Engine Punk

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...