Description

Apex: The Inside Story of the Hillman Imp

David Henshaw: Somewhere in the early 1980s, I was offered a car, in a barn. It didn’t work, but if I wanted to put it together, it might, and I could take it away. That car was a Mark 1 Hillman Imp. I knew nothing about it, other than heresay from people who had never actually owned one: “Unreliable. Head-gasket problems. Water-pump failures.” Chronic this and chronic that.
Reassembled, it worked very well. It was powerful, turbine-smooth, light on its feet and economical, with IMPecable handling. I loved it and I wanted to know more, but the only book available was a Haynes Manual. So my brother Peter and I got together and wrote a technical but very human history.
The first edition of ‘Apex: The Inside Story of the Hillman Imp’ was published in 1988, with a second edition following in 1990. After that we went on to write all sorts of others things, and edit all sorts of magazines, but we didn’t forget the wee Hillmans, and quite suddenly we realised it had become an icon for a new generation. So we rewrote and updated the book with lots of lovely colour photographs and new information. It was published in November 2023.

And to answer the question you’re dying to ask. If the car was so good, why was it so maligned? A complicated story. It was superbly engineered, but bursting with new technology, and rushed out on the heels of the less-sophisticated, but more successful Mini. Built in a new factory, by a new work-force, trained at break-neck speed, it’s no surprise it went wrong, and within a few years it was partially responsible for bringing down the whole company. The Imp’s various issues were eventually sorted, but it was too late… for three generations, the Imp has been a watchword for ‘failure’ and ‘unreliability’.

Publisher: A to B Books
Pages: 232 (softback)
Dedication: Books can be signed and/or dedicated – please let us know
Notes for International Purchasers:
Yes, we are delighted to post to Australia, the USA and New Zealand and we’ll even subsidise the postage!
The shippers usually require a telephone number and post/zip code in the receiving country