Disgraceful piece of journalistic rubbish. The Imp was one of the best handling and fun cars of the 60s and 70s - I've owned Imps for over 35years and whilst they do have their foibles - some of the crap and untruths that Tony Mason spurts out here beggars belief. Quite disgusting and a total insult to the people that gave him the time of day back in 1992 when this was filmed.
Handling issue is drivel, the car was by the standards of the 60s was ahead almost anything other than the mini (which it had amuch better ride than) and the Ado16. No Ford Anglia could live with an imp on the road in any conditions.
Media killed the Imp . It was a good car with flaws but no worse than some others . Biggest issue was overheating combined with aluminium design .The management at Linwood was a joke .......they recruited from Pressed Steel who were the original occupants of the site . They had no automotive experience . The workforce was badly trained ( I worked there briefly ) but the myth that the guys were thumbing their noses at middle management prevailed . The truth was that we were trying to make a success of a very welcome new industry for the area and I remember a very anxious and hard working shop floor who were constantly undermined by ignorant and lazy middle management .
As a ten year old in the early 80's, I remember helping my dad with an 875cc to 998cc engine swap. I was expecting it to be very difficult, but it was a case of blocking the engine up, unbolting the back body frame and engine, pushing the car forward, then doing the same in reverse. With a few upgrades to better water pump and so on, it was a nice upgrade.
I have done some research about the Hillman Imp and I think that,if a modern version of it was made right now(could come in three variants:Classic ICE,hybrid and full electrical) it would actually sell very well. The original Imp failed because of financial problems and the fact that it did not enjoy the same attention as the Austin Mini at that time.
I had a Singer Chamois, a derivative if the Imp, and the only thing I remember was that the steering went light on hard acceleration, otherwise it was a great little car.
Tony Mason is a prat who doesn't know what he's talking about. If the Imp is so bad, how did one of them win the the British Saloon Car Championship three years in a row? (And it was one car, not a new one each season). It's called 'The poor man's Porsche' for a reason, and it's not an insult.
Learnt to drive in an Imp, passing my test as well brilliant car wish I'd have bought one but went for Minis instead, oh and by the way this was when Top Gear was a motoring programme unlike the shyte the Beeb broadcast now 😁
A lot of us agree with what you say about the present Top Gear. Juvenile - not really about cars st all, but HERO worshipping presenters who haven't grown up yet! So I watch the more professional FIFTH GEAR instead! And it does have the scrummy Vicki Butler Henderson, as well!
This was my fathers vehicle. Really suffered during Greek hot summers pulling a small boat at the rear but despite overheating problems it never said no and we where always in our destination. I haven't seen one for over 20 years here.
Sorry Tony, but I'm not having that bit about handling. Any car with skinny tyres taking a sharp turn in damp conditions would suffer from plough on understeer, it's not peculiar to the Imp. I did it in a Fiat Uno a few times.
For many years Impers would comment when something had gone wrong: " I think you've just Tony Mason'ed that" .. He certainly Tony Masoned his stay at the Imp 30 celebrations.
That is nonsense about the handling, and I should know because I owned an Imp. Also the reliability problems were sorted when the Mk.2 version was launched. By 1960s standards the handling was good, but of course they won't match modern standards. Ask any cop who had an Imp panda car, about how they could do a high speed U-turn to chase miscreants, and how the Ford Escorts which replaced Imps, kept rolling over when cops tried to do the same thing.
Absolutely, I've driven Minis and Imps and loved them both, the Imp has more grip and a better ride as standard, the Mini is more forgiving if you really overcook it. Both are great handling cars. Mr Mason should stick to the left seat, he's clearly not up to the one with a steering wheel!
The Austin A40 Farina, introduced in 1958, was the first hatchback. It had a two part hatch and a foldaway rear seat. nationalmotormuseum.org.uk/vehicle-collection/austin-a40-mkii-countryman-farina/
My first vehicle, when I was 18, was an Imp van. It had the advantage that one could sit inside and keep dry when working on the engine, even if it was pouring with rain. It was like a little go-kart to drive (mine eventually had the car engine, rather than the lower compression unit originally fitted to the vans). I kept a mattress in the back to deaden the noise and up to four people could sit sideways on that. Happy days.
Having watched this with retrospect (the first time being when I was a kid, and today being a 40yr old) I can confirm the presenter is talking complete shite.
My father was a Rootes dealer and we took a caravan and family of four and dog to Cornwall from Sussex on the back of a Singer Chamois version. Dad used to put a bag of cement in the front to help with the handling.
My first car. Choice somewhat influenced by a cool work colleague having one with heavily tinted windows, bubble arches, bucket seats, and twin carbs. On a restricted budget mine was treated to leather seats from a scrap Rover P6, a Webasto fabric sun roof from a Triumph Herald, Dunlop SP radials, and a front spoiler fabricated from an industrial strip light fitting. Not forgetting the mat black aerosol paint.
Seeing that breaking manoeuvre with the Imp going straight on made me smile, it remined me of the time I was driving through country lanes....too fast...and came up to a 90o right hander hit the brakes and it just went straight on through a privet hedge into someone's front garden (thank the Lord it wasn't a brick wall), that was the late 60s. I loved the little car but again as the report mentioned had to replace the engine due to warped head.
For a professional presenter on car matters, he didn't half peddle a lot of half truths rumours and downright nonsense! If you turn and brake on a slippery surface it can understeer.. well really, what a surprise 🙄 easy to see why he stuck to navigating rather than driving 😂
"there was one down our road when I was young and I just cottoned on to them" says the 8 year old boy . Wait until he is ten and see's something like a FIAT Panda Mk 1 lol
I owned a 1970 Sunbeam Stiletto. It was signal red with a black vinyl roof and a black interior. It had twin headlamps and the twin-carb Imp sport engine. A great little car and pretty zippy. Mine had a tendency to throw off the water pump belt at high revs. Top speed was around 90 mph.
My drunken scottish mate's mum had one in the 70s. He put us around a power pole in it, put me in the hospital for the night and put him in the cells. Lucky they have a big crumple zone up front.
worst car my dad ever owned in the 60's -car salesman told him to put a sack of cement in the front boot to balance the rear engine......crap on a stick.
I had two, both problem children, but thoroughly enjoyable. First wages at my student holiday job went on a set of Pirelli Cinturatos which transformed the handling from the old crossplies. Still the oil leaks and the over heating got to me and I graduated to a Renault 5 with sunroof and umbrella stick gearchange. Happy days.
My first 2 cars were Imps. Great little car with decent acceleration and cornering ability. You could take the engine out in half an hour. Needed weight in the front boot in the winter for traction in ice and snow and the heaters were very poor.
Quite simply, the worst car I have ever owned. Bought mine in 1976, it turned out to be a complete rust bucket. Unreliable, overheated, rusted king pins, rusted everything, ... quality control was dreadful. Got a chevette next. Nice, safe and reliable, then an 848cc mini, superb motor car. 100 times better than the Imp. No.comparison. if you haven't owned one of these Rootes machines you are lucky.
My first car in 1969 was a Hillman Imp. Picked it up on a Monday, clutch burnt out the next day with a tow back home and a tow to the garage for a refund on Wednesday. Pity, as I iked the car.
I am six foot six and i had one in the seventies. I could get in and drive far better th a mini. Only problem was the aluminium cylinder head. If you ever let them over heat, the head warped and water entered the cylinder heads. It happend to mine caused by doing someone a favour and over loading it and ruined it and went for scrap
Plagued with lengthy accelerator cables snapping, a real bag of spanners. Engine in back, accelerator cable in front, radiator hoses running the length of the vehicle. A recipe for disaster, and so it proved. My dad had one for 6 months, that proved long enough
I recall that many years ago, there was a leak that in a frontal impact the car was very unsafe. This apparently was known, so a government restriction was placed on the information. However, that information was freely available from the US government.
My first car was a Sunbeam Stilleto. Pros: a bit faster than a standard Imp (not by much though) And with all the weight over the back wheels, it would out-Land Rover a Land Rover on wet grass. Taught me all about car mechanicals in double quick time. Cons, steering got very light as the fuel tank emptied, small boot entirely filed with essential tools and spares, air to the radiator sucked up from under the car, clogging it with mud and road dirt, and causing the engine to over heat. The heater didn’t work in the winter, but cooked the occupants in the summer as it was needed to give supplementary engine cooling. Ally head warped, head gasket failed, head bolts sheered! Wish I’d bought a Mini.
Disgraceful piece of journalistic rubbish. The Imp was one of the best handling and fun cars of the 60s and 70s - I've owned Imps for over 35years and whilst they do have their foibles - some of the crap and untruths that Tony Mason spurts out here beggars belief. Quite disgusting and a total insult to the people that gave him the time of day back in 1992 when this was filmed.
It’s top gear. It’s just a joke. Nothing has changed
@@highdownmartin You're so right!
Handling issue is drivel, the car was by the standards of the 60s was ahead almost anything other than the mini (which it had amuch better ride than) and the Ado16. No Ford Anglia could live with an imp on the road in any conditions.
I would agree with that I used to throw mine all over the place, though I did have one hairy moment as mentioned in my post.
These were great little cars ( and they didn’t rot as bad as the minis did ) easy to work on. I wish I still had mine.
Media killed the Imp . It was a good car with flaws but no worse than some others . Biggest issue was overheating combined with aluminium design .The management at Linwood was a joke .......they recruited from Pressed Steel who were the original occupants of the site . They had no automotive experience . The workforce was badly trained ( I worked there briefly ) but the myth that the guys were thumbing their noses at middle management prevailed . The truth was that we were trying to make a success of a very welcome new industry for the area and I remember a very anxious and hard working shop floor who were constantly undermined by ignorant and lazy middle management .
As a ten year old in the early 80's, I remember helping my dad with an 875cc to 998cc engine swap. I was expecting it to be very difficult, but it was a case of blocking the engine up, unbolting the back body frame and engine, pushing the car forward, then doing the same in reverse. With a few upgrades to better water pump and so on, it was a nice upgrade.
Wife has sad several over the years, and has NEVER experienced problems with the cooling system etc. Whose a 'silly boy then Tony?
I have done some research about the Hillman Imp and I think that,if a modern version of it was made right now(could come in three variants:Classic ICE,hybrid and full electrical) it would actually sell very well.
The original Imp failed because of financial problems and the fact that it did not enjoy the same attention as the Austin Mini at that time.
It failed because the scottish are crap engineers.
I had a Singer Chamois, a derivative if the Imp, and the only thing I remember was that the steering went light on hard acceleration, otherwise it was a great little car.
I had one of them. The imp was the 1st hatchback I think. Wasn´t it? My daughter buggered the engine up while we were on holiday.
Tony Mason is a prat who doesn't know what he's talking about. If the Imp is so bad, how did one of them win the the British Saloon Car Championship three years in a row? (And it was one car, not a new one each season). It's called 'The poor man's Porsche' for a reason, and it's not an insult.
Learnt to drive in an Imp, passing my test as well brilliant car wish I'd have bought one but went for Minis instead, oh and by the way this was when Top Gear was a motoring programme unlike the shyte the Beeb broadcast now 😁
Absolutely true
A lot of us agree with what you say about the present Top Gear. Juvenile - not really about cars st all, but HERO worshipping presenters who haven't grown up yet! So I watch the more professional FIFTH GEAR instead! And it does have the scrummy Vicki Butler Henderson, as well!
This was my fathers vehicle. Really suffered during Greek hot summers pulling a small boat at the rear but despite overheating problems it never said no and we where always in our destination. I haven't seen one for over 20 years here.
My dad, a RAF WW2 mechanic, had two of them and loved them. Learned to drive on an IMP at Elvington airfield near York.
Sorry Tony, but I'm not having that bit about handling. Any car with skinny tyres taking a sharp turn in damp conditions would suffer from plough on understeer, it's not peculiar to the Imp. I did it in a Fiat Uno a few times.
For many years Impers would comment when something had gone wrong: " I think you've just Tony Mason'ed that" .. He certainly Tony Masoned his stay at the Imp 30 celebrations.
That is nonsense about the handling, and I should know because I owned an Imp. Also the reliability problems were sorted when the Mk.2 version was launched. By 1960s standards the handling was good, but of course they won't match modern standards. Ask any cop who had an Imp panda car, about how they could do a high speed U-turn to chase miscreants, and how the Ford Escorts which replaced Imps, kept rolling over when cops tried to do the same thing.
Absolutely, I've driven Minis and Imps and loved them both, the Imp has more grip and a better ride as standard, the Mini is more forgiving if you really overcook it. Both are great handling cars. Mr Mason should stick to the left seat, he's clearly not up to the one with a steering wheel!
The first car I know of with an opening rear window, thus predating the later hatchback craze.
The Austin A40 Farina, introduced in 1958, was the first hatchback. It had a two part hatch and a foldaway rear seat.
nationalmotormuseum.org.uk/vehicle-collection/austin-a40-mkii-countryman-farina/
My first vehicle, when I was 18, was an Imp van. It had the advantage that one could sit inside and keep dry when working on the engine, even if it was pouring with rain. It was like a little go-kart to drive (mine eventually had the car engine, rather than the lower compression unit originally fitted to the vans). I kept a mattress in the back to deaden the noise and up to four people could sit sideways on that. Happy days.
my first car was a 1967 Hillman Imp,fantastic little car,you could turn it on a sixpence!
So much better than the mini ! My mother had three or four of them.
Having watched this with retrospect (the first time being when I was a kid, and today being a 40yr old) I can confirm the presenter is talking complete shite.
OK imps did plough on a bit more than the average car but what Tony did there on a grassy field so would any other car
I had a sunbeam sport imp great little car
My father was a Rootes dealer and we took a caravan and family of four and dog to Cornwall from Sussex on the back of a Singer Chamois version. Dad used to put a bag of cement in the front to help with the handling.
We used to put half a dozen house bricks in mine.Made it better.
I had a imp loved it better than a mini
I had an Imp, 67-69. A mate and me drove from Belgium through France to Barcelona and back to London, never missed a beat.
My first car. Choice somewhat influenced by a cool work colleague having one with heavily tinted windows, bubble arches, bucket seats, and twin carbs.
On a restricted budget mine was treated to leather seats from a scrap Rover P6, a Webasto fabric sun roof from a Triumph Herald, Dunlop SP radials, and a front spoiler fabricated from an industrial strip light fitting. Not forgetting the mat black aerosol paint.
Seeing that breaking manoeuvre with the Imp going straight on made me smile, it remined me of the time I was driving through country lanes....too fast...and came up to a 90o right hander hit the brakes and it just went straight on through a privet hedge into someone's front garden (thank the Lord it wasn't a brick wall), that was the late 60s. I loved the little car but again as the report mentioned had to replace the engine due to warped head.
For a professional presenter on car matters, he didn't half peddle a lot of half truths rumours and downright nonsense! If you turn and brake on a slippery surface it can understeer.. well really, what a surprise 🙄 easy to see why he stuck to navigating rather than driving 😂
Five hundred Imps and Rosemary Smith! This 60's teenagers dream time.Even in Oz.
I HAD ONE THAT WAS BREATHED ON FAIRLY HEAVELY, IT WENT RITE OVER TO THE F ON THE FUEL GAGUE #ABOUT 105MPH.
"there was one down our road when I was young and I just cottoned on to them" says the 8 year old boy . Wait until he is ten and see's something like a FIAT Panda Mk 1 lol
My dad had one which I borrowed all the time. Great wee car which I loved!
I owned a 1970 Sunbeam Stiletto. It was signal red with a black vinyl roof and a black interior. It had twin headlamps and the twin-carb Imp sport engine. A great little car and pretty zippy. Mine had a tendency to throw off the water pump belt at high revs. Top speed was around 90 mph.
I dismantled the engine in my parents spare bedroom a couple of times, bugger those aluminum heads.
My first car was KPD 154C . It must have blown more head gaskets ! An absolute nightmare I needed a mechanic in my back pocket . Awful .
I learned to drive in one the gearbox was a nightmare and the understeer was dangerous but I loved them!
I went over a hump back bridge to fast in mine and took the sump out but apart from that it was a great little car.
My mother had a 1967 model and once the engine was replaced under warranty - it was fine.
Girl friend in Canada had one of those. She generously allowed me to drive it. Great fun!
My drunken scottish mate's mum had one in the 70s. He put us around a power pole in it, put me in the hospital for the night and put him in the cells. Lucky they have a big crumple zone up front.
It used to overheat all the time and had to keep filling it up.
try changing that last spark plug
You had to have the right type of plug spanner, I still have mine from when I use to race my Imp back in the early to mid 70s, loved it to bits.
Cheeky Imp! 😁👍
What other power plant can be fitted Q
I once saw one with a Hilman Hunter engine in it (way light in the front) and another with a hayabusa, that was a ROCKET!
worst car my dad ever owned in the 60's -car salesman told him to put a sack of cement in the front boot to balance the rear engine......crap on a stick.
I had two, both problem children, but thoroughly enjoyable. First wages at my student holiday job went on a set of Pirelli Cinturatos which transformed the handling from the old crossplies. Still the oil leaks and the over heating got to me and I graduated to a Renault 5 with sunroof and umbrella stick gearchange. Happy days.
My dad had one before I can remember, he says it was terrible 😂
My first 2 cars were Imps. Great little car with decent acceleration and cornering ability. You could take the engine out in half an hour. Needed weight in the front boot in the winter for traction in ice and snow and the heaters were very poor.
My mum won a competition in 1968 and first prize was a Hillman imp, second prize was two hillman imps 😜👍🏻🇬🇧
I had two, they was great little cars, dead easy to work on, you could have the engine out in less than 20 minutes!.
Quite simply, the worst car I have ever owned. Bought mine in 1976, it turned out to be a complete rust bucket. Unreliable, overheated, rusted king pins, rusted everything, ... quality control was dreadful. Got a chevette next. Nice, safe and reliable, then an 848cc mini, superb motor car. 100 times better than the Imp. No.comparison. if you haven't owned one of these Rootes machines you are lucky.
They made a Sport version that came with bike clips and a change of underwear in a bag under the passenger seat!
UK version of the Corvair, death at any speed. That slippery turn killed my uncle.
My first car in 1969 was a Hillman Imp. Picked it up on a Monday, clutch burnt out the next day with a tow back home and a tow to the garage for a refund on Wednesday. Pity, as I iked the car.
I am six foot six and i had one in the seventies. I could get in and drive far better th a mini. Only problem was the aluminium cylinder head. If you ever let them over heat, the head warped and water entered the cylinder heads. It happend to mine caused by doing someone a favour and over loading it and ruined it and went for scrap
Plagued with lengthy accelerator cables snapping, a real bag of spanners.
Engine in back, accelerator cable in front, radiator hoses running the length of the vehicle.
A recipe for disaster, and so it proved.
My dad had one for 6 months, that proved long enough
I recall that many years ago, there was a leak that in a frontal impact the car was very unsafe. This apparently was known, so a government restriction was placed on the information. However, that information was freely available from the US government.
Vica versa, rear engine cars are much safer than the front engine cars during the frontal impact.
My first car was a Sunbeam Stilleto. Pros: a bit faster than a standard Imp (not by much though) And with all the weight over the back wheels, it would out-Land Rover a Land Rover on wet grass. Taught me all about car mechanicals in double quick time. Cons, steering got very light as the fuel tank emptied, small boot entirely filed with essential tools and spares, air to the radiator sucked up from under the car, clogging it with mud and road dirt, and causing the engine to over heat. The heater didn’t work in the winter, but cooked the occupants in the summer as it was needed to give supplementary engine cooling. Ally head warped, head gasket failed, head bolts sheered! Wish I’d bought a Mini.
Yes, you should have bought a M*n* - leave the Stiletto to someone who knows how to look after a car (and knows how to spell the name).
There was a horrible smell in them . never liked it
Never in the ones I had. Maybe your best friends are not tellong you something.
Britain's Porsche. LOL.