Engine Punk

It looks so innocent I bought this car with the intention of robbing its engine but during the drive home its fat torque curve endeared it to me and I couldn't kill it. I was looking for a replacement engine for Mighty Whitey (VT No.44) and through suddenly not having a van anymore buying a running car gave me the means of getting  said engine to the Boogie Wundaland workshop as well as the opportunity to see how it went. I did not expect this little diesel Peugeot to go quite so well. I changed my plans forthwith and bought a 1.9 turbo diesel Citroen Xantia to sacrifice instead to get my dear old van going again but that is another story. 1.7 litres of blown dieseasel The engine in Michael Morpeugeot is very similar to the 1769cc unit in my Citroen C15D but comes with a turbo and a five speed box. The character is thus transformed. Instead of a frugal slogger, this powertrain takes this little car on a romp to the top of any hill and then wants another challenge an...

Could this car inspire the affection the much later Hillman Imp received? Who was Little Jim? Whilst rummaging around in the Boogie Wundaland archives, searching for something that was very important at the time, I found a very old photocopy from a book entitled Cars That Got Away . This had covered the genesis, amongst others, of the Hillman Imp, so it mentioned Apex and The Slug, but went back even further to tell the story of Little Jim. The origins of the Hillman Imp can be traced back far beyond its introduction in 1963. To pursue a Biblical analogy, the Imp was begat by Apex, which was begat by The Slug. But it seems that The Slug was begat by Little Jim. That would make him the Imp’s great grandfather. Before the Second World War, the Rootes group differed from the other industry giants because it did not have a very small car as the foundation for its range. People who buy small cars are often regarded by manufacturers as likely to trade up to a larger car at a late...