Engineers

[WHL]

Britain went through decades where no investment in manufacrturing and working practices were made to improve. At the same time BMW were having more problems, but solved them not by closing.... Britain became embarrassed by manufacturing with unions a part of the problem, but as much a symptom as a cause,....

Not to mention the Rootes Group. At one time, Hillman Minx was considered the better-class run-of-the-mill model, Singer being the up-market version. Sunbeam was a noted people's sports car which did well in rallies and hill-climbs and Humber was the limousine (you saw only them in Downing Street). Then came along the Hillman Imp, designed unsuccessfully to rival the Mini, built in Scotland in a computerised factory which was a catastrophe because of the unskilled workforce from the Clyde shipbuilders. It was such a big money-loser that rusted almost before it left the factory and the Rootes Group had to sell out to Chrysler who eventually closed it down.

Was the Hillman imp the first UK to be designed by computer?

[Devil]

Was the Hillman imp the first UK to be designed by computer?

I suspect, without being sure, that both the Mini and the Imp were both not true CAE cars but had some CAD design features.

[PaphosAL]

... Then came along the Hillman Imp, designed unsuccessfully to rival the Mini, built in Scotland in a computerised factory which was a catastrophe because of the unskilled workforce from the Clyde shipbuilders. It was such a big money-loser that rusted almost before it left the factory and the Rootes Group had to sell out to Chrysler who eventually closed it down.

But it had a beautiful 875cc all aluminium 4 cylinder OHC engine, infinitely superior to the Mini at that time. The Imp engine soon found it's way into many sidecar racing outfits, way out performing the Triumph and BSA engined competition at the time...

If anyone is wondering what a sidecar racing outfit is, here is one of many I built for RGM in Luton between 1967 and 1968

RGM1969_3.jpg (115.75 KiB) Viewed 3160 times

To give you an idea of perspective and height, the sidecar and rear wheel are 10" diameter with Dunlop CR65 race tyres as used on a racing Mini Cooper S at the time. Most creative time of my life, that was...

Sadly, nobody asked us for such an outfit for a Hillman Imp engine. But it would have been fairly simple, just by reshaping the top tubes of the frame to fit around the engine, and incorporating a radiator for the water cooling required.

AL

[71 Trans Am]

AL you are correct they were a very powerful little engine and very high performance with the correct Carbs – they also had a major design problem which was never cured by the manufacturer in that they blew head gaskets all of the time due to the slant engine being red hot on one side and stone cold on the other with poor water circulation – many rally cars were fitted with external electric water pumps on a thermo switch to sort this problem

[Jimgward]

The first car I ever drove was a Hillman Imp. My brother’s car. I also drove a Morris Oxford and MG Magnette in my teenage years, along with a Vauxhall Viva, my first owned car. Purchased for £30 and immediately stuck in my parents garage. I bought a Haynes manual and took the engine out to have the crankshaft reground. Renewed the brakes, added some things to the electrics and it worked!

Cars in those days were terrible, rust buckets and death traps by today’s standards. Myself and brother went to university every day, in an old Simca 1000 that had no starter motor working, no window washers, limited window wipers but otherwise kept up with traffic. We had to always park on a hill, he drove and I pushed....