Hillman Imp

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Although it was a fine car in many respects, people are often too ready to dismiss the Hillman Imp, citing its historic problems with the Coventry Climax-derived engine: that’s not something they can do with this car.

FKK 277L was built by a retired motor engineer who just cannot keep his hands still. He found a low mileage Imp and decided to build a rally car in the style of the successful Alan Fraser cars of the mid-Sixties. With one huge difference: out went the old engine and in came a BMW motorcycle “flying brick” motor – all 1,100cc, 16 valves and 120bhp of it.

Built only last year, the car uses a Clark Dawson conversion kit which makes the BMW engine look like it was always meant to be there. The conversion also makes use of a high quality Scott Macmillan wiring loom and Lotus Elan heavy duty drive couplings. The suspension has been polybushed and the car sits on Monte Carlo springs with Protech shock absorbers.

Adding sherry to the trifle, the front end has a disc brake conversion using Ford Ka discs and Fiesta calipers. You may also have noted the wheels: Minilite 9” fronts and 7.5” rears. The rest of the car is finished off with fine attention to detail and superior specification: alloy radiator, uprated fuel pump, front-mounted oil cooler, roll cage, four-point harnesses, flared arches etc. To top it all off, the car was resprayed in the Fraser racing colours of blue and white.

This car has been a labour of love and you can be sure that the component parts alone must have cost more than the measly estimate suggested. Factor in the labour of an obviously competent mechanic and the car looks like a real bargain. Not to mention huge amounts of fun. It also has an MOT until June 2019 with no advisories recorded. What did you expect?