Insider Dealing

Insider Dealing - “Family Impact” The brand new factory at Linwood near Glasgow took advantage of Government grants and was a long way from Rootes’ base in This year marks the 50th anniversary of a rear engined, sporty Coventry. This meant lengthy and costly logistics chains – the handling car with very advanced engineering. No... not the aluminium engine blocks were cast at Linwood, sent to Coventry Porsche 911 that’s festooning the covers of the anniversary for machining and back to Linwood for assembly. There was editions of car magazines right now, but the humbler Hillman Imp also reluctance from Rootes management to take an assignment which started production in May 1963. My family was connected in Scotland – the plant had 5 Managing Directors in 7 years. with the birth of this little car in Scotland, of which more later, The workers lacked the car making heritage of the Midlands, and the Imp undoubtedly influenced a young boy in short being largely ex-shipbuilders. trousers that the car industry was the life for me. Next to my Dad’s side valve 100E on the drive of our house, my uncle’s The combination of a new car, new factory, new workforce and factory fresh 1963 Imp looked like a technological marvel! changing management led to a difficult start for the Imp in terms of quality and profitability. The car was also not ready for production. Prior to launch, the Imp was subjected to thousands of miles of testing in temperature extremes from Kenya to Norway running prototypes night and day. The engineers identified some minor issues that needed improvement, but time pressures forced Rootes into holding the launch date – after all, no less than Prince Philip was booked for the opening ceremony. Early customers and long term press tests were soon reporting unexpected failures in areas of the car and the main reason was embarrassingly simple... continuous testing doesn’t replicate customer usage It would be four years after the Mini before Project Apex was very well with not enough stop/starts from cold and short launched as the Hillman Imp and the car had very advanced journeys. Car buffs all know the Imp’s reputation for cooling engineering. The rear mounted all aluminium overhead cam system and water pump problems and this best illustrates the engine was based on a Coventry Climax design and much more issue. The water pump gave few problems on testing, but real modern that BMC’s iron pushrod A Series unit. The Imp also had customers showed up a major weakness – it had a some features as standard which were quite unusual in 1963 – hydrodynamic sealing system which worked well at higher th diaphragm clutch, all synchromesh gearbox, pneumatic throttle, speeds but at a steady 30 mph in 4 gear, the seals allowed automatic choke, no grease points, hatchback rear window and drops of water to dribble past and wash the bearings, causing class leading ergonomics with controls centred on the instrument eventual pump failure. binnacle including twin stalks. What could possibly go wrong? Unfortunately, quite a lot... The launch itself was very successful, with the press writing rave reviews about the sweet revving engine and sporty handling. The Daily Mail gushed with “One of the most clever and important small cars ever turned out by the British motor industry... indeed by the world motor industry”. Hurriedly, Rootes engineers re-developed the Imp, ditching the troublesome pneumatic throttle and auto-choke for conventional cables, a bigger clutch, new water pump and a host of detailed improvements to the transaxle and engine that were marketed as the Mark 2 in 1965 with the slogan “Proved and Perfected” - unfortunately via the customer! The above photo was one of the Marketing pictures to show the Imp could do anything the Mini could do. The test driver was The Mark 2 was a big step forward in quality and the factory was encouraged to go faster in the snow by the photographer until running more effectively, but it was too late. The Imp never this last shot was followed by a terminal slide and collision with a recovered from its poor early reputation despite the addition of roadside post a few seconds later. more derivatives like the Singer Chamois, Husky estate, Van, Sunbeam Imp Sport and Stiletto/Californian coupe. Motor sport success followed with Rosemary Smith in rallying and on the race circuits with Alan Fraser and then Bill McGovern winning the British Saloon Car Championship in a George Bevan prepared Imp. In 1970 McGovern won 48 out of 51 races in a crushing demonstration of performance and reliability. When Chrysler took over Rootes, they had no interest in developing the unprofitable Imp further and concentrated on the new Avenger. Sales faded away and Imp production stopped in 1976. Rootes had some interesting Imp projects that were cancelled by Chrysler, including the prototype rear engined Asp sports car intended to rival the Midget and Spitfire: So where’s the family connection? In May 1963, my Dad was at the Linwood plant opening and enjoying lunch with Prince Philip since Dad worked for the Ministry of Labour in Scotland helping to find workers for the new plant and advising Rootes on labour relations. My Uncle Craig was also there that day since he was a young engineer working on the aluminium casting process for the engine and was living with us, hence his Imp on our drive. I was only 5 years old, but I attended the Imp launch party for Rootes employees’ children and the little car from Scotland made a long lasting mark on me. When it came to buying my first car, there really was only one choice... a twin carburettor Sport... Having driven and rallied both Imps and Minis, I always found the Imp to have the sweeter engine, revving addictively to 7000 rpm without strain, a slicker gearshift and better fit for my lanky frame, although the above photo of me in 1975 looks like it’s going to be a squeeze! Classic car magazines keep returning to the debate of “Mini v Imp” and often favour the Rootes car, but you really can’t argue with one statistic – the Mini outsold the Imp by 6 to 1 for most of the time they were on sale together. With a little more development attention and time before launch, it could have been a different story. Stuart Black With acknowledgments to “Imp – The Complete Story” by George Mowat- Brown 2003. .

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