Hillman Imp Buying Guide - Thinking Man's Mini?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ต.ค. 2024
- The quirky Hillman Imp offers a great blend of Beetle packaging and Mini fun handling, all for lower prices than either - here's what to look for when buying!
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That brought back some memories. My lovely Dad bought the Husky and even now I remember driving it to college in the seventies. The rough interior didn't matter, it was such fun. Dad had been a weightlifter in his youth and sometimes it was easier for him to park it by backing in then lifting the front into place with his bare hands. The engine was a bit of a nightmare though.
My second car a pristine 1969 Sunbeam Imp with 25,000 miles on the clock,beautiful little car,no problems ever.
Mentalic Turquoise
My 1976 imp ...when 6 months old started to overheat.....a quick check on the radiator.....it was ⅔ blocked with mud from driving on a field ...hosed it clean ..cool again.
Loved that car ❤
You're right about the plain water. Plain water and two-star killed thousands of Imps. Replacing a thermostat is a pain but usually worth it. If a standard car is fitted with electronic ignition then it will rev all the way to 8000 for that challenging overtake! The design speed of the crank bearings was 50% higher than typical car engines of that era. Most of the rolling element bearings on the car are very cheap standard bearings available from ordinary bearing suppliers rather than expensive specialist types.
Loved mine back in the day. I had two! Glutton for punishment., me. The baleful glow of the temperature warning light. The constant flow of new Duckhams oil into a puddle on the drive. The 'p'doing' as the fanbelt jumped off on the M11! That's almost mine at 6:38. Rear ended a Renault 5 and realised the damage to my Imp and the (lack of) damage to the R5's polyester bumpers that that was to be my next car! Imp's are indeed 'ace'! I'd like one with a Honda Goldwing or BMW bike engine, please.
Always loved the design of the Imp. Give me a quad lamped fastback (in whichever form) and I'd be a very happy man. A car I would consider to restomod...
You and me both!
The garaged 'serviced' my dad's car just after he bought it and before we went on holiday.... with plain water. 👎
I saw a burnt orange Sunbeam Stiletto the other day in North London. Had a nice chat with the owner. Absolutely gorgeous car. Stopped me in my tracks. Sounded as good as it looked too!
This little car not only called Hillman Imp, there were other models of the car, Singer Chamois saloon and coupe, Hillman Californian coupe, Hillman Husky estate, Commer Imp van, Sunbeam Imp sport saloon and Stiletto coupe. Early cars were usually in sombre colours, later ones more brighter colours like orange, yellow and metallic turquoise.
They are both good but the Imp is more of a 'real' car with comfy seats, wind up windows with quarter lights and supple suspension. Imps had early troubles but don't forget that the early Minis were a disaster - water leaks, oil on the clutch, vanishing synchromesh, rain water on the ignition.....
Hot air through the sills? Badly sealed engine compartment? What are you talking about? The heater is water fed via hoses that run through the sills, not air. The engine compartment is never sealed, it is completely open at the rear (vented engine lid) and underneath. (The engine is completely exposed underneath). The car you were showing as an example is obviously of a competition spec - hence the front mounted radiator, and the transverse mounted and covered exhaust. If you are going to do a buying guide, at least get someone who knows the car properly.
Absolutely!
I had a hartwell imp sport bigger engine just under 1000cc 1967 used to rally beat the Mini Cooper every time.
Back in the day I spent many hours driving the IMP and other Rootes cars round MIRA to test for all sorts of problems such as leeks, rattles and vibrations, to say nothing of the roof breaking off the Hunter estate car when on the Belgium Pave, (a triangle of three straights of exaggerated cobbles!) Had the IMP been given the time to be properly developed it would have out sold the Mini by miles, it was so much better in every way!
Now if anybody wants to build a real sleeper of an IMP then the Subaru two liter WRX is the one to pick! especially if you can get hold of an American front wheel drive 5 speed box to match it! All that is required is to invert the crownwheel and it will fit with very little fettling. Fit mounting brackets. A front radiator, disc breaks & good tyres. That's it & we have a rocket ship in disguise!
The Scooby engine will fit but you can't just flip the crown wheel like you can on a VW or Renault box because the drive is hypoid i.e. the pinion is below the centreline Besides the box is too long. Either fit the Scooby to the VW or Porsche G50 box or chop the X-member and fit a reverse drive cwp that can be had for around £1k from Australia
😊 my 1st car it was no problem
Its better then the mini
In my experience the usual rot areas on an Imp are found on most '70's cars but the worst area IMO is the base of the C pillar in the cavity, where Rootes put a foam or cotton bundle pad to deaden the sound, which then absorbs water and the rest is history. The best shell is the 1966 model as this benefits from the thicker gauge metal and has the later attention to panel drainage. .
Throw the cheap, nasty, low quality auto drive belt away and fit an industrial one like Gates Hi-power or Continental equivalent These grip better and don't throw the belt off when shutting down from high revs, when the standard auto belt flaps all over the place.
The Imp engine was way too advanced for the dealership of the day and the all alloy engine is very reliable when looked after properly. Always use fully synth oil say, 10W60. If the engine has been over heated then the block and the head must be skimmed together. Always use a a good quality air filter (no pancake filters) as the engine operates in a dusty environment. To run without an effective air filter is described as an instant rebore kit! The standard (preferably Sport) engine will rev to 8,000rpm in gears although it is redlined at 6,500rpm.
If the gearbox jumps out of gear then the selector forks in the gearbox are bent and the ;box will need stripping
The rotoflexes shown are the obvious replacement propshaft coupling guibo joints that are a serious and cheap up grade. There is a technique for fitting them and the factory comp department could change a pair in 9mins on a rally stage. I can confirm the timing because I also managed it. There are all sorts of old wives tales about how difficult they are that are pure nonsense.
The drum brakes are more than adequate for even spirited driving and were used in the competition Imps used by the factory. Getting the right lining material is essential.
Fabulous car, I had one, back in the sixties. Great car, as long as you didn't need to stop, in the rain. Fortunately it never rains in England.
😂😂👍👍👍
I never had a problem with my road rally Imp and stopping rain or not. Its all down to setting up the front suspension properly. The only problems I had with braking was when competing in Derbyshire where the selection of the brake lining compound was impossible because on softer linings which responded well to uphill sections and the flat because they were cool, would fade on the fast downhill sections. Put harder linings in that would cope with the downhill sections and everywhere else they would need heating up to get any decent response.
@@clivewilliams3661 To be honest I had mine in Canada. The rain here tends to be slippery (snow). My one traffic ticket came from sliding through a stoplight in the rain and an unsympathetic copper.
@@michaelhatch1994 I have used my Imp in all kinds of weathers including snow and never found it a problem but then the front suspension set up was lowered with Monte Carlo springs and it had 1.5 deg neg camber. I always use M&S tyres in winter conditions so the grip levels were the best they can be. The standard Mk1 Imp had standard raised suspension that gave it 5 deg of +ve camber that I can imagine in the conditions described would have compromised grip especially on standard road tyres. It was better on the MkII because they lowered it back to near pre-production levels. The reason they raised the M1 up was to quickly give increased understeer immediately before main production started. The pre-production car handled so well the management were frightened that the grannies would drive the Imp faster than they were capable of handling and terminal understeer is supposedly safe.
Thinking man’s Mini , poor man’s 911.
My first car, overheating and warped heads, reskimmed head 3 times then sold it , id buy one now and put a motorbike engine in
I never used to like the Imp. But, I’ve really come to appreciate the engineering - the all alloy engine was a little gem, and these seem to be really sweet driving, free revving little cars. I’ve never driven one, but I’d imagine an Imp would give a Mini (which I have owned) a run for its money for a fun drive. The story of the Imp though is a tale of woe, and symptomatic of government meddling and complete mismanagement. A shame, Rootes was a really interesting car manufacturer before Chrysler bought them and completely ruined the brand.
Nice
It's a really cool interesting car. It's not better than a Mini tho. So if you are a thinking man, you would own a Mini, which is what actually happened. It's great to see an Imp tho.
Quite. Drove both, the Mini was more robust. There was a reason why it out sold the Imp enormously. Oh, and the Mini could go round corners!
Considering the Mini had a 4 year start on the IMP (which was rushed into production/the publics view) due to Prince Philip not being prepared to change the date he would open the factory for production. The workforce needed at least a further two months of training to get the production up to scratch, and other minor details sorted! It was given a complete roasting by the press who had never seen or experienced anything like it before, purely on the minor faults that were thrown up under this lack of time given to sort them out!
BISCUIT TIN ON CASTORS.
30MPH FEELS LIKE 170
I wouldn't buy a Hillman Imp although in Australia one sold at auction for aud $9200 which very good for a Hillman Imp it in reasonable condition no rust but it was all there bt the way they were the car that killed Rootes Group
What killed the Rootes Group was the company that bought into it then bought it over, IE Chrysler of America! They just did not understand the UK car market & especially the IMP. From virtually day one of them taking over the group they refused to find the changes the engineering team and design team had in the pipeline. All would have made the IMP a far better and more reliable car, but they spent time and money on getting these teams to consider their type of vehicles.
@@johnmoncrieff3034 No l owned three Hillmans in the 1970s one 1963 Hillman Minx and two Hillman Gazzells and that infamous 1725 Rootes Group engine with the aluminium alloy cylinder head they were always blowing head gaskets even if they didn't overheat they were rubbish and l gave them and went to Japanese and never looked back and why aren't Rootes Group around because there cars were absolute crap now in my late 60s l own a 1997 Toyota Hilux with the ultra reliable 22R engine with an aluminium alloy cylinder head on nikle iron block and has done 437000 kilometres and the cylinder head has never been removed and they had them back in the 1960s Toyota got it right but Rootes Group didn't that's the difference and Toyota is the biggest motor manufacturer in the world a l so extremely popular in Australia Toyota is number one in Australia for the past 25 years in Australia you never to far from a Toyota name any good British brand there is a couple Lotus because they used Toyota engines and the Ariel Atom 4 cylinder use a Honda engine has rest are unreliable crap
I`d like one but they are commanding premium money these days.
My first car was a green Imp. In 1976. Dreadful little car. Simply terrible. Rust, overheating, siezed kingpins, poor starting, timing problems, (sheared woodruf key caused slipping timing) the quality control problems went on and on. My two minis, in comparison, were utterly reliable, 848cc saloon, 848 cc minivan. They were way better. Do not buy an Imp. Buy a mini.
My first car was an Imp, it was a terrible car.
‘Thinking Man’s Mini’? What are you implying here? You’ve just unnecessarily insulted most of the British population. Both cars stand proud on their own reputations. Both had owners of great intellect. Otherwise it’s a great and interesting review. (Perhaps your title writer should reconsider their position!)
Oh bugger off ffs. Imp is the thinking man’s mini
Don't buy one.. easy!!!