Vintage Thing No.80 - Charleston Special

The Charleston Special - that's what the owner called it and even he wasn't sure this was right. 

To anyone expecting to read about 2CVs, sorry - this Charleston Special is based on a Hillman Imp. It turned up at the ARCC (Association of Rootes Car Clubs) Rally at Blenhiem Palace in 2000, intrigued lots of people quite apart from myself and then dropped out of our lives. The owner at the time admitted to not knowing a great deal about it and it was up for sale so probably has changed hands at least once since then.

The low pivot point of the front wishbones would hamper off road performance but on road performance must have been like a little go-kart. UVA produced the F30, which was a purely road going version of their Fugitive kit. Apparently too many people were fitting Rover V8s into the back of the off-road rails and making badly over-engined (note that these weren't not well over engineered) monstrosities. More isn't always more.

What I do know is that it had complete Imp running gear, including front wishbones. The frame is of large diameter steel tube, neatly panelled out in aluminium sheet. The Lotus 7-esque front end was actually a wooden form covered in aluminium foil! Don't laugh - it really worked well. Thinking about it, if gold leaf works so well, why hasn't somebody thought about this before?

The master cylinder for the clutch and brake is in front of the steering wheel so the windscreen features a cut out for it. Maybe the windscreen came along after this position had been chosen.

There was no rear bulkhead a such just open tubes so that the occupants could feel at one with the powertrain. And I'm sure they did and only in a good way, too.

If you look closely (click on the image for a bigger picture) you can see into the passenger compartment because the usual rear-mounted Imp radiator is not there

As far as I know the Imp engine was standard but as the ensemble couldn't have weighed very much it must've gone quite well. There was a front radiator but the water pump and alternator drive belt lived in a very nice cowling.

For many years I'd wondered what an Imp powered version of a VW sand rail would look like. The Charleston Special is the closest to what I had in mind, although the VW trailing link IFS are so iconic perhaps they ought to be part of the plot for the full-on shrunk-in-the-wash dune buggy style.

The wheels were Fiat X1/9 - but wouldn't these be a metric stud pattern? Superb British Eagle Imp van with windows shown in the background was later written off in a horrible accident - fortunately the driver survived.

Viewed from the depths of an iron winter, this little car seems hugely appealing. But the story is incomplete so over to you Engine Punks - fill in the gaps.