You may remember a collection of Imps for sale in Canberra a while back. I thought you might be interested in an update.

I bought the lot from the daughter of the late Arthur Jones, member of the Hillman Club. They fist came to my attention via the Internet, on the Hillman mailing list I believe. Her main concern was that they go to an enthusiast, and be kept on the road, as her father would have wished. I spoke to her on the telephone, and also to the local garage mechanic who had been very involved in keeping the cars together. On the strength of that I bought them "sight unseen" and proceeded to tackle the logistical nightmare of a) getting the cars to Brisbane and b) having somewhere to put them when they got here! Eventually I decided to borrow a friend’s carport, and rope in my son’s girlfriend Debbie and her brother as drivers. A very good friend of mine offered the use of his Verada (and himself as driver) and a trailer was duly rented for the occasion. Subsequently the Imps appeared in the paper version of the Hillman list, the Newsletter, and she was flooded with calls about them. She phoned me several times to confirm if this nutcase from Brisbane was really going to come down to Canberra to fetch four old Imps!

In due course a bunch of hardy enthusiasts arrived in Canberra after an 18 hour drive with the trailer. This was after midnight, and though the lady selling the Imps had offered us floor space, as the evening got later and later we kept in contact by mobile phone and this welcome was obviously getting thin. Fortunately Debbie had an Aunty living in Canberra who wasn’t as concerned at being woken up in the middle of the night and we ended up crashed out all over her lounge.

In the morning we arrived bright and early to view our new 4 Imps. The number four car had been in the back yard for some time obviously, and had flat tyres, missing rear window, generally a 'strip it down and start again' job. But complete, with engine and gearbox. We pumped up the tyres (with a stirrup pump!) and loaded it on the trailer. Then we sorted through Arthurs garage where we discoverd various Imp parts, then went down to the service station for the other three.

The GT was clearly the best car, but the Glenalmond Green MkI was a nice, very original car. I was quickly reminded of the starting technique for old Imps (no throttle...) that took me back! It had a nice tight feel to the steering and front end, but the classic knock-kneed understeer took me back a bit too! (All my previous Imps got themselves decambered pretty smartly). The MkII is the least robust, the clutch not taking up fully at first. I was pleased to see it had a GT (Imp Sport) motor, albeit no oil cooler. Arthur obviously cared more for function than form, all the cars were tidy, but bodywise not kept the way I would have had them - eg rubbers that needed replacing. Mechanically, though, they were all in good nick, fanbelts, hoses etc all looking good. Arthur’s friend, the mechanic, had given them a good going-over and a nice polish up and they looked the part.

We took off gingerly for Yass, about 40 minutes away, and arrived without any drama at all. Not having driven an Imp for 15 years, I was delighted to redicover that sweet spot that Imps have about 60 mph - not buzzing like at 70 and not lugging like at 50. Ahhhh!! A thorough inspection of vehicles and drivers at Yass revealed that the cars were a real credit to Arthur - all running like clockwork. We pushed on to Manildra where I inadvertently put unleaded fuel in two of them. Ouch. As luck would have it, the only other servo in town (its a one horse town, they shot the horse) had, on the bottom shelf, under a thick layer of dust, a bottle of Wynns Lead Substitute. Phew. Cost more than the fuel. The MkII was using a lot of fuel and the MkI was burning a bit of oil, but nothing dramatic. We pushed on to Wellington, at dusk, and overnighted at a very pleasant B&B. We had missed tea so we retired by Imp of course to a local Italian eatery which from memory was most pleasant, if a little garlicky.

At fuel stops we always pulled up at the pumps with all three Imps drinking from one bowser (nose to nose and the third on the opposite side) and the new Mitsubishi V6 Verada (towing the fourth car on the trailer) at the unleaded pump. The bill for both was approximately the same!

Next day we headed East towards Scone and the New England highway. All the cars started first turn of the key. I cranked the jets on the MkII Strombergs up half a turn (high-tech tuning) but it was still chewing fuel and running very rich. On these rolling hills the Mitsubishi actually had trouble keeping up with the Imps. Because of the fuel consumption issue I was using more than the others, so at one point I stopped on my own at one little town to top up the MkII. Then I went flying after the convoy to catch up - it took me twenty minutes and across the undulating curves of the Upper Hunter it was a marvellous drive... the most fun I’d had in years of only driving company cars. Later on, going up the Moonbi ranges, I had a turn in the GT and started to suspect for the first time that it wasn’t really a GT motor in there… The Mk I fared mucg better up the range and the Mk II really went like a true GT. Mind you, it should have, with all the fuel it was using…

The rain started, and got progressively worse. By the time we got across the New England it was freezing cold and pouring with rain. The cars ran fine except for the windscreens fogging up constantly. Darkness fell, and the rain continued. I was driving the MkI by this stage as it had run low on oil and given us a fright somewhere in the Upper Hunter and about five hours from home (near Stanthorpe somewhere) the fog descended. The generator light simulatneously started glowing which was not a good sign. The lights grew dimmer and dimmer while we poked along, heart in mouth, looking for a dry spot to pull up - but the fog lifted, the genny suddenly kicked back in, and we continued apace.

The MkII decided it could do without its rubber cowl/radiator shroud and threw the bits of it all over the road. And the GT water hose (the one from the heated manifold) which had been tucked up behing the oil filler to prevent chafing, bounced loose, prising the filler cap off in the process. But this was the sum total of our mechanical dramas. As we pulled into Brisbane, 10pm on the second day, after 1000 miles and two days, the rain eased up.

Running the cars home through suburban streets after so much open highway that night was just as much fun as driving an Imp always is. The MkII took a top-up of oil at the last stop, the GT none at all.

Arthur would have been proud.

Postscript:

The GT turned out not to have a GT motor at all, but a standard engine with the twin Strombergs fitted. I registered it in Queensland, "IMP 67" and it has since had much incremental IMProvement – new radiator, window and door rubbers, clutch, carpet, etc. It’s a really nice driving car. It will get a new 930cc block, near-as-possible Imp Sport spec head, and Brian Bradshaw gearbox, new dash, etc and will stay "used".

The Mk I, the more I looked at it, the more it seemed that this is one of the more original Imps I have ever seen. It stood for a year before receiving attention but is now cleaned up, registered "64 MK I" and has had new door and window rubbers fitted. I shan’t do very much more to it; Tim Haynes from the Imp Register has kindly found me an original pneumatic throttle apparatus, and I have a brand new automatic choke carburettor to fit. I may fit the gearbox from the ‘parts’ car as its own box is decidedly sloppy. It will stay as original as possible – used as a road car, but watching the miles a bit to preserve the originality.

The Mk II I don’t know about. It seems Arthur got this one in a fairly butchered state with a Toyota engine in it. He returned it to Hillman mechanicals, but a lot of the car is still fairly ropey. However I found out that whatever he has in the back of it is at least a GT – from the way it kicks in at 70mph, I would suspect it may have an R17. It really goes like the clappers. I have not put it back on the road as yet, its under shade though not full cover, and I start it and take it for a short spin now and again to make sure nothing seizes or perishes. I think this is the sort of Imp that one would put mag wheels on, hot accessories, non standard seats etc. and a full respray. If I don’t find a home for it that’s undoubtedly what the future holds for it. The parts car is just that, really, though the shell is more solid than some that I have seen on the road. There was another shell and some mechanical bits still at the service station in Canberra; if I can ever get organised to get down there and if it hasn’t been scrapped yet I may still try to retrieve them some day.

I’ve been meaning to send this expanded version of this tale which originally appeared on the Hillman and Imp Internet mailing lists for some time now, and also put the cars on my web page. Now I’ve done the one I suppose I should go and do the other. Watch www.petrie.starway.net.au/~mmarsh

I think if Arthur could see his beloved Imps now he would be well satisfied.

Brisbane, August 1999