Brother’s Stiletto actually never gave us 1 single bit of bother.
It proved 100% reliable all the time he had it.
I put this down to approximately 4 perhaps 6 weeks’ ownership before Father took the keys off him. At least we have 1 Imp that was 100% reliable during…“ownership”.
Therefor, I submit we are all being rather too harsh about them…
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One of the most famous owners were “The Gambols” cartoon in the paper but blowed if I can find a picture to prove it!
There is a pristine one in the car museum in Bourton on the Water in the Cotswold.
We bought a rusty old Super Imp for £150 in 1991 (already then 22 years old)
We then fully restored it (myself and good friend)
It was a great little car and was my wife’s daily driver for a few years, the first car she ever owned.
She loved it
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My mum had a Sunbeam Imp Sport. It was pretty quick, as long as the twin carbs stayed in tune (I just looked it up as a mighty 49bhp from 875cc, 12 more horses than a bog Hillman one). Even though they’d been made for fifteen years or so and hardly rare, some garage owners would think it odd when she opened the “bonnet” to fill up with petrol! It was “Wardance” - the leftover Rootes paint must have sat in a warehouse for 40 odd years until Mazda needed it for the AE30! 
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I thought I was joking about Wardance vs Mazda Racing Orange but I just looked on some paint cards and ITS EXACTLY THE SAME COLOUR!!!
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Regarding Frazer Imps, which I remember well from nineteen sixties Goodwood, the last one I saw was on a trailer being towed by a RangeRover. It overtook me at the top of Duncton Hill. I was being circumspect as I was driving a vintage car (as in pre 1930), it was raining and I was being cautious on the corner where the lorries came out from a quarry. I speeded up a bit, so that I would be first at the accident on the sharp corner at the bottom of the hill. Happily, the RangeRover and trailer took it in their stride and I never saw then again. That must have been more than thirty years ago and I never did find out where it was going to race. Perhaps it had been testing at Goodwood as the track then was available for that subject to stringent noise limits. I do remember Frazer Imps going well against the Minis at Goodwood but never actually winning. Happy days!
Stuart
Let’s get one thing right - they were FRASER Imps , not Frazer…
I loved Imps- revvy little engine, light years ahead of the growly old A Series in Minis, and capable of stratospheric revs in racing spec.
In 1978 I had a Clan Crusader which I upgraded from 875 cc Imp/Chamois Sport spec to Hartwell 998cc Rallye Imp power. Poor man’s Elan - quick, grippy, agile and economical . Treacherous if you lifted off when cornering hard - huge oversteer , resulting in one of the biggest tank slappers I’ve ever had . I discovered that the big roundabout I was driving round had a give way system half way round , while showing my chum just what a talent Formula One had lost in your truly. Sweet FA, as it turned out…
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I remember the Fraser Imps well. Giant killers!
In about 1976, I had an Imp; bought it from a workmate and ran for about a year without any bother. After a thrash down the M6 to a training course, the engine - 80-odd thousand miles - became a bit rattly.
A friend said he knew where another good engine was in a shed; when I went to see it, it was an Imp Sport 998 motor from Rootes’ competition dept (he had the spec sheet!), but the old chap just wanted rid of it - he didn’t know, or appreciate, what it was so I got for an absolute pittance - £15 if memory serves. I took the hot race cam out and replaced it with a more road-friendly R23 rally cam and put a single 1.5" Stromberg on it. Redline at 8,000, useable power from 2,000 - I’m guessing about 85bhp in something which weighed nowt. What a fantastic little car it made!
I would have another in a heartbeat!
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Yes. It was a fire pump engine.
A neighbour of mine in Sheffield Terry Hall did the RAC rally many times in an Imp. I remember getting up at daft o clock to watch him go through the Clipstone stages. I have an enamel marshalls badge with several year bars attached
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The Imp engine wasn’t literally a fire pump engine , but an evolution of a design which had started life as a pump . CC engines were used in various race cars originally , and the FWE (Feather weight type E ) was first seen on a road ca in the lovely Lotus Elite. With input from racer/engineer, Mike Parkes, the Imp engine was to evolve into the alloy overhead cam engine which gave the Imp its pep.
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Photograph of a racing 1050 Imp at Cadwell Park recently. Well suited to the tight twisty circuit, he’d managed to get past the green Lotus Cortina but couldn’t catch the leading Cortina.
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Hello Paul
Great to see an Imp still performing well.
Cadwell is a brilliant circuit, well worth the drive from Lancaster. Plus the Lincolnshire
Wolds have some fine driving roads.
I was planning to visit Cadwell for this event but never made it as I was unable to
get absolute confirmation that the circuit was Covid de-restricted. Hopefully 2021
will see less problems!
Regards
Keith
I was there with a chum from the Lotus Seven Club for the weekend - terrific wasn’t it ? . My favourite race circuit , anywhere , and it’s weird to think now that I watched Formula 3 championship rounds there in the 70s and early 80s .
We were there on the Sunday and saw some great racing. Stood at the exit to Chris Curve and going down to the Gooseneck. Couldn’t believe how hard they were driving cars worth a lot of money, the driver of the Lotus Cortina was drifting it round Chris Curve. Loved the sound of the Morgan V8.
We try and go a couple of times a season, usually to see the MX5 racing, always guaranteed to provide really close racing round Cadwell.
Paul