25 replies to this topic

[mini13]

cracking little cars imps....

just remember the golden rule.... ALWAYS KEEP THE ANTIFREEZE TOPED UP!!

[gavfoz]

I love the look of the Hillman Imps. My Grandad had one when they were in production. He traded a BMW bubble car in for it and subsequently traded the Hillman in for an Mk1 Escort van!

Imps usually crash arse-end first. . .

[taffy1967]

Ginger Marshall a well known club Mini racer in the 1970s built and raced a Mini with a 1000cc Imp engine on a Mini gearbox as the Imp engine was a Coventry-Climax derived high reving all alloy overhead cam engine, so a lot more advanced than the A series, (less reliable though in road tune). This gave the best of both worlds, the Minis handling combined with the Imps power advantage and mean't the 1000cc Minis started winning in special saloons again when a few others also copied the idea.

Well the aluminium engine was a lot lighter than the A'series cast iron block, but the 970 Cooper S engine was developed to win in the 1000cc class and it was a real screamer and an Imp killer too.

But always remember: -

[mab01uk]

Ginger Marshall a well known club Mini racer in the 1970s built and raced a Mini with a 1000cc Imp engine on a Mini gearbox as the Imp engine was a Coventry-Climax derived high reving all alloy overhead cam engine, so a lot more advanced than the A series, (less reliable though in road tune). This gave the best of both worlds, the Minis handling combined with the Imps power advantage and mean't the 1000cc Minis started winning in special saloons again when a few others also copied the idea.

Well the aluminium engine was a lot lighter than the A'series cast iron block, but the 970 Cooper S engine was developed to win in the 1000cc class and it was a real screamer and an Imp killer too.

But always remember: -

True in 1960s British Touring Cars where modifications were very limited but in 1970s Special Saloon car racing with almost unlimited mods allowed the Imp engine was far more technically advanced than the old A series and could be tuned to give reliably more power hence the Mini-Imp engined hybreds. I spent many weekends at the circuits in the 70s watching Ginger Marshalls Mini-Imp challenge the Hillman Imps domination of the class. Eventually both the Minis and Imps developed into Maquire type space frames with fibreglass bodies and Ginger Marshall unfortunately put a Reliant Kitten body on his!

[mab01uk]

Very nice Imp from the Imp Club forum here:-

Hillman Imp

Imp 07 The International is at the Hop Farm, Paddock Wood, Kent (9th to 13th August 2007).

[Guess-Works.com]

My first car....

Bored out 850 (915cc) ex hillclimb Imp.... went like stick, but topped out in the 90's (never quite made 100)

Twin Strombergs, de-cambered suspension, and 1/2 a dozen engineering bricks over the fuel tank to keep the front on the ground...

Small car - rear engine - rear wheel drive... hate to liken in to the 911, but all the bits were in the same place !

And yes engines very light... could pick up the complete engine, and removal was a 20 minute job...

BUT...

Not so common nowadays... (There's a Husky around Rugby somewhere)

[minivanman]

I saw an imp engine on a mini box on ebay last year. All the ally was polished and shiny - looked reet nice.

[taffy1967]

Ginger Marshall a well known club Mini racer in the 1970s built and raced a Mini with a 1000cc Imp engine on a Mini gearbox as the Imp engine was a Coventry-Climax derived high reving all alloy overhead cam engine, so a lot more advanced than the A series, (less reliable though in road tune). This gave the best of both worlds, the Minis handling combined with the Imps power advantage and mean't the 1000cc Minis started winning in special saloons again when a few others also copied the idea.

Well the aluminium engine was a lot lighter than the A'series cast iron block, but the 970 Cooper S engine was developed to win in the 1000cc class and it was a real screamer and an Imp killer too.

But always remember: -

True in 1960s British Touring Cars where modifications were very limited but in 1970s Special Saloon car racing with almost unlimited mods allowed the Imp engine was far more technically advanced than the old A series and could be tuned to give reliably more power hence the Mini-Imp engined hybreds. I spent many weekends at the circuits in the 70s watching Ginger Marshalls Mini-Imp challenge the Hillman Imps domination of the class. Eventually both the Minis and Imps developed into Maquire type space frames with fibreglass bodies and Ginger Marshall unfortunately put a Reliant Kitten body on his!

But wasn't it a Richard Longman equipped Mini 1275GT that won the 1978 & 1979 British Saloon Car Championship? I believe it was far from standard though and the body was as light as a feather?

[fwdr1mini]

i also have a stilleto imp (the better looking imp) that we use in autograss racing class 4. fully space framed and it pulls wheelies1
great fun!

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Edited by fwdr1mini, 28 July 2007 - 09:33 PM.

[mab01uk]

Ginger Marshall a well known club Mini racer in the 1970s built and raced a Mini with a 1000cc Imp engine on a Mini gearbox as the Imp engine was a Coventry-Climax derived high reving all alloy overhead cam engine, so a lot more advanced than the A series, (less reliable though in road tune). This gave the best of both worlds, the Minis handling combined with the Imps power advantage and mean't the 1000cc Minis started winning in special saloons again when a few others also copied the idea.

Well the aluminium engine was a lot lighter than the A'series cast iron block, but the 970 Cooper S engine was developed to win in the 1000cc class and it was a real screamer and an Imp killer too.

But always remember: -

True in 1960s British Touring Cars where modifications were very limited but in 1970s Special Saloon car racing with almost unlimited mods allowed the Imp engine was far more technically advanced than the old A series and could be tuned to give reliably more power hence the Mini-Imp engined hybreds. I spent many weekends at the circuits in the 70s watching Ginger Marshalls Mini-Imp challenge the Hillman Imps domination of the class. Eventually both the Minis and Imps developed into Maquire type space frames with fibreglass bodies and Ginger Marshall unfortunately put a Reliant Kitten body on his!

But wasn't it a Richard Longman equipped Mini 1275GT that won the 1978 & 1979 British Saloon Car Championship? I believe it was far from standard though and the body was as light as a feather?

"A small capacity engined car was the car to have in the seventies British Saloon/Touring Car Championship, with the first three Championships of the decade going to the same driver/car pairing, Bill McGovern and his 1.0-litre Hillman Imp. Bernard Unett notched up three titles, in 1974 driving a 1.6 litre Hillman Avenger, and in 1976 and 1977 with the 1.3-litre Chrysler-badged version. The end of the decade saw the return of the Mini, Richard Longman wrapping up the 1978 and 1979 titles with his 1275GT.
Longman & Co entered and prepared 1275GTs to be driven by Richard Longman and Alan Curnow. Richard Longman took ten class wins in twelve races to secure the BTCC title. The following year saw the 1275GTs having a clean sweep, with Longman taking ten wins and Alan Curnow the other two. Longman won the championship and the pair took the team prize."

So yes the Mini made a comeback thanks to Richard Longman in the late 70s BTCC and the Imp was of course no longer in production so ineligible. The 1275GTs were comparatively close to showroom spec. (Group 1) when compared with todays BTCC so although lighter most of the cars panels were original steel.
Special Saloon car racing at that time was however an entirely different class at club level with almost unlimited mods allowed and the 1000cc Imp could continue to compete with the Minis even though Imps were now out of production.

[taffy1967]

But you also have to remember that after 1970 the then head of British Leyland (Donald Stokes) put the brakes on the companies motorsport developments and closed the famous and successful Works department at Abingdon. Plus the Mini Cooper S got the chop in july 1971 too.

After that any Mini racing was low key and mostly done by private entrants instead.

So yes it was good to see the Mini in the lead again at the end of the 1970's.