The irony is that the Rootes brothers were offered Volkswagen on a plate in 1946 and turned it down as they could see no potential in the Beetle... Ah, you mention it at the end!
It made sense when they visited the factory as Beetle wasn't in its best form after second Great war. It went through many improvements to become the one people bought en masse.
@@DailyLifeSolution any fool could see that the Germans were going to get that place up and running sooner rather than later, and the Beetle may not have been perfect (I am not a fan of them!) but its development work had largely been completed and it just needed a better rear suspension (which the Imp got, a good sixteen years later!).
@@richardharrold9736 Which is even more ironic considering that Volkswagen only exists today because the British government helped it with money and contracts. The administrator put in place by the Brits, Major Ivan Hirst, is considered a hero in Wolfsburg for preventing the plant from being disassembled, and they named roads and places after him. Under his supervision the plant was repaired and expanded, and Volkswagen started the export of the Beetle to other countries, which cemeneted Volkswagen as a car manufacturing power house in the next two decades.
My dad has been a life long Mini fan (he's had 4 of them) but he told me recently that he did actually consider an Imp as his first car, I like to imagine that in some parallel universe he's a hardcore Imp fan
If only he had seen that gearbox. There was a cutaway box on display that demonstrated exactly how it worked. No oil necessary to let it turn very smoothly.
William Rootes single handedly passing up the Volkswagen Beetle and leading to the creation of the Porsche empire made me grimace so hard. Something I definetely didn't know. Great job Intergalactic Binman!
Another banger video and an unexpected but very welcomed special guest feature. I remember James May's Cars of the People mini series talking about how the Allies rejected taking over the soon-to-be VW plant. Didn't know Rootes was one of the ones that said no. One of the most colossal facepalm moments of all time.
It was ultimately a British Army officer, a relatively lowly Major, who saved VW from closure and Wolfsburg from demolition, persuaded the authorities to let him and VW get the factory back up and running...
Holy shut, this just solved one of my family's mysteries, which was "What car did my great-great-uncle imported from his time in Singapore?" Sharing this to my dad and the family chat, love your work mate, keep it up!
My Dad worked as a spray painter in Linwood BMC Pressed Steel Div, painting Hillman Imp's. He said the bodies were hung on a constantly moving belt which passed by a team of painters who sprayed hot paint as they passed. Management, sped the line up, without notifying the workers which caused real problems. Someone stuck a large metal rod into the line, stopping all production. Management reset the line speed. My dad was given "Martindale Masks" to prevent the inhalation of paint. These were essentially, large sanitary towels that you would press against your mouth and nose with a soft metal "frame" which attached round your head. One was never enough so my Dad used three or four pads but would still finish the shift coughing up phlegm which was the colour applied that day. The Imp had a big asbestos mattress, colloquially called a "Tottie Scone", which was place in the engine compartment for sound and heat insulation. People who did this job weren't subject to the 1931 Asbestos Industry Regulations, so didn't get masks or routine x rays. Oh aye! Linwood went on strike due to someones lunch being cold.
I have owned both Mini and Imp; I would be delighted to have another Imp in my garage, but have no desire to ever sit in a Mini again. The Imp surpassed the Mini in just about every aspect, but could never catch up those lost four years which gave the Mini its head start in the market.
My Mum had a imp, and loved it. She used to never struggle driving in the snow in her imp. My dad had the husky and they were both comfortable and spacious. I never knew that roots started from that building in Maidstone, its a marvellous bit of Art Deco.
One Patreon idea would be to offer full resolution images of the amazing thumbnails used on the videos. (and maybe another variant without the text) It'd probably end up being many people's wallpapers.
I'd have to talk with Dix-Neuf about that, the thumbnails are ultimately theirs and I'm not comfortable making money from content that is made by someone else. They have put most of the thumbnails they've done for me on their twitter account, so go check them out!
Jesus fuck, the Stilleto looks amazing... I want one. Also, I think I may have said it on another video, but I absolutely love that you include album covers whenever you mention a year, and that you list all the songs you use in the chapters.
Love the Twitter diss and the description of Scotland. No wonder Lazerpig drinks so much. Also, for some reason I'm fascinated about British auto manufacturing history. If you're ever interested. I'd like to see a video about Canadian automakers.
Superb. It seems that no matter how much I think I know about a car story or how many other documentaries I’ve watched, you always, without fail provide some new insights and information. Just brilliantly researched stuff, every time.
Plz make a full SAAB video. I get sad eveytime I hear it’s name and I want something to make me fully cry again. Also there isn’t really that much good content and or documentaries about SAAB on the internet that arn’t quite boring. Thus I lay the task at your toes.
I, too, shed a tear if I hear the name SAAB. The Life and Death of SAAB by Regular Car Reviews is worth a watch, and it might fill the gap until Binman comes through with something.
The more I learn about British car history the more I understand the Top Gear/Grand Tour trio's distain for old British cars such as the Morris Marina and Austin Allegro.
I swear to god. When I saw the Rover video, after never seeing one. TWO V8 Rovers drove me a few days later. When the Facel video dropped, someone randomly popped up to talk about their ownership of one. I'm waiting to see a Imp within the next two weeks.
Who knew Eminem's "Sicko Mode" had those lyrics. Another classic documentary shining a light on more than just a lesser-known economy car from days past
Somewhere in an alternate universe, intrasolar Garbagewoman is talking about the BMC Mini, the bizarro counterpart to the beloved Hillman Imp, with funky features such as tranverse mounted engines and no synchromesh first gear and wondering what could have been...
My Dad had a mini and a Singer Chamios (rebadged slightly posher imp), as well as a minor in his younger days. It seems his abiding memory of the Chamios was that he kept having to stop to let it cool down and top up the radiator.
I was curious about how popular the Imp was for rallying and found your video, IB. This it the first upload of yours that I have watched and I want to say how much I enjoyed your fun style. It is so much better than anything the tv could produce. Well done and I am looking forward to catching up with your other videos. 😀
Excellent video for us Imp fans. You are right about the Rootes building in Maidstone, experience shows that unused grade 2 listed buildings invariably succumb to "mysterious" fires in order to be replaced by grotty housing schemes that are much more lucrative.
Loved the video. My Mother had both an upmarket Singer Chamois in the 60's and a Hillman Imp from 1973 until 1984. Even my sister's first car was an Imp. Genuinely, it was a brilliant car, suffering from the usual build quality issues of British cars, lest those built at Linwood, over the era. But in oh so many ways far superior to the Mini. The as mentioned handling and ride, the utterly brilliant Coventry Climax engine, the practicality was just that bit better, as not only you had the front boot, but the rear window opened up like a hatch to access the larger luggage space as well. And finally it's best bit, the turning circle was even better than the Mini. I am not dissing the Mini, as my Grandfather had one, and it is another epic small car. But the Imp just failed on two counts, one, the marketing and promotion to counter the "poor mans car", and the sheer awfulness of the Linwood build quality. Shame really.
Lazerpig --> Hardthrasher --> You.... and I was looking for something to prove yourself.... Yeeaaaahhhhh you did that. I am going to spend the rest of the week reviewing your catalog. Hat Tip good sir!
Paisley is....a place. I do not recommend it even if your alternate holiday option is Plymouth or Scunthorpe. Especially if, like me, you have had to stay at the Blythe Bridge hotel. I have been a sales rep for more than a quater of a century, have stayed in the Kings Cross Travelodge (with all the stains of previous customers using it by the hour), an actual brothel in Paris and a Milan hotel which featured a 'take a ticket' system for hookers in reception. Nothing was worse than Paisley. PS Scotland or Soviet Union is my new favourite parlor game
@@AnimarchyHistory Great Yarmouth has loads of history to explore, though, and Plymouth is a wonderful place, despite the Luftwaffe's attempts to flatten both. Paisley still has the medieval Abbey church with all that Lorimer woodwork...
Nice video man. I found you through lazerpig's video calling out other creators and I'm happy he made a cameo in this one. Your content is a perfect fit for my car interest and form of humour. Love your videos man, I can hardly wait for the next one!
Always was an imp fan over the mini. It’s such a funky design and the engines and engineering were brilliant. I would like to say that there’s a lot of people on here giving 70s British cars a tough time. As someone who spent most of my childhood being driven in secondhand 70s cars from non British manufacturers; they all sucked from a quality point of view. We mostly ran fords and fiats and my resounding memory is being left on the side of the road with overheating problems, dodgy head gaskets, Smokey clutches etc. cars were basically past their prime by 60,000miles which simply isn’t the case for most stuff built after the 80s. And the Japanese stuff may have started every day and had good fit and finish but they too suffered from poor rust protection and terrible material quality. I recall a rental Nissan cherry which, although two years old at the time, sounded, drove and looked like the greatest s^%tbox invented. My only experience of British cars was in an Austin Princess, a rover P6 and a jag xk6. All were pretty good in comparison the anything else on the road bar the super expensive German stuff.
Great video as always, great commentary and visuals. My only gripe is the Corvair dig. The Corvair as it came from the factory was a fine handling car for the era in America. The issue that everyone worrries about with the car came from people failing to maintain the trie pressure differential between the front and rear tires. Chevy chose that option over the anti-roll bar they later added because it was free and already in use by the VW Beetle and the Renault Dauphine. In 1962 added the alternate anti-roll bar solution that resolved the issue as an option, and it was a standard feature in 1964. In 1965 the Corvair got a face lift and a brand new Corvette-derived independent suspension to replace the swing axle design. That is all to say the Swing Axle in the Corvair was not nearly the issue Nader made it out to be. The Corvair was a innovative compact car for the time and it sucks that it was poisoned by a lawyer who didn't know what he was taking about. Alright, autistic rant over.
The swing axle is genuinely crap, though, and if you don't anticipate its 'quirky' handling characteristics, it can still catch you out. The 1965 second gen semi-trailing-arm Corvair was what the first gen should have been to start with. Nader, rightly, heaped praise on Rover for the P6, which combined safe, secure road-holding with industry-leading crash safety...
@@richardharrold9736 I don't like the Swing Axle, it's a bad design choice that did need bandaids to make it work right, and on top of that I prefer the 2nd generation's bodywork to the original. Neither of those facts make me hate the original, or make it the death trap Nader made it out to be. If it was anywhere as dangerous as he claimed it would have shown up in the NHTSA tests in the 70s.
@@leecline5759 the swing axle absolutely was dangerous, combined with the very slow steering which made it harder to correct... and as a piece of safety design, the body was sorely lacking.
I have been waiting long mr binman for this video. Dont make me wait long again. Unless you want to see this boi angry. And trust me you dont want to see that
Its a shame that the Imp ended up sidelined and forgotten about by most. It deserves a lot better than that. It was in every technical regard superior to BMC's Mini. It wasn't even close. Rear-engine, aluminum block, rear-wheel drive, diaphragm spring clutch, full instrument cluster, and a load of other mechanical goodies. Shame that the government forced Rootes Group to build a factory in an area where more people were used to making ships than they were cars.
Problem with the rear engine layout was heat and lack of airflow. The engines were notoriously prone to overheating and warping the block and head, and the heat even in normal operation meant that the estate and van variants would bake whatever cargo was in the rear... and they were rather tail-happy, like an old 911. They should really have gone transverse FWD but kept the Climax engine and semi trailing arm rear suspension.
The beetle had an even worse starting point when it comes to overheating, what with the engine being air cooled. The Kombi, being heavy and draggy compared to a beetle, of course suffers much worse than the beetle itself.
@@nerd1000ify air cooled engines can't boil their coolant and blow their head gasket. The Beetle had sufficient airflow for its needs - its only real enemy was slow or static traffic. Considering that the air-cooled 911 has continued to evolve into a fire-breathing, 4-litre 10,000rpm 500+bhp monster, still with no radiator and no forward-facing air intakes, I'd say that it was a considerably more reliable option than water-cooling with a rear engine, especially in the 60s.
@richardharrold9736 they can blow head gaskets if they have them. If I recall correctly the VW flat 4 doesn't have head gaskets at all and instead relies on a close fit of the cylinder barrel into a recess in the head to form a seal. Overheating can still warp the cylinder heads and prevent sealing, but the car can keep running with a minor compression leak so you may not know about it. Really get it hot and you'll start melting rubber seals, cooking the oil into sludge and eventually seize the engine. I'd interpret the lack of overheating issues on the Beetle and Porsche as being a sign of particularly good ducting design rather than intrinsic superiority of air cooled engines in locations with poor cooling airflow.
@@nerd1000ify I can't speak for the VW engine, but the Porsche flat sixes do have head gaskets and they don't have overheating issues with either the air cooled or water cooled engines (although in recent years they switched from an open deck to closed deck block). The 911 Turbo and GT2 generally have air intakes on the rear wings, the GT2 even has some in the spoiler to feed airflow from down the side windows into the engine bay, but the Carreras (even the 991.2 and 992, which are turbocharged) and GT3s get their air from the engine cover, and possibly from under the car... I know that the rear engine layout is inherently flawed, but Porsche have spent eighty odd years perfecting it, and the new 992 GT3RS is a staggering bit of kit.
Love your videos - just one point. The Coventry Climax engine was originally the pump. It was first used by John Cooper (he who began the tiny rear engined F3 racers) and then by Colin Chapman Lotus. The innovations with the engine by both teams helped Coventry Climax to update and improve their pumps.
