Birth of the Imp
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Rootes original concept for a small car began in the 1950s with a project known as “The Slug” and was the brainchild of Mike Parkes and Tim Fry.
Read more about project Slug here.
Project Slug developed into Project Apex and the Hillman Imp was launched on 3rd May 1963.
The development of the Hillman Imp is well documented in “Apex – The Inside Story if the Hillman Imp” written by David and Peter Henshaw. It has a wealth of early photographs of the project.
The 2023 reworked edition contains:
* New chapter – the Imp since the 1970s
* 89 black & white photos, plus 145 in colour, mostly new
* Rare Prototypes – Gillie, Asp, Swallow etc
* Imp Club celebrations of 40th, 50th & 60th Anniversaries
* Racing, Spares, BMW Conversion
* Plus the full Imp story: Slug to Apex; the Linwood story; Mk1; Mk2; all the variants; Mk3 to the end
At launch the basic Imp cost £508 1s 3d (£508.06) and the De Luxe model £532 4s 7d (£532.23).
So what did the extra £24 3s 4d (£24.17) buy the customer? Extras included heater, opening front quarter-lights, windscreen washers, carpets and twin sun visors – the ‘basic’ Imp was certainly very basic!
Marketing the Mark I Imp
Features of the Mark I Imp
All aluminium 875cc engine developed from a Coventry Climax FWMA fire pump engine.
Rear cross mounted engine with rear wheel drive
Opening rear hatch
Folding rear bench seat
Pneumatcally operated throttle
Automatic choke