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Thankyou for sharing & video not too fast at all, Sir. Rootes had an incredible selection of vehicles & what an amazing show. My Gran had a Bronze L reg sunbeam Rapier pillarless coupe, beautiful looking car, mam’s first car was a Commer Cobb van & I remember a Red Chrysler 180 on my paper round, very rare sight even in the early 1980’s.
Yes I love so many of them. I did call the 180 an ‘1800 and 2000’ but have fond memories of being in one as an uncle owned a white model with a vinyl roof. Think the seats were a orange/gold colour and made of velooooooooour 😊
That Dodge 100 Kew truck must be really rare. Never seen one in the flesh. They featured in the 1957 film Helldrivers. Stanley Baker, Sean Connery, Patrick McGoohan & other great stars. They were nicknamed 'Parrot Nose' trucks.
The Stones had a Commercial van at one time. I remember the using it on a gig in Norwich and the girls had written messages on it in lipstick everywhere including the glass!
Back in the 1970s l owned three Hillmans on Minx and two Gazzells they were Hillman Gazzells in Australia and Humber Vouges because Singer got a bad name in Australia my elder brother has a 1963 Hillman Minx convertible and a Sunbeam Stileto both not going with engine troubles but his daily driver which is running perfectly well is a 1976 Toyota Corolla l can't see his Rootes Group cars ever running or back on the road l got sick of changing head gaskets on my Hillman Gazzells so l don't own any Hillmans at all now l have a 1997 Toyota Hilux and my wife has a 2017 Suzuki Baleno getting back to the show there was a 1960s Humber Super Snipe sold on Grays online auction that was manual and it didn't look like a conversion it looked like it was specially ordered and it was a three speed floor shift and it sold for good price aud $12500 which is the most l have seen a Rootes Group sell for in Australia so in Australia Rootes Group cars aren't worth that much so are the classic British cars and of course you look through various on line classifieds and owners are asking ridiculous prices for them were there any engine swapped Hillman Imps with the BMW K series motorcycle engines l think they improve the Hillman Imp 100% because so much more reliable also l saw a Hillman Imp with a Honda Gold Wing engine in it extra reliable and why are there so many classic British cars with Japanese engine swaps in the UK because the are simply more reliable
Very interesting to read. The Imp, which I have a little better knowledge of, was of course meant to compete with the Mini but they rushed the launched with insufficient testing and it was the customers who found the issues; including the early automatic choke and head gasket problems. There are a number of Imps that get engine swaps either with larger units or bike engines. There is one example, on TH-cam, using a PSA Peugeot 106/Citroen Saxo unit. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
@@LivetoDriveUK The development and building of the Hillman Imp was absolutely awful it actually did bring down Rootes Group and it was a slow death remembering Rootes Group in the 1960s was one of largest Motor vehicle companies in the world infactbthey had a factory in Australia but the lmp absolutely killed them they did struggle on under Chrysler but eventually died out and l had experience of blows head gaskets from the alloy head 1725 cc engine but how come my 1997 Toyota Hilux has an alloy cylinder head on a nikel iron block and its never blown a head gasket and also has done 437000 kilometres and that's one thing a Rootes Group car would never achieve and in the 1960s Toyota were building and putting the R series engines in there vehicles mine us the famous 22R engine there was the 18R engine in the 1960s and 1970s and l know the you tube channel with that Hillman Imp with the Saxo engine in it a fair enough swap but l do remember when those K series BMW motorcycles came out because back in the 1970s tge era when BMW were making good reliable engines and good cars they are a very good choice and on you tube l saw a Hillman lmp with Honda Flat four Gold Wing motor in it now that would be very reliability because of Honda's good reputation of reliability and still make reliable cars today as for BMWs well have they gone down hill reliability wise in these modern times
I actually like the design of the Imp although the ‘rear hatch’ was not ideal as you had to reach over the engine compartment to get to it. Things like having a front boot, which wasn’t particularly big, and having to lift the bonnet up each time you needed to refuel was also not a good logic. The engine has a great character and performs better than the Mini of the time but that reliability and other issues with the cars certainly did a lot to bring the Rootes group down.
@@LivetoDriveUK There were lots of reasons why Rootes Group failed and so many other British vehicle makers failed and the main reason were they were unreliable and to be perfectly honest l don't want to be working on my vehicles every day trying to keep them running compare any British vehicle maker with Toyota all you have to do to them is service them change brake pads and spark plugs and they will go for hundreds of thousands and in some cases millions of miles and many years of trouble free driving and Toyota is still going strong and they have been building cars longer than most now defunct British vehicle makers and that was another reason why British car makers failed was that the Japanese brands were so much more reliable than the British brands but also engine swapped classic cars are the way to go for a reliable classic car
@@LivetoDriveUK l had 3 ex telecom vans and one Luton, good vans but a Luton was a bit unsafe loaded to the roof. You never understood my post, many will.
🚨 If you like our videos, please consider subscribing. It really does help build the channel and we value your support.
It is completely free to subscribe.
Thanks. Paul & Fran.
Subscribe link: 👉 th-cam.com/users/LivetoDriveUK
Love the Rootes group cars
Yes so do I. The Alpine at the end of the video looks (and sounds) lovely.
Thankyou for sharing & video not too fast at all, Sir. Rootes had an incredible selection of vehicles & what an amazing show. My Gran had a Bronze L reg sunbeam Rapier pillarless coupe, beautiful looking car, mam’s first car was a Commer Cobb van & I remember a Red Chrysler 180 on my paper round, very rare sight even in the early 1980’s.
Yes I love so many of them. I did call the 180 an ‘1800 and 2000’ but have fond memories of being in one as an uncle owned a white model with a vinyl roof. Think the seats were a orange/gold colour and made of velooooooooour 😊
@@LivetoDriveUK The Chrysler 180 name not obvious ( I looked it up )
😁👍
Hi Paul, great memories, especially Avengers! Had to have a lie down due the speed you were walking at. 😉
I film at 120 frames a second to stop the blur 😂
That Dodge 100 Kew truck must be really rare. Never seen one in the flesh. They featured in the 1957 film Helldrivers. Stanley Baker, Sean Connery, Patrick McGoohan & other great stars. They were nicknamed 'Parrot Nose' trucks.
I had a look after this comment. Yes, I hadn’t ever seen the film. Thanks for watching and the info.
The Stones had a Commercial van at one time. I remember the using it on a gig in Norwich and the girls had written messages on it in lipstick everywhere including the glass!
Wow that’s a lot of fun for them 🙃
We forget routes group made some decent vehicles something for everyone but often overlooked
They definitely made some nice ones.
Rapier H120 and Hunter GLS rarely seen.
Back in the 1970s l owned three Hillmans on Minx and two Gazzells they were Hillman Gazzells in Australia and Humber Vouges because Singer got a bad name in Australia my elder brother has a 1963 Hillman Minx convertible and a Sunbeam Stileto both not going with engine troubles but his daily driver which is running perfectly well is a 1976 Toyota Corolla l can't see his Rootes Group cars ever running or back on the road l got sick of changing head gaskets on my Hillman Gazzells so l don't own any Hillmans at all now l have a 1997 Toyota Hilux and my wife has a 2017 Suzuki Baleno getting back to the show there was a 1960s Humber Super Snipe sold on Grays online auction that was manual and it didn't look like a conversion it looked like it was specially ordered and it was a three speed floor shift and it sold for good price aud $12500 which is the most l have seen a Rootes Group sell for in Australia so in Australia Rootes Group cars aren't worth that much so are the classic British cars and of course you look through various on line classifieds and owners are asking ridiculous prices for them were there any engine swapped Hillman Imps with the BMW K series motorcycle engines l think they improve the Hillman Imp 100% because so much more reliable also l saw a Hillman Imp with a Honda Gold Wing engine in it extra reliable and why are there so many classic British cars with Japanese engine swaps in the UK because the are simply more reliable
Very interesting to read. The Imp, which I have a little better knowledge of, was of course meant to compete with the Mini but they rushed the launched with insufficient testing and it was the customers who found the issues; including the early automatic choke and head gasket problems. There are a number of Imps that get engine swaps either with larger units or bike engines. There is one example, on TH-cam, using a PSA Peugeot 106/Citroen Saxo unit.
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
@@LivetoDriveUK The development and building of the Hillman Imp was absolutely awful it actually did bring down Rootes Group and it was a slow death remembering Rootes Group in the 1960s was one of largest Motor vehicle companies in the world infactbthey had a factory in Australia but the lmp absolutely killed them they did struggle on under Chrysler but eventually died out and l had experience of blows head gaskets from the alloy head 1725 cc engine but how come my 1997 Toyota Hilux has an alloy cylinder head on a nikel iron block and its never blown a head gasket and also has done 437000 kilometres and that's one thing a Rootes Group car would never achieve and in the 1960s Toyota were building and putting the R series engines in there vehicles mine us the famous 22R engine there was the 18R engine in the 1960s and 1970s and l know the you tube channel with that Hillman Imp with the Saxo engine in it a fair enough swap but l do remember when those K series BMW motorcycles came out because back in the 1970s tge era when BMW were making good reliable engines and good cars they are a very good choice and on you tube l saw a Hillman lmp with Honda Flat four Gold Wing motor in it now that would be very reliability because of Honda's good reputation of reliability and still make reliable cars today as for BMWs well have they gone down hill reliability wise in these modern times
I actually like the design of the Imp although the ‘rear hatch’ was not ideal as you had to reach over the engine compartment to get to it. Things like having a front boot, which wasn’t particularly big, and having to lift the bonnet up each time you needed to refuel was also not a good logic.
The engine has a great character and performs better than the Mini of the time but that reliability and other issues with the cars certainly did a lot to bring the Rootes group down.
@@LivetoDriveUK There were lots of reasons why Rootes Group failed and so many other British vehicle makers failed and the main reason were they were unreliable and to be perfectly honest l don't want to be working on my vehicles every day trying to keep them running compare any British vehicle maker with Toyota all you have to do to them is service them change brake pads and spark plugs and they will go for hundreds of thousands and in some cases millions of miles and many years of trouble free driving and Toyota is still going strong and they have been building cars longer than most now defunct British vehicle makers and that was another reason why British car makers failed was that the Japanese brands were so much more reliable than the British brands but also engine swapped classic cars are the way to go for a reliable classic car
Fanfare for a Commer van.
I really love them…
@@LivetoDriveUK l had 3 ex telecom vans and one Luton, good vans but a Luton was a bit unsafe loaded to the roof. You never understood my post, many will.
I did take your post as positive.
@@LivetoDriveUK hahaha no, nothing about positive, you don't know Emerson Lake and Palmer.
Ok. No I don’t. But have now looked