Imp
The cars : Hillman Imp
Mini steps backwards… The Suez crisis of the 1956 certainly had a lot to answer for: petrol shortages in the UK meant that those cars that could eke out the most from a gallon of Petrol were judged to be the most desirable. The Rootes Group certainly felt that way, and as a response to [...]
June 25, 2011
· 
Matthew Hayward · 
20 Comments
Hillman Imp : Rootes Asp
The sporting version of the Imp looks as promising today as it did back during the 1960s. A lack of money would spell its end… Rootes’ engineers knew that the Imp chassis was capable of handling more power, and decided to work on a sporting variant. Using the existing all alloy ohc engine (tuned somewhat), [...]
June 25, 2011
· Matthew Hayward · One Comment
Hillman Imp : Project Slug
Rootes’ bouncing new baby The Slug The Slug was the brainchild Michael Parkes and Tim Fry, when they were asked to come up with a small car to generate sales volume for The Rootes Group. Initially powered by a Villiers flat-twin engine, the tiny rear-engined car paved the way for the Apex and then the [...]
June 25, 2011
· Matthew Hayward · 4 Comments
Hillman Imp : The prototypes
The Hillman Imp came about as a direct response to the Suez-crisis induced petrol shortages of 1956/57, even though Rootes had started small car investigations long before this. The first small Rootes car was Little Jim, but this was followed by the Slug in the mid-1950s. The Imp came from Project Apex, which was a [...]
June 25, 2011
· Matthew Hayward · No Comments
