Scotland's Baby - The Hillman Imp

The Hillman Imp of 1963 was compromised, even before it went on sale

I've been racking my brains trying to think of the Hillman Imp in popular culture. The closest I've got to is of Frank Spencer driving one in the 70's sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. The hapless character portrayed by Michael Crawford got stuck on the Isle of Sheppey bridge before driving at high speed off a pier into the English Channel where the car subsequently sank. Spencer who was taking a driving test at the time shouted to the escaping examiner 'Have I passed'?... The scene was rather fitting - the Imp pretty much sank Hillman too...
Back in the early 60's, BMC's Mini was selling like hot cakes and the Rootes Group wanted a slice of the action. Work started on the 'Apex' project which resulted in the Hillman Imp, a small car that arrived in 1963, four years after the Mini's launch. This was also the first small Rootes designed vehicle since the Second World War.
On paper the Imp featured a revolutionary design. The engine was a rear mounted 875cc all aluminium unit sourced from Coventry Climax, an engine popular in racing. Hillman's design featured a different cylinder head and was slanted 45 degrees to improve packaging and weight distribution. In an effort to improve handling over other rear engined cars on the market, the Imp's rear suspension featured an independent semi-trailing arm. This meant that the little Hillman was a costly and sophisticated affair in its development.

Snazzier models such as this failed to mask the fact that the 'Apex' project was deeply flawed. Government meddling didn't help either

Unfortunately this development period was a nightmare! The Rootes Group were running out of space at their Ryton manufacturing plant near Coventry and it just so happened that the Labour government of the day had an unemployment blackspot on their hands. They issued a grant to Rootes to build a new computerised assembly plant in a town called Linwood, just outside of Glasgow where unemployment was rife. The area used to have a heavy shipbuilding industry; however, many jobs had been lost as times changed and the area on the Clyde needed investment.
On the face of it, this deal appeared to make sense but not much thought was given to the logistics of the situation. Linwood was 300 miles away from Ryton. Engine castings were made in Linwood, sent to Ryton where they were machined and assembled and then transported back up to Scotland for final vehicle assembly. Inefficiency was key and time and money was wasted due to this ill conceived manufacturing process.
Another angle the government failed to take into account was the fact that the shipbuilding workforce employed to make the cars had no prior experience in doing so. Poor build quality and less than impressive reliability became the end result. Industrial disputes quickly followed and strikes began - 31 of them took place in 1964 alone.

The Imp was rear engined which meant no radiator grille was required. It's believed that this one was the first off the line

Thanks in no small part to a hurried launch, the Imp was fundamentally underdeveloped and suffered spectacularly because of it. Cooling was a big problem and Hillman even included a wheel brace to help start the engine in case the electrics failed! Owners weren't informed of how to maintain the alloy engine properly either.
It's a shame that things turned out this way; after all, the Imp was heralded as a revolutionary small car and although the reliability issue improved over the years, the rot had set in. Half of the total production run of just under 500,000 units were sold in the first 3 years alone!
The Rootes Group quickly began launching other models in order to keep the project alive. These included an estate of the Imp called the Hillman Husky, a van called the Commer Imp (Commer was the Rootes Group's commercial vehicle arm) and the Hillman Imp Californian.
The Californian was an oddity... The main difference to the saloon was a more steeply raked profile, in effect to make a coupe. Unfortunately it was even more compromised than the standard car. The Imp's fold down rear seats were now fixed as was the opening rear window. If ever there was a car that could be accused of being style over substance, this was it.
Further badge engineering began with the introduction of the Singer Chamois and Sunbeam Sport, spurned on by low sales volumes. Prices for the Imp were also slashed to encourage people to take a chance on Hillman's baby.

The Imp was especially popular north of the border, thanks to its Scottish roots

The Imp ended up accelerating the undoing of the Coventry based manufacturer. Lord William Rootes began partnership talks with Chrysler in 1964, just a year after the Linwood factory was opened by the Duke of Edinburgh. Lord Rootes ended up passing away before a deal was completed and Chrysler took full control of the business. Imp prices were slashed further until production ended in 1976. Two years later Peugeot bought the Rootes Group from Chrysler and set about reviving Talbot, a brand that was part of the Rootes portfolio. Once the Imp had been discontinued, the remaining Hillman range consisted of just the Hunter and Avenger saloons. By 1981 Hillman was no more - the Linwood plant closed with 5000 redundancies. Peugeot just couldn't see a way forward.
The 'Apex' project was ambitious. Unfortunately the Imp never got anywhere near the sales of the Mini. Who knows, maybe if there was more time spent on developing the car, training the workforce and less interference from government, things may have been different...