This is my 1964 Hillman IMP.
Light on luxury. The nemesis of the mini. These cars have fully independent coil spring suspension, a rear hatch, drum brakes, rack and pinion steering and a rear mounted 875cc all alloy engine producing around 30 to 40 horsepower.
This particular example was a former motorkhana car which belonged to a driver down south, who used a 10A peripheral port rotary in it. It had been sitting in a shed for some time as you can see from the layers of dust on it. My father and I rescued it (along with a blue IMP GT which is his project- webpage coming soon) for some light restoration.
The racing mods fitted are:
-Rear 4 point roll cage.
-Racing seat and harness.
-Rear spoiler.
-Front mount radiator and ventilated bonnet.
-Twin Batteries front and rear with selector 'rope' switch.
-Oil cooler mounted on rear boot lid.
-Special long handbrake lever with its own master cylinder.
-Datsun driveshafts.
-Large binnacle with gauges mounted on top of original.
-Torpedo door mirror.
-Electric fuel pump.
-Remote oil filter.
Aluminium instrument cluster with tacho, temp, fuel, etc.
Plans are to remove the roll cage, repaint the exterior panels all one colour (in the original Tropic Red) and refit an IMP 875cc engine for a roadworthy certificate.
Down the track I'll consider hotting it up again for basic motorsport with either a:
-Tuned imp motor- all alloy
-10A rotary
-Nissan MA09ERT / MA10ET
-Alfa / Subaru boxer
or an 1100/1300cc bike engine
Whichever power-unit is selected has to be lightweight due to the 'overhanging' rear engine configuration. I would like a well balanced car that has both agility and straight line performance. A four wheel Alfa-Romeo Sud disc brake conversion would give unbeatable brakes to match.
On arrival day
Front mount radiator and batteries
Ducktail spoiler which is actually a granny style metal sunvisor. Soon to be removed as I doubt I'll reach speeds at which it'll be useful.
More pics of progress (and of better quality) will be posted.
Check out my 1967 Corolla Sprinter also
click here
