Engine Punk

This little engine nearly rusted away entirely. For nearly 30 years it lay in its shed at Dorothea Quarry in North Wales with parts being taken to keep other engines running. Gradually the shed collapsed around it but in 1970 it was rescued by enthusiast Dave Walker. Dorothea remained in storage until 1989 when Kate Bowman took pity on it. Her husband had already done that with other quarry Hunslets, such as Covertcoat from Dinorwic and Lillian from Port Penryhn but even he did not share her enthusiasm for the task ahead and everyone else thought it was too far gone to be restored There's a brilliant picture of it in the cafe at the steam railway. As it's in colour you can see how rusty it was after 30 years in the open with the rubble of its shed around it. Dorothea under restoration in July 2009 Anyway, Kate had the engine in steam by December 2001 using Covertcoat 's boiler and Dorothea returned to traffic on the Launceston Steam Railway at Easter 2012. ...

This is the official photograph of Jerry's Imp from the 1987 Land's End Trial. I am hidden by the screen but Jerry is driving and Mike Evason is bouncing furiously. I think this is Darracott - which we would've failed. This is an ongoing project, one that my old mate Jerry Goater began and one that I hope I will get to a stage where it can be used again, for projects, like cars or motorbikes, are not finished off until they are destroyed utterly, when they have no further future. The Jemp rests in a corner of my garage, dry stored and awaiting its turn. It's not finished - it has a future. It began as a standard Imp saloon in a sort of mustard grey colour and Jerry learnt to drive in it. It belonged to his parents. Sheila and Steve, but it sort of became his in 1985 when we were on our industrial placements. Y'see, we were studying Industrial Design/Transport at Coventry Polytechnic and Jerry's dad was a CDT teacher and they had this grinder and this we...

Also known as the Batmobile, the Impaler polarises opinion. Most people "get it", but a minority hated it. This just serves to prove that even in the 21st century there are a few people still without a sense of humour. Without the Imp behind it you could be forgiven for thinking the Impaler is mahoosive The Impale r - also for obvious reasons known as the Batmobile -  was owned a few years ago by the likeable Hughes family from East Lancashire. They bought as a running car but there was a lot wrong with it when they got it. The engine was sealed into the bodywork so inaccessible for maintenance. Fortunately, Paul runs a drag racing V8 Imp (more of that another time maybe) and by the time this car graced the scene at the 2011 Imp National Rally in Bangor, North Wales, it was quite useable - if not entirely practical. Next time I'll get a less cluttered background but at least you can see how small it is Apart for the walling up of the engine, whoever created ...

This could only be a French car This is a car that I don't fit. I sat in a Mehari years ago one and was struck by the lack of foot and legroom. Why this was so I don't know. I've never had this trouble with 2CVs. Look at those little corrugations The Mehari is a sub-culture car within 2CV circles and is made of unrusting Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene panels (or ABS to you) that unfortunately are supported by a metal frame and a standard 2CV chassis. Replace the rotting chassis with a galvanised one (as so many 2CVs sport these days) and galvanise the body frame as well and you have sustainable fun motoring. To look at, the Mehari couldn't be anything other than French. That either puts you off or makes it highly desirable. It's not a world car designed by committee even though it's a fast running dromedary (a kind of camel designed by just one person) that gives the Mehari its name. This car has national identity. It's so redolent of the s...

By way of a break from Impish little cars, here's something from the other extreme of Chrysler's automobile range, the 1970 Chrysler 300. A car this size has presence. It turned up at the Launceston show The Chrysler 300 non-letter cars traded on the performance image of Chrysler's letter series 300s. These started in 1955 with the C-300 and finished up with the 1965 300L but the less sporty 300 non-letter range sidled up to join the letter range 300s in 1962 and promptly outsold it. Being cheaper helped in the sales war but I can't help thinking that some people may have bought a 300 by mistake when they really thought they were getting a 300H. Enthusiasts claim that the new non-letter 300devalued the 300H and marked the latter out as a specialist performance automobile. I say, what's wrong with that? But the marketing men seem to have known what they were doing, I'm sorry to say. Sales of the lower-spec 300 non-letter cars were always greater and...

The Marshall and Fraser Reliant Kitten (Photo : Auto Performance) While perusing old magazine articles about V8 Imps, this oddity turned up. It's a Special Saloon Reliant Kitten, which sounds so wrong but in practice went so well. The Marshall brothers had cut their teeth on Villiers powered karts and graduated to a Mini Traveller Special saloon featuring a monocoque chassis, tubular subframes and a full rollcage. Beam axles at the rear are ideal lightweight substitutes for the rear subframe. (Photo : Auto Performance) They developed the A series engine to its limit and not finding their power gains enough searched around for an alternative engine, soon deciding on the Imp. What Imps give away in capacity to A-series lumps they gain in screamability. Do not under-estimate the difficulties of fitting an Imp motor onto a transverse Mini gearbox. It involves a load of welding and machining. The Imp motor is longer and the crank sits deeper in the block. Somewhere I have a ph...

With a wider track and longer wheelbase this car looked planted and certainly had presence. (Photo : Hot Car) This car appeared in Hot Car magazine in 1980(?) long before I got my first Imp. My original copy went the way of most things but I managed to get hold of another recently because this car made such an imp ression on me (groan). Well, wouldn't it you at such a tender age? It's cropped up in various Impish discussions with friends of mine over the years but probably does not survive. At least, nobody in the Imp Club knows (or will admit to knowing) about it. Bob Baxter adapted a VW variant box  to fit (Photo : Hot Car) It was built by Bob Baxter who was in the motor trade in Deganwy, North Wales. He was able to mix and match a fascinating variety of parts to create this car and finding some of them today would take some doing. Nowadays, you might find some even better parts but the choices were sound and the ensemble sound. The engine was of course a Rove...

This car is something of an enigma. Clearly an Imp Special Saloon, none of my Impish friends can identify what it is. It could be a Maguire Imp or a Davrian Imp but doesn't look quite like either. This is a very old photograph, taken at the same event where I first encountered Kermit (VT No. 101) That was at Tregrehan hillclimb in 1984 (I think). Was this speed hillclimb Imp a track refugee built by a known racing car specialist or purposely made at home to take to the hills? The photo is a little damaged as it was stuck to the back of another print and my patience in peeling it off gradually evaporated as I saw what was portrayed. I would say that it's been narrowed in the greenhouse area and has a centrally mounted single seat. There were many Imp Special Saloon 1000cc racers backalong and they were often pitted against Mini Special Saloons. Neither variety had much in common with production saloons and the formula was a delightful free-for-all. However, I thin...

Regular followers may remember I saw The Creepshow at the White Rabbit last year. One of their support bands was The Rocker Covers, a trio of automotively literate songsmiths who makeover pop hits to devise the most happily subversive covers of songs you might know. Some might be favourites given The Rocker Cover treatment and others might be on your most hated list that have also been given a similar work over to become simply brilliant! I am assured Poker Face is a Lady Gaga hit but am more familiar with The Rocker Covers version. I know - I have so much street cred. But listen to the way it starts off! That's from Brand New Cadillac by The Clash! (Except theirs was a cover version of some old bloke...) The point is, some versions can't be beat and are the ones you carry with you as your favourite. That's happened to me and so many of these songs on Revved Up. There are so many songs I think would benefit from The Rocker Cover's treatment. I could do qui...

Entered in the 2013 Land's End Trial this year was this Skoda-based Bugrat. It wasn't far away from Binky and I in the running order and at Hangman's Hill (not a section I'd been on before) I took the opportunity to have a closer look. I'm not sure what that black plastic thing is on the front wing. it's not in the other pics so maybe a carefully insulated spot of "croust" for the crew Entered by Rory Pope and Andrew Scarborough of Shaftesbury, it was running in Class 8 with all the other rear engined kit cars and specials. Its crew felt they were a bit outclassed and that they wanted more power but the Bugrat doesn't way much and more power is never enough. Believe me, I know. At around 700kg, the Bugrat was much lighter than the donor The Bugrat was designed by Vince Wright, head of RV Dynamics, and took all its vital components from the old school rear engined variety of Skoda, the one that gave Skoda its reputation that allowed vari...

The Alfa badge caught our eye Here we have another Imp spotted at Tregrehan, this time in the late 1980s. This is how I always remember the paddock at Tregrehan. Muddy. It had plenty of cooling holes, retained the handy rear hatch for loads (engine access as it turned out) but rear arches of questionable aesthetics This Imp had an Alfasud engine and gearbox mounted behind the rear seats. My mate Jerry (that's him with the carrier bag in the photo) was in the process of building something similar (more on that another time) and spotted the little Alfa badge on the front, put two and two together and went to ask some well-informed questions. As so often happens on these occasions the answers were remarkably forthcoming considering it was a competition car under developing but - hey! - that's hillclimbing chaps for you. Look at those Rotoflexes! We were particularly interested to see that the Imp rear suspension had been retained and that standard Rotofles co...

The Allard J1 at Wilsey Down Rest Halt. Everyone else has gone. After being a non-starter in the Exeter due to illness (when Binky got the cold that I had before Christmas), Team Robert looked ahead with (even) extra enthusiasm to the Land's End. It proved cold but dry and we found a rare seam of form early on with a car going better than ever only for this unravel whilst waiting for Warleggan. Still we got going again, and made a big finish by cleaning first Blue Hills 1 then Blue Hills 2. Binky (Mr Robert Robinson-Collins to you) had been fettling the Candidi Provocatore Allard J1 beforehand. New innovations included freshly greased leaf springs in the suspension, new plugs, new needle jet and the removal of the phenolic heat shield under the carb. A quick blast around the block before we set off and the car was pulling better than ever. At Popham airfield, though, a headlamp wasn't working on dip and we had to take the lamp apart under a lamp post. The headlamp had...