Re: Imps

[Timbox2]

Geez...Timbox...don't scare me! She'll be right...

It was many years ago when I was young and foolish and Lucas Wiper motor replacement wasnt my speciality, did the clutch no problem which was engine out on Imps but failed with the Dark Art

[Bixxer Bob]

Hi jack fro a moment 

When I was 19 I used to have an Imp, it was so quick and easy to take the engine and gearbox out that I used to do that for most of the maintenance tasks instead of reaching into the awkward recesses of the engine bay.  I also blew up a gearbox and drove it 120 miles home with only 2nd and 4th.  Ten miles in the brakes failed so only had the two gears and a handbrake.  It made judging the traffic to join roundabouts interesting.....

The gearbox had thrown a mainshaft bearing and turned the oil into something resembling metalflake paint so a replacement was sought from the scrappy.  On fitting it I found I had no reverse gear; on stripping the end case I found someone had removed it for reasons I couldn't explain, but at least it was an easy fix. When it was going right it was fairly quick though,  998 engine, twin DCOE carbs and 4 branch exhaust giving about 70bhp and a kerb weight of only 700kg was way faster than most minis of the day.  Happy days indeed. 

Hijack over... 

[KuzzinKenny]

Hijacked again 

we had these at work............



AFAIK it was an Imp engine bolted to a pump and man it could shift water 

Hijack over 

KK

[nickjtc]

Assuming that we missed something at the start of the thread and it was about Imps, I had a girlfriend once who drove one. She was a real goer, as I recall. The car, that is.

[iansoady]

AFAIK it was an Imp engine bolted to a pump and man it could shift water 

To hijack even further, in fact the water pump predated the Imp.......

My dad had an Imp when they came out in the 60s and as a recently-licensed driver I thought it was a super car to drive. He then got a 1200cc NSU Prinz which was even better as the extra power let you hang the back out further........

[tankerman]

Those engines, and of course the pump motors were half of a Coventry Climax V8 engine. Lovely little unit!

[Timbox2]

Hi jack fro a moment 

When I was 19 I used to have an Imp, it was so quick and easy to take the engine and gearbox out that I used to do that for most of the maintenance tasks instead of reaching into the awkward recesses of the engine bay.  I also blew up a gearbox and drove it 120 miles home with only 2nd and 4th.  Ten miles in the brakes failed so only had the two gears and a handbrake.  It made judging the traffic to join roundabouts interesting.....

The gearbox had thrown a mainshaft bearing and turned the oil into something resembling metalflake paint so a replacement was sought from the scrappy.  On fitting it I found I had no reverse gear; on stripping the end case I found someone had removed it for reasons I couldn't explain, but at least it was an easy fix. When it was going right it was fairly quick though,  998 engine, twin DCOE carbs and 4 branch exhaust giving about 70bhp and a kerb weight of only 700kg was way faster than most minis of the day.  Happy days indeed. 

Hijack over... 

OK, Imp Anorak on.  This is interesting BB, ever heard of a company called Davrian? They made Specials for road and track based around the Imp and most used a modified 998 engine which was a factory special big bore kit (875 was std). How do I know all this? Because I knew Adrian Evans who was half of Davrian( It was Dave and Adrian). The company I worked for used to supply bits for them when they were based in Clapham, funnily enough they moved to Wales in the 70's not far from where I live now, and in fact the company still exists but now called Darrian and owned by a new guy, Adrian died some years ago(This I found via Google).

I can remember talking to Adrian about putting one of his engines in my Imp (120 Bhp), but talk was as far as it got as it was a lot of money for those days, and it was a point in my life where certain chemicals etc had started to take over my rationale, oops

My Sport ended its days in the scrapper down Tooting after one of the Driveshaft Rotoflex couplings let go at speed and destroyed the engine and some of the floor, I remember getting a Tenner for scrap, happy days, not really, worse was to come...............

[Bixxer Bob]

Yes I remember Davarian, and the Clan Crusader (my mate Chris that I go to France with worked as a sprayer for them).  I lusted after a Hartwell 998 (also reckoned to be about 120bhp)  but could never rise to the cost.  I also saw a rally prepped Imp at Stone in Staffordshire doing the North Wales rally in about 1982.  It was in scrutineering when I saw it and it had a full fuel injection setup.  Drivers are known to exggerate but he reckoned about 150bhp through a Hewland box.  Seeing it later that night on one of the forest stages I had no reason to doubt him.

I too had a donut burst on me, but - luckily - I was trying to beat a 2.0l Capri off the lights.  I coasted into a side lane with the shaft beating a tune on the floor and then nipped round to the local MDC and bought a replacement and borrowed a couple of spanners.  30 mins later I was back in business.  Always carried a spare, a BIG jubilee clip and a couple of spanners after that.

Another time I broke the throttle cable while out for the day with friends about 80 miles from home.  I couldn't think of a quick repair so we pulled the cable inner through, connected it up to the carbs and led it in through the back window.  I drove, and my mate worked the throttle from the back seat.  It was scary but it worked.  Youth eh???

[Timbox2]

I think I remember some of the early "cooking" Imps having a pneumatic throttle.

[Sin_Tiger]

I think I remember some of the early "cooking" Imps having a pneumatic throttle.

Correct, was a good concept but they never properly developed it before putting it into production, like a lot of stuff on the Imps.

I also looked into a Davrian in the early 80's just after they moved to Wales speaking to Adrian but also didn't go through with it due to costs.

In the early 70's when I marshalled at Inglston the Imps were the wepon of choice to bash minis. Seeing them pass a mini sideways on the outside going around the hairpin was a spectacle to behold. Then the spaceframe bodies came in and it was never the same, you couldn't relate it to what you saw on the road, a fibre glass beetle shell with a 5.7 Chevy just didn't seem right no matter how fast it was.

There's a guy in the Borders who has a K75 engined Clan and it is seriously quick, unlike is original fitment 

You could do things with them that you just wouldn't get away with in other cars of the period, I know this is Cadwell and not Ingliston but definitely not your conventional racing lines.

[Bixxer Bob]

Good vid, but I wonder how many gearboxes he got through in a season.  I hate to hear anyone being non-sympathetic to machinery...

[nickjtc]

I hate to hear anyone being non-sympathetic to machinery...

Oh, I thought that's the way you do it when you are racing.

[Sin_Tiger]

The gearboxes are reputed to be pretty tough, a restorer I spoke to not long ago told me he rarely has to replace one. He had so many spares that he offered them free to club members, nobody needed or even wanted one as a spare so he eventually threw 6 in his skip     

[Timbox2]

The gearboxes are reputed to be pretty tough, a restorer I spoke to not long ago told me he rarely has to replace one. He had so many spares that he offered them free to club members, nobody needed or even wanted one as a spare so he eventually threw 6 in his skip     

Trust BB to break one then

[Bixxer Bob]

Niall's race comment reminded me; I used to marshal at Landow in South Wales in the mid 70s as a way of getting to see motorsport without paying.  It wasn't much more than a long straight, a short straight and two short joining straights with four corners.  My favourites were the saloon cars and most weeks the club races were won by a tuned Mk2 Jag.  Until an Imp showed up,  this thing sounded like armageddon and blew the Jag into the weeds with a mostly sideways or drifting approach.  First chance I got I went to the paddock for a look and when I found it there was a big hole where the back seat should be, in the midst  of which was a Rover V8 which the driver reckoned had been tuned.  It looked, sounded and undoubtedly was pure evil.  AS well as being an interesting engineering exercise.

And to hijck my already hijcked thread, Project Binky, Episode 12, is now avilable on You Tube.