1275GT hero. As a footnote, in my workshop today there is a small silver ‘H’ badge, and I prised that from the bonnet of the green Imp when I found it – minus all the good bits – in Passey’s scrapyard in 2005. It was displaying a 1992 tax disc, so he had a good run.