Vintage Thing No.49 - the VW-Imp trials special

A number of times over the last couple of trialling seasons have seen me turning up to spectate at a section somewhere only to be accosted by an acquaintance with words to the effect of, "You should have been here earlier, Bob! There was hopped-up, mental Imp that..." And they would go on to describe how it became airborne on the first bump and didn't land until the pilot throttled back just beyond the section ends boards. Or that it had proceeded up the hill on the rear pair of wheels only with the headlamps pointing to the sky.

A quick scam through the programme would prove that there was indeed a big engined Imp in the trial.

However, this very special Imp proved surprisingly elusive. It wasn't until we were signing off at the end of the Land's End Trial this year that I saw this legendary vehicle to a first-time. The crew were also signing of so didn't have much time to talk to them but the driver, Tristan White, gave me the keys to the car and said, "Take as many pictures as you like, do whatever you feel with it."

Through the good auspices of the Camel Vale Car Club, I managed to track Tris down again and last week he came along to our regular gathering of Hillman Imp enthusiasts in Bodmin, which, funnily enough, is Tris’ home town.

The car in question is probably the ultimate development of the VW-Imp trials special. There have been quite a few of these constructed over the years and they seek to combine the Imps tidy dimensions with the legendary mud plugging ability of Ferdinand Porsche’s finest. In their most basic form, they are simply Volkswagen drivetrains shoehorned into the wide but low engine bay of the Hillman Imp, which originally was designed to take a boxer engine.

Back in the early 90s, I once marshalled on a section with Mike Furse, the long-standing membership secretary of the Motor Cycling Club, which is responsible for organising all the long-distance classic trials. He told me that he had a VW-Imp but this was a far more sophisticated machine in that it had complete VW running gear from front to back and was more of a Hillman Imp shell mounted on a VW floorpan. If my memory serves me right, this machine was still extant at the time although Mike said it was very rusty. I'd be particularly intrigued to know if this VW-Imp still survives.

Slightly before this date, during the my first Land's End Trial as a competitor, (or was it the first event in the llama?) I noticed a red Hillman Imp with very large wheels in the car park at a control point. Listed in the programme as a 2-litre, it looked like the proverbial mountain goat on steroids. At one point we watched it storm up Cutliffe Lane. It had been built by Martin Harry and was typically driven by his wife Julia. Somebody later told me that it had the back half of a Beetle under its wings but used Ford Pinto power. It was certainly very successful but then disappeared for awhile and in fact I haven't seen it since.

Tristan White's car continues this tradition but instead of Pinto power unit it uses one from a VW Golf. It was built by Terry Richards of Ponsanooth (my voice activation software interprets Ponsanooth as porn sunroof) but the project was funded by Rob Williams who worked for the local Kessells and Riders car dealerships. Tris bought it from Trevor Bailey in Keinton Mandeville five years ago this September and at that stage it had an 1800 Mk1 Golf GTi engine.

This engine later went up in smoke -- quite literally. It began to leak oil prodigiously during a trial until the exhaust got so hot that the escaped oil reached its flashpoint and burst into flames. This couldn't have happened at a worse spot because Tris had just climbed a very slippery grass section and there were very few people and no other cars nearby.

He leapt out and began to unscrew the folding spare wheel carrier over the engine compartment but, by now, the flames had really taken hold and if it hadn't been for the layers of clothing that he wore then he wouldn't go quite badly burnt. Luckily, another trials driver with a fire extinguisher in his car saw what was going on and managed to clear the grassy section in a desperate rescue bid. The fire extinguisher was just big enough to put out the flames and now Tris never goes anywhere without two.

Tris then to have the opportunity to fit a Mk3 8 valve Golf 2-line engine and this now runs on twin 40s holding onto a special inlet manifold with very long induction tracts, the longest they could fit into the available space in fact. The idea of this is to maximise the available torque.

The exhaust system is still quite involved. The curves down from the engine from under the inlet manifold and then runs back to the rear of the sump where it crosses the back of the car before running boards again and then doubling back into a rearwards facing silencer and exits through a cutaway engine cover. This is the original engine power that just about survived the earlier fire and is now more air vent than steel. Engine cooling it's taken care of by a front mounted radiator but it's still important to get hot air out of the engine compartment.

Tris reckons this engine puts out a modest 115 bhp but in a car the size of the Hillman Imp this represents a very favourable power to weight ratio. Torque is anybody's guess that is conservatively rated at "adequate."

The VW hubs have been modified to accept Ford Sierra wheels while at the front the original Hillman Imp hubs carry Skoda Estelle wheels. Again, the hubs have been adapted rather than the wheels.

I assumed that Tris had fitted front disc brakes but he is actually still running on drums. He admitted that the brakes could be better and at some stage he may well improve them but he said that his VW-Imp was not a car to drive quickly on the road. It was built for tralling and it didn't sound like he enjoyed driving it fast on tarmac. "The centre of gravity is so high to get the necessary ground clearance that it really doesn't handle well. But when it's in the mud, it just keeps on finding grip."

The excellent ground clearance gives Tris' car it's purposeful stance, which, to my mind, suggests an all-terrain Hot Rod. It's just as well then that its performance exceeds its looks.

Tris is a very an accomplished trials driver and is currently doing very well in the Wheelspin Trophy. Having been in the lead for part of the year, he is typically lying either second or third. He knows his car quite well now and there is hardly a weekend during the winter when he is not using it competitively. He also has a Troll, a bespoke trials special that resembles a Lotus 7 from a distance, but he finds driving the VW-Imp less tiring. As soon as he's finished an event, he steam cleans his Imp and sprays it with duck oil, which explains how he has kept it in such good condition over the years, despite such a packed competition history. Long may it continue.