German power meets 60s British? This Husky is far from traditional - but the one behind it really is 

And somewhere in Germany there are a bunch of BMW motorcycles powered by Imp engines.

My dad had a 1966 Imp deluxe in maroon. I was 18 when he owned it and I used to borrow it all the time. I loved that little car and it was quite a nimble little thing.

Great video guys! Thanks so much for taking the time to film it.

Being able to cruise happily at motorway speeds and have the power on hand still is a great thing, and the Imp handles the extra power of the BMW engine wonderfully!

Can’t beat sitting down on a Friday with a cuppa and watching Practical Performance car👍 Never to old !

Well, that's sold me on bike engine conversions! 😀

Great fun.... keeping a classic on the road, whilst making it sound awesome 👌

My first car was a husky way back in 1973 loved that car. So wish I still had it. Great to see two fine examples still on the road.

The Tartan , although "Golf"..is also a nod to Linwood ! Love it

Who wouldn't want one of those?

Imps and and alternative engines are a match made in heaven. Especially bike engines :) The paint on that red husky is so deep and lush!!!

I'm loving this ppc channel. I used to get the magazine every month back in the day, it was by far the best car mag and im really glad to see it on RU-vid. I also race with James Winstanley now which is cool, I used to love his turbo'd e30 bmw. Please don't take this as criticism but I think the channel would get way more views if you "modernise" it slightly, maby some funky music and more arty shots of the cars from different angles.... for the youngsters. I'm subscribed either way and I'm looking forward to watching everything you put out, I just want to see my old friend ppc magazine get back on top where it belongs.

I am totally into square design in cars. I drove Simca 1000 times 3 at the time. A Volvo 245 was always my dream car. I wasn’t aware of the existence of these at the time. I really REALLY like the looks of them. I would not have mined them being not the fastest.

I've had 3 imps back in the 70s. Loved them little cars. These 2 car's look fantastic. Good jub guys.

The Imp was a great little that never received the acclaim it deserved.

first car i had was an imp loved it

Thankyou once again - you never fail to brighten my week :-)

These are great. The first car I ever owned was a Hillman Imp Super. Later I also owned a slightly rarer model, a Singer Chamois. Both these had the 875cc Climax gasket popper lump. However I eventualy got hold of my 'Imp nirvana' in an Imp Rallye. This had the 998cc Coventry Climax engine, and went well. Imps handle real good. Especially with some weight in the trunk (up front) without this they can be prone to skipping. Ie, the front wheels losing traction. A bigger set of 13" or 14" rims sorts it if theyre heavy enough. These Huskys are terrific. They both look and sound epic. Keeping alive a great British car of the 60's. One that I think is way better than the Mini. Minis are great fun to drive, and Ive owned quite a few of them. But without a full roll cage they are total deathtraps. The Imp is a lot stronger up front. In accidents Ive been called to where an Imp was involved, I was always impressed by how robust they were. Great cars. And these two? Terrific work boys. I salute you.

Thanks, keeping these models alive is great. Love the ingenuity of the UK modding scene, we have so many small engineering companies who keep these alive. Of course this is all the way up to Formula 1 with many world leading designers and engineers, just a pity we have lost a lot of our mainstream manufacturing.

In the early 1970's I bought from a friend who had lost his licence a Singer Chamois that he had built for hill climbing and occasional road use. Stage 2 head, twin carbs, very wide wheels. it was fabulous to drive, went like hell 🙂. The only down side was letting it off-cam and having to drop 2 gears to get up again. It was like rowing a boat. Oh, never let off power when going round fast tight corner or you will end up facing the way you had just come from.. Great little car.

Those wheels! They just suit it so well. Nice video guys.

Enjoyed this video. Keep up the great work! Paul 😎

I had the previous Husky as a first car, followed by a metallic red 998 Hartwell Stiletto (with a black vinyl roof, and then a standard dark blue saloon, lowered and tuned... Great fun!

good onya guys. enjoy your rides.

Nice pair of Imps.

Excellent stuff Bravo 😊

I once seen a hill imp (sunbeam stiletto). With a vw camper gearbox and a subaru 2.2 engine. Looked amazing.

Also- very cool to see PPC back. Kevin Leaper did a feature on my rotary chevette many years ago. Was so cool to see it featured.

Great video, great guys great information interesting cars! Great job

Team Hartwell were the boys for Imp engines, memory thinks very high rpm and good power. As I teenager I lived for the monthly copy of CCC as did many others.

Both are great cars, would be happy with either

I remember the old Huskies, basically a two door Hilman Minx estate/van. I forgot that Imp estates were also called Huskies, Last week I saw a Fiat 500 ( original model) with a BMW flat twin ( 1200) fitted. Interesting to see projects where motorcycle engines are fitted.

I had a hillman husky back in the early 80s as a first car colour was blue

My uncle had a Husky van-zero purchase tax! Needed special Bluecol for its aluminium engine. Him and my dad fitted a bench rear seat so I could sit in the back and listen to them chastising the driver in the car in front for not going fast enough uphill, meaning we had to grind the gears here in hilly South Wales.

Both very nice examples .

Lovely couple of cars.

Dom and Andy...love;ly guys !

Fantastic stuff 👍🏻

one of my best mates from school in 1968, had a elder Brother, in "IT", So he was rolling innit, Had a Imp, BUT it had one of the first Turbos, don't ask cos I can't remember, But I remember he bought a Glass Fiber body kit, and made me a Petrolhead ever since, First time I had done a TON, @ 70yrs old I've given up my license, and SORN my Audi A3(Mapped as you do)took it for one last blast 124mph, nuff said to all my mates, never lived this long, Great Days

I've always fancied a bike engined imp. I REALLY want one now!

TY 🙏

Congratulations excellent .

Did you enjoy this video???, well what a question, if it is an IMP or CLAN it must be great, or a Ginetta, or Davrian, or even a Probe, the Imp concept is the best, it will thrash a Mini any day, ask Bill McGovern in the George Bevan Imp.

I remember the Imp but neve seen one like this, some nice Imps to

Closed Captioning couldn’t figure out some of the words, but when there was nothing but engine sounds it said “music”! Got that right.

Love the red one. There are some great conversions around for classic cars and the BMW engine fits just right.......I wonder if they have cured the understeer that the original had as standard?

When I worked in AnE and an old Paramedic told me about the terrible leg injuries in Imps when they crashed.. The low shelf at knee height to a lot of knee caps out😮😮

There are one or two hillclimb Minis that use the BMW bike cylinder head which fits apparently without major modification to the "A" series engine.A full on race engine with this head would be giving north of 160bhp!

Granada TV Rental ran Imp Husky 's as technicians company cars when I joined them in 1971. (YYE778H) We had removable panels to put over the side windows for business use so you could spot where the panels attached. Great little vehicles, bit of a problem if it was fully loaded and you had to add oil or coolant! Great turning circle but care needed as on full lock too much loud pedal the thing would go straight on! Happy days.

Love these! Love the sound used to work for telecom and it reminds me of those old vans. Could you put a triumph engine in it to keep it British or would you be able to squeeze a Honda k20 in there? Imagine the power 👍

Fond memories of the van.

My uncle had a Husky that he called the Smurf hearse.

This is so good, just yesterday I found Dom's channel, very neat swap and a great engine. I owned a Sumbeam Imp in NZ in the early 80's, I fixed one crook piston and keep the 875 going for a while longer until she finally died! Do you have a link or contact for Dom?

The red one looks a bit odd from the front, though I can't say exactly why. I once helped my girlfriend upgrade her standard saloon by fitting most of the interior trim from the Singer fastback variant.

I had a sort of turquoise coloured example. Wish i’d kept it longer. Lots of space in a small car. Much underrated for some reason i never understood.

Very interesting. However, I saw "Husky" and immediately thought of the old Hillman Husky which was a variant of the the MInx, and the van version, the Commer Cob. I suppose, thinking about it they were 1950's not 60's. Back in the 70's my next door neighbour had a Hillman Husky, it had an old side valve engine if I remember rightly. Which I don't do very often at my age!

My first car was a Hilman Imp in 1968, I had to put sand bags in the front to stop it from going all over the place in strong headwind.😂

Fantastic! I wish Imps had been a thing here in the states. They’re both aweesome , but I would be especially overjoyed to have one with the BMW engine! Does Andy(?) have any of his conversions in America?

That bike engine seems like a great idea. Less than quarter of the cost of doing a 100bhp imp unit. But sounds the same with out the rebuild costs that occur far to often.

Tartan interior fits with cars Scotish routes!

Superb 👍😎

Gotta love the Imp platform, but man that front wheel camber looks stupid in the extreme.

I had a BMW K1200r bike and I believe the bhp was 163

The best content so far but where’s the in car? Great tracking shots but please give us more in car. Great footwear😂

Best part of an Imp was the Coventry Climax engine. Take that out and what are you left with ? The old wives tale back in the day was that the Imp van could pull wheelies. Probably need a payload strategically placed ?

It would great to compare these with Mr Kitch's (Up n Down Vids) Imp 'Hilda' with the saxo engine

imps and shirgley, thats an amazing combination

Lower the white one, would look so much better !

Always had a soft spot for Imps. Used to knock on a door in Maidstone that had a Singer Chamois Coupe abandoned on the drive but no-one ever answered the door or responded to my many notes. No mobiles or social media back then. Anywaym great pair of cars. *Wonder whatever happened to Will's UR Quattro?*

Superb, both of them… S1000RR motor next 🤔🚀

Brilliant conversion. There's a bloke, in NZ I think, whose put a goldwing flat 6 and Subaru transaxle in an imp

Having previously owned a side-valve Minx saloon and a Minx OHV estate, both of which were totally reliable, I had the misfortune to own a Hillman Imp van, bought new in 1969. It was without doubt the worst vehicle I ever owned. Potentially lethal on cold mornings due to almost zero pick-up from rest until the engine finally warmed - which took around 5 miles - the last straw was when the starter-ring dropped off the flywheel. It was repaired under warranty - no loaner car given - but by then I was completely disenchanted with it and got rid of it very soon afterwards. Its departure was totally unlamented, though the substantial financial loss certainly was.

I had a 998cc wills ringed front rad in 1976 was a blast till I rolled it and hit a telegraph pole end of impact and almost end of me.

One thing that always concerns me about the BMW conversion is the absolutely awful inlet tract that must reduce power output from the stock offering. The mention of Rotoflex couplings doesn't identify whether they are the competition units as used on the Elan, as the standard ones simply won't handle the power. These days propshaft coupling donuts i.e. guibo joints are the cheaper and more desireable way to go. They can handle 4-5x what the BMW can put out. Also, the Red Imp appears to be running too much rubber/wheel width and negative camber that would limit the grip and handling.

A Honda Goldwing flat 6 could go well in one of those. 1800cc, plenty of torque and 100hp.

I have always liked the Hillman Imp/Husky and like the idea of upgrading the engine but slamming the bloody things down so low makes it look really bad the top half is fare to high if you are going to make it really low you need to go the whole hog and lower the roof down it just looks really stupid to me but its not my car so its your choice.

❤❤

Who's your insurance ,did you have problems getting it insured ,I am talking about the red one with bmw power ?.

SUPER !TOLLE AUTOS !!! GRÜSSE AUS BAYERN!! SERVUS!!☑☑☑

So what is the road tax and mot implications?

That red one is the dog's bollocks

Your front negative camber looks silly !!!!

The bike engine is a great upgrade and as said completely reversible.

the negitive camber on the drivers front wheel really looks bad

I have seen many Hiilman lmp/Husky conversions to the BMW K series engine and l do remember when the BMW K series motor cycles came out also second they were so cheap much cheaper than the Japanese motorcycles that's in Australia but in Australia most British cars are selling really cheap even today but l did see a very nice complete Hillman Imp in reasonable condition sell for aud $9200 which surprised my in Australia classic British cars were popular in tge 1960s but so unreliable there are still many around but people don't daily drive them l had a couple of Hillman Gazzells and one Minx and l can't remember how many head gaskets l replaced on the alloy headed 1725 cc engine but on my 1997 Toyota Hilux that has done 437000 kilometres has the original motor with the original head gasket and it is a nickel iron block with an alloy cylinder head just proved Toyota's are far better built engines than British cars after all you can't buy a new Hillman but l still can buy a brand new Hilux and my Hilux is the best carburatored four cylinder vehicle l have ever owned the most dependent and reliable vehicle l have ever owned and when l bought it 5 years ago l never realised what an indestructible unbreakable and reliable ute l had ever bought and you do realise Toyota has been building vehicles longer than Rootes Group

A baby hearse

a whole video - and you didn't mention how truly dreadful the standard front suspension was.

Anyone remember the Stiletto ?

Goldwing engine sounds better

Hi Dom, I new if it was an IMP feature you'd be involved.

Husky ? That’s not a Hillman Husky . My father had one in 64 . It didn’t look like either of those.

The original imp motors where a complete disaster.