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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Look at those Rotoflexes! |
We were particularly interested to see that the Imp rear suspension had been retained and that standard Rotofles couplings were in use. I remember Wayne Grimshaw, who hillclimbed an Imp around the same time during the eighties, saying that he used standard Rotoflexes but replaced them after every meeting. He reckoned they offered extra "spring" off the line and didn't break any more frequently than the Lotus-spec reinforced variety.
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| Unfortunately, I made no note of how well this car ran |
This car had very low ground clearance at the back. In subsequent
correspondence within the
Imp Club about that there black V8 Imp (
VT no.124) I exchanged messages with a fellow who was involved with the build up of this Alfa-powered Imp. Unfortunately, I've lost and forgotten his name (if you are reading this do let yourself known) but what I do remember is that he said there was barely enough room to get yer feet under the rear trailing arms.
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