First car i ever drove. A mate at college in falmouth owned it, it used to blow its head gasket on a monthly basis. It ended up being pushed down an abandoned mineshaft. I expect its hit the bottom by now!
Built in Linwood. Near Paisley, just west of Glasgow. There was recently a ceremony to commemorate 50 years since the start of production.
A number of Imps went through my hands.
One was on its last legs. I went to a scrapyard to get some bits and bought the car in the yard because it was better than the one I was running. Quick number plate and chassis tag swap and we were away and running for a few more months.
I think the Linwood factory was a government idea to provide jobs in the area. Subsequent industrial strife didn't do the Imp's production any good.
It certainly was an advanced design for its time, it's a pity the aluminium casting technology they used wasn't up to the the job. If the designers had just put a few more pounds/kilogrammes of metal into the castings a lot of the problems might not have happened.
I recall that some of the design features came from / were very similar to the WW2 Coventry Climax fire pump engine. I'm sure a Google will reveal all.
a second for the bag of cement made into a concrete block to go in the front. Our sunbeam stilleto had its heydays in North Wales so it had a few big bits of slate. Going down a bendy steep lane covered in ice and snow was "interesting". The future wife drove it and in these circumstances, my seat belt was off and the door unlatched.
Instead of a bag of sand we used to put a loaded toolbox in the front "boot".
Between two of us we could get the engine out in 25mins!! Always worried about that drain tube which leaked spare fuel in the manifold onto the exhaust!!