The Only Imp in the Village

Alex got the interior back in the Imp, and the newly cleaned/treated fuel tank back in yesterday.

We wanted to take it for a quick run so headed over to Beaulieu Motor Museum to their Simply Classics day. If you turn up in a classic car you pay the usual entry fee but park within the museum grounds for visitors to see, like an unofficial show. Being Life Members we got in free, even better!

We got there about 2.15 just in time for a look round the cars before they started leaving; everything from a GT40 replica to numerous MGs, Triumphs and Healeys. There were some interesting cars there including Lotuses, Skodas and a hillclimbing Volvo Amazon. Not a single other Imp or derivative though!

We were just there for an hour and a half, and Alex had a long discussion with a family of Imp owners from Somerset who were visiting for the day.

It was so good to get the car back out on the road after a fortnight, we've missed it!

Impish August

Here are a few photos from the last month:

Castle Hillclimb 3/4 August was interesting! Our first visit to the event and the Sunday was very wet; we did ok though since there are advantages to lacking power!  The long drag hill on the second half was a bit painful as were stuck in 2nd, the gap to 3rd being just too large.

This is what happens when a single seater racing car cleans the mud off its wheels right in front of you....

Stripped out to remove sound deadening and bitumen from between the ridges in the floor... 13kg plus! 

Our sexy new Sparco Rev seat is around 7kg lighter than the previous Cobra one, but is rather more snug (extra trips to the gym required for me!)

Roll cage in position.  We don't need one for our road-going class, but we were offered it at a good price and any extra safety has to be a good thing.  Even adding this (15kg) the car will still be lighter than before.

Stripping out!

The Imp has been stripped out of carpets and seats, temporarily. Alex has been removing anything heavy and not required, mainly bitumen from the floor! 

Scrupulous weighing of items and the discovery that our current race seat weighs twice as much as a Sparco Rev led us to reassessment of what we wanted/needed in the car.

With two weeks to go until our next hillclimb at Wiscombe Park, the clock is ticking on getting the floor painted and the car put back together. I will post some photos shortly!