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The Hillman Imp is a small economy car that was made by the Rootes Group and its successor Chrysler Europe from 1963 until 1976. Revealed on 3 May 1963, [6] after much advance publicity, it was the first British mass-produced car with the engine block and cylinder head cast in aluminium.
Hillman when purchased had been making large cars. They introduced a straight-eight soon after Hillman became a subsidiary, but it was withdrawn as the Depression deepened. Their 2-1/2 and 3-litre cars were re-styled in the mid-1930s and renamed Humber Snipe and their small Minx was made the mainstay bread and butter member of the Rootes range.
Hillman was a British automobile marque created by the Hillman-Coatalen Company, founded in 1907, renamed the Hillman Motor Car Company in 1910. The company was based in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, near Coventry, England. Before 1907 the company had built bicycles. Newly under the control of the Rootes brothers, the Hillman company was acquired by ...
Hillman Imp. Despite being released with high hopes and getting much positive media attention at the time of its launch, the Hillman Imp was a commercial failure that was largely responsible for its parent group, the Rootes Group, getting into financial difficulties and being taken over by Chrysler to become part of Chrysler Europe in 1967.
Adrian Evans (d. 1992), a structural engineer and the car's designer, built a series of cars called Davrian from 1965, based on components from the Hillman Imp, including the front and rear suspension, the 875 or 998 cc (53.4 or 60.9 cu in) [1] aluminium alloy Hillman Imp engine which was Coventry Climax-based [2] and the Imp transaxle.
Also launched in 1970 was the Hillman Avenger (1970-81), a medium-sized family car which fitted between the Imp and the Hunter in Chrysler's British range. The model sold well in Britain but was less successful in export markets, where it was sold under a variety of names including Sunbeam/Sunbeam Avenger/Chrysler Sunbeam (Europe) and Plymouth ...
The new factory was officially opened in May 1963 and the new rear-engined Hillman Imp went on sale the next day but there were difficulties with industrial relations and, soon, the Imp's reliability. The Imp's heavy development expenses and slackening sales to USA brought about losses for the Rootes group in both 1962 and 1963. [24]
The Commer Light Pick-Up was a pickup truck based on the Hillman Minx saloon and produced by Commer during the 1950s; [23] a similar Hillman-badged model was also produced. [24] The Mark III was powered by a 1,184 cc (72.3 cu in) four-cylinder engine , the Mark VI by a 1,265 cc (77.2 cu in) unit and the Mark VIII by a 1,390 cc (85 cu in) engine ...