Vintage Thing No.57 - Little Jim (grandfather to the Hillman Imp))
Could this car inspire the affection the much later Hillman Imp received? Who was Little Jim? Whilst rummaging around in the Boogie Wundaland archives, searching for something that was very important at the time, I found a very old photocopy from a book entitled Cars That Got Away . This had covered the genesis, amongst others, of the Hillman Imp, so it mentioned Apex and The Slug, but went back even further to tell the story of Little Jim. The origins of the Hillman Imp can be traced back far beyond its introduction in 1963. To pursue a Biblical analogy, the Imp was begat by Apex, which was begat by The Slug. But it seems that The Slug was begat by Little Jim. That would make him the Imp’s great grandfather. Before the Second World War, the Rootes group differed from the other industry giants because it did not have a very small car as the foundation for its range. People who buy small cars are often regarded by manufacturers as likely to trade up to a larger car at a late...