Smudge - another car topic, Imp-based

[guest7]

Knowing that you are an Imp enthusiast, I thought I'd post this here.

I didn't know (until I heard it on R4 yesterday) that Imps were built in Scotland for political reasons, with the bits being shipped up from the Midlands.

The bloke on the radio said that this was a disasterous decision, but is that really the case? What was the background and did it really go badly wrong?

Cheers
GC

[andy230]

built in hillington weren't they??

my old dear head one- her first motor when she was nursing.  Quite a catch I'd say!

a

[Bill Rutter]

Linwood wasn't it? The Imp didn't sell well because it was up against the Mini (and it's myriad of derivatives), poor quality control and factory disputes which halted production over working practices alien to a workforce brought up in the Clyde shipyards. Parts and materials were shipped in from all over the place which just added to costs even though there was a sheet metal plant at nearby Ravenscraig.  The Linwood factory was a government-backed idea to bring in work to a Scotland deprived of heavy industry and with high unemployment. It failed, not just because of local troubles but because Britain had artificially built up it's heavy manufacturing industry between the wars (and because of them). When such industry naturally fell into decline the Midlands, generally, was able to stave off hardship better than other areas because of it's long-standing traditions but even then  had to succumb to pressure from the Far-East, hence no major car industry any more.
But I loved the Imp, I had one for a short while. It was a bit dog-eared by the time it got to me (it cost me £50) but it was a great little car and so much fun to drive. I can understand why Smudge loves 'em.

[andy230]

Linwood wasn't it?

Thanks Bill, I stand corrected.  And I knew nothing of the labour disputes and the reasoning behind shipping parts in.

Will look for that Radio4 podcast.  Tho I swapped the iPod in part-ex for the race motor.  Which is in bits....   

a

[guest18]

Largely what Bill said  also it was an alloy engine in a world of Iron motors, so the norm then was to run water in the summer and antifreeze in the winter... fine in an iron motor but in a nice alloy block what happens is that the alloy furs up and clogs the radiator. Of course it's not the owners fault that he ignored the handbook and broke his car, it's the fault of the designer and "they're always overheating, it's the way they're made" 
We've had an Imp Sport sat at 65mph all the way to London and back in the middle of a hot summer with no overheating probs (and a thirty year old, standard, cooling system!!) ok once you pushed to 70 - 75 the needle started to climb but what do you expect without sorting it out at least back to factory?
As to the geniuses that claim they need extra weight in the front to make them handle/stop them doing wheelies( ) you can put them in the same camp as all the blokes that used to own a FS1E / Bantam that would "crack 110mph easy"....

IMHO the Imp had/has more ultimate grip, but the Mini is *way* easier to control at/over the limit. For the average driver the Mini was probably better, but the Imp had/has a better engine (and for a non-average driver go look up the exploits of the Imp Clubs Hon Chairwoman, Rosemary Smith. A pensioner now and still faster than 99.9% of the club at Knockhill the other year 

[002]

Reliant Regal and Rebel were another to use alloy engines.Their slogan was"Made Like A Rolls Royce !"

Bond used the Imp engine in one of their models....and that was a little prone to rolling apparantly !
Imangine a Bond Mini Car 875 with an Imp motor in the arse end !


Jethro

[Steve Lake]

In the late 60's a mate and myself raced an outfit using an imp engine......great while it stayed in one piece......but in the end we couldn't afford the rebuilds...seem to remember we had a fairly radical cam, it was bored, and we used a twin choke 40 dcoe webber carb....bluddy quick when it was going....great sound too

[Alan Hughes]

The engine was originally developed in the late 40's by Coventry-Climax to power a portable water pump for use by fire brigades - hence the all alloy construction for light weight. I believe that various derivatives of this engine were also used to power a number of racing cars during the 50's.

[Furry John]

The engine was originally developed in the late 40's by Coventry-Climax to power a portable water pump for use by fire brigades - hence the all alloy construction for light weight. I believe that various derivatives of this engine were also used to power a number of racing cars during the 50's.

It was also used as a starter motor for the Centurion tank, I spent many hours on the Dynamometer at Burgess Products getting the silencer noise level down enough to be acceptable to the tank crew and the air filtration able to resist sand and crap without dropping the engine bhp to a level where the Imp motor at 3000/4000 rpm hadn't got the torque to snatch a huge ( I think 8 to 12 litre) Diesel into life at the drop of a clutch. I agree that the engine was made unreliable by the service /maintenance people who dealt with it. We never had an overheat or head gasket failure even after 4/5  hours of continuous 4000/5000 rpm dyno testing.

Regards,

john