Vintage Thing No.160 - Imhof Mk2 Special

Tim Kary in the Imhof Special and Rob Robinson-Collins in the ex-Imhof Allard J1 at the Heritage Trial on 4th July 2021

I was delighted to re-acquaint myself with the Imhof Special at the Heritage Trial in 2021. Tim Kary is the current owner and really knows how to drive this historic car which I first came across in 1993. 

I had recently started a new job and moved to sunny Andover in Hampshire. Having checked out the local car club, I arranged to meet the club president at the club workshops during his lunch hour.

Picture the scene – an old army Nissen hut on the edge of Salisbury Plain. The interior is dark but orderly. This is the workshop of the local car club.

And there he is, Il Presidente! 

He wears overalls over his office clothes, complete with shirt and tie. He’s sitting in the bare framework of a very small sports car while he files some tubes in the cockpit.

He may have been making engine noises before he heard the door open.

Binky (aka Mr Robert Robinson-Collins) imagines life behind the wheel of the Imhof special with his cousin, Tiggs. This would have been around the turn of the linoleum (that's twenty years ago!)

This fellow became my pedigree chum, Binky, or, more formally, Mr Robert Robinson-Collins. The small sports car turned out to be the surviving Imhof Special.

I’d heard of Imhof and soon discovered Rob was a great enthusiast for Allard motorcars. You might say he was an “uber fan” of them.

Fortunately, I knew a bit about Allards. Also, an old school friend had given me an old book, The Book of the Motor Car no less, and within those hallowed pages was the very same Imhof Special.

The header tank fitted under the bonnet very neatly. 

Actually, that’s not quite true. There were various iterations of the Imhof Special. Godfrey Imhof’s policy was one of continuous improvement and specifications did indeed change. The colours in the brochure were also for guidance purposes only and usually obscured by mud.

Rob's car was actually the sole survivor of a short series of lightweight specials built by Goff Imhof when he saw that the time of the big Ford flathead V8 specials - Rob's first automotive love - was drawing to a close.

That there cut-down radiator grille once graced a Morris.

Alfred Godfrey (‘Goff’) Imhof (6 May 1911 in St. Giles – 27 August 1963 in Paddington) was a British racing driver in trials, rallies and hill climbing. He was the winner of the 2nd RAC Rally that was held in 1952, driving an Allard-Cadillac J2.

Before the war, he teamed up in trial with Ben Richardson and Michael Lawson, in the Candidi Provocatores (White Challengers) trials team, campaigning a works 1936 Singer 9 Le Mans Speed Model (BBY 333).

CKL537 originally appeared with a slab sided bodywork before adopting a cut down Morris grille.

Goff Imhof was a London-based industrialist, owner of the His Master's Voice record factory, built in Oxford Street in the 1950s. In the immediate post-war period, he supported Allard by designing the car brochures and given his prewar competition successes, procured the first Allard Competition J1, which he owned from 1946 to 1949, competing in many events with notable success.

Allard competition cars were very successful before and after the war and, as a result sometime around 1947, the trials scene started to question the use of big V8 engined cars to the point where a movement gathered momentum to ban them from trials. Jealousy may have stemmed from owners of smaller capacity cars who often struggled on the hills and could not afford the running costs for a large capacity machine.

Imhof driving his special in the 1954 Roy Fedden Trial with Jock Ross bouncing

The subsequent Imhof special (Vintage Thing No. 159) was a revolutionary device that prompted the RAC to re-write the trails rule book. Imhof already had "form" at "interpreting" the rules. His Allard J1 "joke car" had the passenger seated behind the rear wheels where he enjoyed the full benefit of his weight over the driving wheels and a see-saw fairground ride. Trials events started to evolve to reduce costs. Imhof had already stretched the RAC rules until they hummed like guitar strings. There was also a move towards more nimble cars that didn't rely on a surfeit of power. Triallists such as Arthur Mallock, Colin Chapman and Mike Cannon started to build lightweight chassis specials powered by the Ford E93A 1172cc sidevalve engine, where the combination of light weight, tunable engine and agility soon outclassed the big V8 Specials. Goff Imhof, recognising the big V8s were soon to be obsolescent, decided to build his own lightweight car.

The Imhof Special followed at least two iterations and subsequently used an MG TC powertrain complete with supercharger but, when the RAC stipulated that the front spark plug of the engine should be a certain distance from the centerline of the front axle, Imhof broke up HRK55 the Mk1 special and started afresh to build his Mk2 in accordance with the new rules.

CKL537 had a lightweight tubular frame clothed in aluminium panels by Imhof's metal guru, Jock Ross. The original bodywork was rather slab sided with a flat radiator grille but subsequently took on a better shape incorporating a cut and short Morris grille with alternate ribs cut out of it. 

Another shot of Imhof and Ross in the '54 Roy Fedden Trial

A Ford 1172cc engine and three speed gearbox were still used but a modified propshaft drove a stronger Austin 8 rear axle suspended on coil springs. At the front Imhof and Ross adopted a Ford Y-type axle but chose Speedex hydraulic brakes front and rear with modified Austin 7 hubs to take 18 inch wire wheels instead of the distinctive Ford pattern steel wheels. 

The present header tank arrangement gives much better access

The flathead Ford was not supercharged this time but had some lovely period tuning goodies including an alloy Silvertop cylinder head and a combined VW Derrington inlet and exhaust manifold featuring twin 1½ inch carburettors and four branch exhaust headers. It also had a header tank designed to fit snugly over the cylinder head.   

Ready for the 1953 season and the new regs, Imhof successfully campaigned CKL537 for some years. Subsequent ownership is unclear but by 1990 the car was owned by classic car dealer Rodney Horner in Goodwood Clatford and that was where Robert Robinson-Collins first saw it. Rob had already competed in motorcycle trials on a Greeves and a Triumph Trophy twin but fancied a trials car and was already focussing on Allards and associated vehicles as his road weapon. 

"If it looks right, it is right."

The Imhof special was complete but a non runner when Rob bought it. It had been rolled at some point but Rob enlisted the help of John Pitney who had worked for Allard as a body fabricator. He made new panels for the Imhof Special and it started to look like a car again.

The chassis members were cracked around the radius rods for the rear axle, however. Rob could see that the geometry was wrong. The axle did not pivot properly around the mountings points so he repaired and re-engineered the tubes with the help of Foxcraft Engineering. 

I remember asking him if there was much corrosion to the frame but he said there wasn't much. Considering the competition history and the design life of the first Imhof it's impressive it survived at all.

There was just one major problem. None of us could fit in it. 

Tiggs considers how any of us could fit in the Mk2 version of Imhof's special

Any normally sized person of around six foot two found their feet went way beyond the pedals of the Mk2 Imhof Special. Goff Imhof was much smaller in stature than either Rob or me, although a giant in terms of motorsport achievements, and lengthening the chassis would have compromised the historic nature of this unique special.

If it fits, we sits. 

When the chance to buy KLD5 came up, Rob thinned out his collection of Vintage Things to finance its purchase. He sold the Imhof special to Ian Wright who completed the restoration. He used it effectively, too, before selling it to Tim Kray.

Has anyone else owned two Imhof cars? Apart from Imhof himself, I think it's unlikely. KLD5 (Vintage Thing No. 45 et al) began life as that joke car I mentioned earlier and we've had a lot of fun with it as Candid Provocateurs. It's a bit of a squeeze for us to get in it but not impossible, unlike Rob's other Imhof car.

Nothing unnecessary, just the bare essentials