IMP COUPÉS
Heon Stevenson argues in British Car Advertising of the 1960s that Rootes was targeting the Imp towards the buyer who wanted ‘something other than the norm’ by 1966 as it realised that it was never going to be a best-seller. So January 1967 marked the debut of the Imp Californian, powered by the standard saloon engine and featuring chic fastback bodywork and a split rear seat. The alterations to the bodywork included a more steeply raked windscreen, a lowered roofline and steering column, and a modified positive camber on the front wheels.
A price of £650 represented excellent value for a car with no domestic competitors; the Californian’s nearest rivals were the Fiat 850 and Simca 1200S Coupés. Motor thought the handling was better than that of the standard Imp.
The better-appointed Singer Chamois Coupé, costing £665, joined the Californian in April – ‘You have never been offered so many attractive features in one light car’.
Rootes introduced the Sunbeam Stiletto with the Sport engine six months later. The price was £813 and the sales copy stated that it was ‘for men whose wives think they’ve given up sports cars’. There was a fashionable vinyl roof while Simon Dee lookalike drivers needed to ‘show her how luxuriously saloon it is – four deep seats, the front ones reclining, plenty of room and swish twin headlamps’. In other words, the Sunbeam possessed Carnaby Street appeal.
Most importantly, the Stiletto lived up to the hyperbole. Motor Sport thought it ‘great fun to drive and quite civilised’ and The Telegraph’s man found it ‘one of the most attractive small cars I have ever driven’.
Californian and Chamois Coupé production ended in 1970 after 6122 and 4971 units had been built respectively. Meanwhile the Sunbeam continued until 1972, with 7949 British motorists having been unable to resist the ‘ZOOM fastback styling’.