MG 2 by 2steamhorses(Bob), on Flickr

A picture of my 1969 Singer Chamois as requested by PatrickMason

Have owned Sammy for 5 years now - He has a sports head 59bhp, 875cc engine, twin weber carb and is a little pocket rocket

That is one cool looking car.
As it happens,at work,we were given a water pump which is powered by an Imp engine.It sounds lush,revs like a bugger,and has probably only done,ooh,maybe 50 miles from new .

I think it's the other way round. The Imp engine came from the Coventry Climax Fire pump if I recall correctly.

John

indeedie........Imp engine adapted from Coventry Climax pump engine.....


"Known internally within Rootes as the "Apex" project, the Imp was to be the first post-Second World War small car by the Rootes group. Its main rival on the home market was the BMC Mini which preceded the Imp by nearly four years. One key difference between the two cars was the Imp's 875 cc all-aluminium power unit, adapted by Rootes from a Coventry Climax FWMA fire pump engine which had enjoyed some success on the racing scene. However the engine used for the Imp differed considerably from the original Climax engine, for instance having an entirely different cylinder head."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillman_Imp#History

Tasty

Mate who I used to race with's brother had a grasstrack Imp with Fireblade/FJ1200 (or similar) on the rear seats. It was a battered wreck but went like a nutter, he managed to end over end it 3 times in a row so don't know whether it still exists or not...

Love how most of them (that I've seen) have bike engines in now - would be an ace car to mod

There are still a couple of Imp-based cars on the Autograss circuit - one (a coupé) races from Evesham, the other from Nottingham. The Evesham car has a sister car, an unfeasibly-large engined Fiat126. The Notts car has a 3-litre, straight 6 fitted

As were the single seat race cars, also the same engine was drysumped by sidecar racers in the late 1960's early 70's.

[YouTube]http://youtu.be/CnWNhURqjp8[/YouTube]

(excuse the awful music in both vids..)

[YouTube]http://youtu.be/vvMb_aGHf1Q[/YouTube]

Thanks for the comments folks. Sammy has a sport engine & head and isn't used for racing.............not officially anyhow

Only a few hundred left on the road now out of the 440,032 made and is the 50th Birthday of the Imp this year