Well, according to the web site for the Imp, mine didn't exist ! Mine was
a 65 Sunbeam Imp, which was powder light blue, with light blue interior.
The engine had a single one barrel carb, no oil cooler, no brake servo, or
any of the fancy stuff I saw on the web. It had 56,000 original miles on it
when I got it (After I had sold my Alpine). It needed a starter, a
generator, and a water pump. I still had some parts left over from the
Alpine, and I used its starter and generator, even though the polarity was
reversed between the two cars. Alpine was a positive grounded car, while
the Imp was the reverse. I had to order the waterpump from a catalog parts
warehouse outfit called J.C. Whitney. Got a new muffler from them as well.
I also added the power brake servo from the Alpine to the imp's right rear
corner of the engine compartment, which meant I had to move the battery to
the other side. This Drastically improved the braking on the little car. I
had purchased some new tires for it from Dunlop. They were the SteelMax
Sport SP 175/70x12. Previously, I had attempted to flair the front fender
wells to accommodate the BR-60x13 BF Goodrich T/A's that I had from the
Alpine. A perfect fit in the rear, but would scrub the fenders in the
front. After a lot of work on the right front fender/door-hinge-jam/and
inner fender, I gave up on the idea of flaring. Unfortunately, the fender
was already cut into 3 inch strips all the way around the fender opening.
While at a junk yard looking for parts, I found another Imp engine and
transaxle in a pile and paid $40 for The works !! I took this home and
began to fashion a new carburetor set up for the car. I felt that the
little tiny one barrel was inadequate for the potential of the little
engine. Since I had built several racing motorcycle engines during my
motorcycle days, I decided to use motorcycle carbs on this project. I cut
off the cross tube of the spare intake manifold, leaving four curved inlet
tubes. A bit of polishing, smoothing, and shaping, made my four carbs from
my old 76 Honda CB 550 SuperSport (which I had since rebuilt into a 651cc
Road Racer with Much larger carbs) fit with little effort. Throttle cables
were built (I should have used a hydraulic system instead), and a rough
choke was fashioned, and it seemed to almost double the perceived horse
power! The car was much faster, and now had a throaty intake sound to it.
I never licensed the car because of the two remaining problems. The
fender, and the Transmissions repeated popping out of first gear under
deceleration. I basically abandon the project, and the car was sold late
last year for the $200, which was the price for the tires. The car was
free!
It would have been fun. Now I'm looking for another Alpine. I just missed
a chance on that free one in Victoria B.C. I called the guy, but he never
called back. Oh well.
Well this is way too long for people to read so I'll end it here !!
>----------
>From:
> nyclewit(at)nyhp03.serigate.philips.nl[SMTP:nyclewit(at)nyhp03.serigate.philips.n
>l]
>Sent: Monday, February 12, 1996 5:42 AM
>To: Richard Atherton (Entex)
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>---
>To: "Richard Atherton (Entex)" <a-richat(at)microsoft.com>
>From: "Bert Clewits" <nyclewit(at)nyhp03.serigate.philips.nl>
>Subject: Imps
>Cc: alpines(at)autox.team.net
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>---
>Hi Richard,
>
>>(Former owner of a 65 Series IV Alpine and a 65 Sunbeam IMP )
>A 65 Imp tell me more! what colour, what engine, what happened
>with it, how long did you have it etc.
>I'm in the Netherlands and have a whole collection of them 8
>to be exact, models see below.
>I drive a Sunbeam Chamois every day.
>You can see one of my cars on the webb site:
>http://www.team.net/www/rootes/sunbeam/alpine/mk1-5/??.jpg
>As you are interested in Imps have a look at:
>http://www.bart.nl/~franka
>for the Imp web site !!
>
>enjoy !
>
>
>Regards, Bert
>
> +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
> | Bert Clewits (Imp nut) G.P.Duuringlaan 40A |
> | Sunbeam Alpine S IV GT '64 7339 BV Apeldoorn |
> | Sunbeam Imp,Californian, The Netherlands |
> | Chamois,Stiletto Tel: +31-55-5331601 |
> | Philips Semiconductors Nijmegen NL nyclewit(at)nyhp03.serigate.philips.nl |
> +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
>
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