We celebrate 60 years of one of the British motor industry ’s most important and enjoyable small cars
HILLMAN IMP AT 60
The narrative commences in 1955 when two young engineers, Michael Parkes and Tim Fry, devised a one-litre car with the criteria of being fun to drive, capable of seating a family of four and achieving a maximum speed of 60mph, yet with fuel economy of 60mpg. The project eventually developed into the Apex, powered by an alloy 875cc unit adapted from the Coventry Climax fire pump engine. And when the Imp made its bow on 3 May, 1963, it marked a genuinely radical departure for Rootes Group as its first rear-engine product.
Unlike the Mini, with its more conventional A-series unit, the latest Hillman was the first mass-produced British car with an aluminium cylinder head. It was also the first model to emerge from the Linwood factory, which the Duke of Edinburgh officially opened on 2 May 1963. All looked bright for the car that would ‘make motoring history’. Sadly it never quite realised its full potential.
That’s not to say that it didn’t leave its mark – we take a look at the Imp in all of its many and varied forms.
■ With thanks to Tim Morgan, Andy Smith and The Imp Club (theimpclub.co.uk)
IMP SALOONS
The Imp cost £508 1s 3d (£532 4s 7d for the De Luxe) in 1963. By then the company urgently needed a big seller in the aftermath of a 1961 strike. Each example would bring a new customer to Rootes and The Motor claimed that ‘we shall eat our editorial hat’ if Rootes could not sell the planned 150,000 Imps per year.
The Imp’s Chevrolet Corvair-inspired styling appealed to motorists with mid-Atlantic tastes and Rootes arranged a cameo in the internationally popular Norman Wisdom vehicle A Stitch in Time. Meanwhile dealers were extolling the virtues of the opening rear screen, folding back seat, pneumatic throttle and automatic choke.
Chrysler took a share in Rootes in 1964 and the Singer Chamois joined the line-up that October. The Imp equivalent of the Riley Elf/Wolseley Hornet cost £582 and a social-climbing owner gained a veneered walnut fascia and extra instruments. The Telegraph described it as ‘a most attractive little package’.
September 1965 marked the debut of the £565 17s 1d Super Imp– ‘Happy Go Luxury Wherever You Go!’ – to bridge the gap between the De Luxe and the Chamois. That same month the range gained a facelift as the MkII, dispensing with the troublesome throttle and choke for more conventional fittings. Rootes began Imp production far too early, which also resulted in malfunctioning water pumps, coolant leaks and overheating.
