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Imp television advertising

Imps on parade

THE COLONEL BOGEY MARCH is now introducing one of the most ambitious and original television advertising campaigns ever mounted by a British Motor Manufacturer. The campaign, for the eight Linwood-built Imp models started on Sunday, February 11th 1968, and is scheduled to continue until mid March using a combination of 30 and 45 second commercials on the full I.T.V. network. Market Research experts estimate that the campaign will bring details of the Imp into 87 per cent of all the homes in the United Kingdom. Over 40 million people are expected to be reached.

The Colonel Bogey March ties in with the martial theme of the campaign.

In the first of the series of three commercials, Imps are seen pounding across tbe Royal Armoured Corps' Tank Proving Ground at Bovington Camp, Dorset.
The Imp joins a convoy of Chieftain tanks on a training spin across country designed to test tbe go-anywhere capabilities of the tanks to the limit - and it stays with tbem all the way.
Hardened tank corp veterans could bardly believc their eyes as the Imp successfully tackled some of the roughest obstacles on the course.

The second commercial opens like a Second World War epic with a Royal Marine tank landing craft approaching a deserted beach at dawn. Down drops the ramp and out roll the eight Hillman and Sunbeam Imps and Singer Chamois.
Dramatic action shots follow with Imps tearing through the surf, across the beach and up over the sand-dunes.

Commercial number three again shows the full range of Imps, this time in a clever sequence which highlights the main selling features.

The series of commercials bas been planned to take the fullest possible advantage of tbe tremendous coverage offered by television. It also provides the creative oppotumties for movement and sound, enabling the selling points of the Imp to be dramatically exploited to the full.

Arrow : a newspaper for all the members of the Rootes Organisation
February 1968. front page

Imp Advertisements in magazines


Rootes Imp Advertisements

an inspiration in light car design
Rootes make motoring history with the new Hillman Imp
There's so much that revolutiuonary about the Imp that it's difficult to know where to begin. Logically, let's start with the engine. Mounted at the back, it's an aluminium die-cast, overhead camshaft unit... 875cc giving 42 bhp, a comfortable 75 mph, and a touring fuel consumption of 40-45 mpg. Imp accelerates from0-50 mph in 15.5 seconds. The four-speed all synchromesh gearbox is in unit with the final drive, is only half the weight of conventional transmissions. Imp's all-round independent suspension and clever steering design produce ideal handling qualities. Imp carries four with room to spare, gives estate car convenience, generous luggage space (the big rear window lifts up and the back seat folds flat, and there's more room for cases under the bonnet). Extra large brakes stop Imp surely, safely - with braking effort nearly equal on all wheels.
And Imp has no greasing points, is easy to service, slashes maintenance costs. Go and see Imp. And be impressed.
In: Modern Motoring and Travel, July 1963. - p.37

Hillman Imp - an inspiration in light car design

Hillman Imp 5 CV
une très GRANDE petite voiture. Séduisante, nerveuse, la Imp ("Lutin") a 4 larges places. Rapide: 135 km/h + Moteur "de course" tout aluminium, arbre à cames en tête, taux de compression 10/1, 4 vitesses toutes synchro. Suspension indépendante sur les 4 roues. Accélérateur à commande pneumatique. Extracteur d'air. Convertible en break, hayon arrière relevable. 8 350 F + T.L. et C.G. - Garantie totale 12 mois ou 20 000km.
Rootes Motors S.A.
8, Rd.-Pt. des Ch.-Elysées, Paris - 8e . ELY 04-37

12x10cm
source: unknown
tres grande petite voiture
1964: Une bombe, quatre Missiles
"Les Missiles" font chauffer les planches. La Hillman IMP brûle les étapes -une vraie bombe ! 133 km/h. 5 CV, 4 larges places (la IMP accommode aisément Les Missiles et toute leur série de bagages). Moteur "course" aluminium, orbre à cames en tête, 42 ch/frein, toux de compression 10/ 1, consommation 6,25 L. 4 vitesses synchro (4" surmultipliée), levier au plancher. Sièges avant séporés, déflecteurs, glaces avant entièrement descendantes, hayon arrière relevable. Chauffage/dégivrage/ventilation avec extracteur d'air vicié et lave-glaces standards. Suspension indépendonte sur les 4 roues, aucun point de graissage. Convertible en break (volume utile 0,559 m&2sup; ). 

Hillman Imp, Une production Rootes

Garantie totale -12 mois ou 20.000 km. Livrable 8.350 F + , rendu Paris*.

Vente et service dans 163 pays. PARIS, Rootes Motors S.A., 6, Rond-Point des Champs-Elysées -ELY. 04-37 • LONDRES : Rootes Ltd, Devonshire House, Piccadilly, W.I. • BRUXELLES: Rootes Belgique S.A., 126, Rue de Linthout • GENÈVE ; Rootes Autos S.A., 10, rue du Commerce • ALGER : Société Nord-Africaine des Automobiles de Sport, 3, rue Tancrède • TUNIS Ets Louis Montenay, 49, av. de Carthage • CASABLANCA : Auto-Marocaine S.A., 232, bd de la Résistance • MILAN . Rootes Italia S.p.A., Piazza Velasca 5 • MONTREAL : 25 St. James Street, Ville St. Pierre.

Une bombe, quatre missiles

International Alpine Rally 1965
In: AutoSport 1965

International Alpine Rally 1965
  Singer Chamois

Happy go luxury everywhere you go !!

Action packed! Now - ride rich in a brand new car that makes it fun to be a driver again. 875 c.c. overhead camshaaft engine and all-synchromesh gearbox. Quicksilver acceleration to 80 m.p.h. plus. A delightful economy of 40-45 m.p.g. All-independent suspension and big fade-free brakes. A turning circle of only 30½ft.
Luxury stacked! Inside, the story's one of all-round comfort. Contoured front and rear seats. Thorough soundproofing thanks to carpet laid on thick and body undersealing. Heater, demister and thru-flow ventilation. Price ex-works: £565.17.1 (£467 plus p.t. £98.17.1).
Imp de Luxe Mark 2 Another new model with all the mechanical advantages of the new Super Imp, and many of the same thoughtful features. Price ex-works: £539.5.5 (£445 plus p.t. £94.5.5). Your Rootes dealer is temporary keeper of the keys - see him today !

Motor 1965, week ending 2 Oct.; p.2

DLN 830C - Polar White Hillman Super Imp

Hillman Super Imp

Chamoisport !
Luxury with a thrill in the tail !
New Singer Chamois Sport
In: AutoSport 1966

Chamois Sport

Brands Hatch August 29 - saloon car race up to 1000cc
Hillman Imp 1st
Driver: Nick Brittan
Alan Fraser Racing Team
Hillman keep on winning with the Imp
In: AutoSport 1966

Nick Brittan at Brand Hatch

Hats off to Imp
International Scottish Rally
Imp 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
Up to 1300cc GT cars
1st Coupe des Dames & 3rd Overall
In: AutoSport 1966

Scottish Rally

Clever people know all the best places.
Know how to get there in stype and comfort.
With real economy, 40 to 45 m.p.g.
Clever people understand engine performance.
Accelerate away with a rear-mounted engine.
Pack bags of baggage on the folding back seat.
Clever people go for economy. Go Hillman Super Imp.

Imp range recommended prices
start at £549, tax paid

Hillman Super Imp, advert December 1966
Modern Motoring and travel, December 1966

Has your car got all this?

  • Modern overhead camshaft engine of aluminium construction. Oversquare for longer life.
  • Oil cooler
  • Twin carburettors
  • Four-branch exhaust manifold
  • servo-assisted brakes
  • all-synchromesh gearbox
  • 5,000 mile service intervals
  • Full facia panel with padded top and non-glare PVC finish
  • Hand headlight flasher
  • Ammeter; oil pressure gauge
  • Facia glove box
  • Water temperature gauge
  • Adjustable rake front seat squabs
  • Rear armrests
  • Doors trimmed to window level
  • Wind-down windows
  • Opening front quarter-lights
  • full-flow ventilation & heating
  • Fold-flat rear seat and opening rear window for estate car loading
  • Self-parking windscreen wipers
  • Ample space for four adults; extra luggage space under front bonnet
  • Mean maximum speed: 90 m.p.h.
  • 0-50 m.p.h in 11.1 secs. (Autocar road test)
  • Overall fuel consumption: 36-43 m.p.g.

The Sunbeam Imp Sport has - for only £665.9.4 (inc. p.t.)        (February 1967; August 1967)

Sunbeam Imp Sport has all this

Hallo Beautiful !
meet the new Imp Californian
In: 1967

Californian

Chrysler Imp Advertisements

The winning team. George Bevan. The Imp.
Chrysler make the cars you want.
Brand logos on display: Hillman; Chrysler United Kingdom; Chrysler; Sunbeam; Humber; Simca.
Reprint: Impressions 3 (1983), 6 (July)


Advertisements by others using the Imp

Some companies used Imps in their adverts, some because they got good results in competition, e.g. Koni, or because the Imp may stand for the underdog, or because of good relations with the Rootes Group.

General Accident ran a TV advert in the seventies, which stars John Cleese.
Two cars reverse into the same parking space with the inevitable result. One car is a red Ford Escort and the other is a yellow Hillman Imp basic, YDP 171J. The Imp ends up with a mis-shapen engine cover, while the Escort suffers a bent bumper, dented boot and smashed rear window.

In the early nineties there was an advert featuring a Singer Chamois for Mail on Sunday.

From all angles...
New Hillman Imp
is a great success !!
rubber components supplied by Hertfordshire Rubber Company
In: 1963

rubber for the Imp

Look - an aluminium engine  !
the British Aluminium Company ltd.
In: 1963

aluminium engine

The new Hillman Super Imp - like most of Britain's leading cars - has Dunlop tyres as standard equipment

More than 20 different makes of cars, over 60 different models, have Dunlop tyres as original equipment. Latest is the new Hillman Super Imp, which achieves the highest standards of small-car luxury and performance. For this the makers chose the world's outstanding cross-ply tyre, the Dunlop C41, to ensure safety, tyre economy and easy riding comfort. The 'grip-in-depth' tread pattern, cut deep in slow-to-wear roadhug rubber, still grips like new even after thousands of miles.

Motor 1965, week ending 2 Oct.; p.4

Dunlop tyres

For the new Hillman Super Imp
Body shell painted and trimmed by
Pressed Steel Company

Pressed Steel Company Limited Makers of Britain's first production all-steel car body in 1926, suppliers to the motor industry ever since.

Manufacturers also of commenrcial refirgeration equipment, railway rolling stock, pressings of all types and executive aircraft.

Head Office: Cowley, Oxford
Plants: Cowley, Oxford; Swindon, Wiltshire; Paisley, Scotland; Theale, Berkshire; Rearsby, Leicestershire; Shoreham, Sussex

Motor 1965, week ending 2 Oct.; p.6

Pressed Steel Company
Alcan Aluminium again

"So this is the new Hillman Super Imp?"

"Yes. The new car from Rootes. With extruded aluminium grille and all. But the Hillman Super Imp isn't just good to look at. It's a very impressive performer when it's on the road, where it really counts. That's because of its aluminium engine. About two-thirds the weight of a cast-iron unit. Vastly improved weight distribution, you see. That means superior performance, brilliant cornering. It's a very stable car, minimum body-roll. Excellent traction, too. The engine's so light that ther's less wear on tyres and brakes, and improved fuel consumption. It's more economic for Rootes, too. Because they use Alcan aluminium alloys, they have lower production costs, less machining, greater ease of handling. It just goes to show why high-quality aluminium is so important to efficient engine design. In fact..."

"Stop being so technical and take us for a drive somewhere, h'm?"

Alcan (UK) limited
Aluminium Canada House
30 Berkeley Square, London W.1
Telephone: Mayfair 9721

Motor 1965, week ending 2 Oct.; p.14 (EDU 293C)

Alcan Aluminium

Worth Looking at

The New Hillman Super Imp with extra comfort, improved performance and an up-to-the-minute elegance. And contributing to this new performance and elegance, precision-made instrumentation from SMITHS. As an aid to motoring comfort, too, the Radiomobile car radio is exclusively recommended as an optional extra. Elegance and performance - that's what you get from the new Hillman Super Imp and its SMITHS equipment.

Smiths
Instruments
Car heaters
Radiomobile
Spark plugs
Bluecol
Petroflex tubing
Thermostats
Batteries

Smiths Motor Accesory Division - Cricklewood, London N.W.2

Motor 1965, week ending 2 Oct.; p.81

Hillman Super Imp - Smiths gauges

Glacier bearings were chosen for the new
Hillman Super Imp

Glacier supplies main and big end bearings and thrust washers in reticular tin-aluminium, camshaft bearings in whitemetal, king-pin bushes and thrust washers in Glacier DU (which needs no lubrication) for this new model.

The car industry relies on Glacier bearings. Over half the vehicles produced in Europe are made by manufacturers who use Glacier bearings as original equipment.

The Glacier Metal Company Limited
Alperton, Wembley, Middlesex
AE An Associated Engineering Limited Company

Motor 1965, week ending 2 Oct.; p.82

Hillman Super Imp- Glacier bearings
Suppliers of seat frames for Hillman Super Imp
Southern Bros. Limited, Guild Hall Works, Bolton

Motor 1965, week ending 2 Oct.; p.82

Hillman Super Imp - Southern Brothers Ltd

Mechanics point out the unique rear axle halfshafts on the new Super Imp manufactured solely by B.R.D. from forgings by Garringtons.

Mechanics' Eye view of the Hillman Super Imp

As major suppliers of forged components for the new Super Imp, Garringtons have reason to be proud of their contribution to yet another outstanding 'baby'.
Combining also with Garringtons in the production of this model's unique features is the B.R.D. Company Limited - Britain's most modern manufacturers of universal joints - for the Super Imp, 100% of the rear axle halfshafts are manufactured by B.R.D. from forgings by Garringtons.

Garringtons
The largest manufacturers of forged components for the motor industry
Garringtons Limited Bromsgrove and Darlaston

BRD
Largest suppliers of line drive shafts to the vehicle industry
B.R.D. Company Ltd., Aldridge, Staffs, England

Members of the G.K.N. Group of companies

Motor 1965, week ending 2 Oct.; p.83

Hillman Super Imp - Garrington's - B.R.D. Company Ltd.

Leading Hillman Imp dealers

Campbell Symonds, Watford Road, Wembey
Wembleys leading Rootes dealer
for sales and service - dial Arnold 2246

M.E.T. Garages Ltd., 409 Kilburn High Road, N.W.6
Tel. Maida Vale 4801
Hillman sales and service

Humber Hillman Sunbeam, main dealers
The Cathedral Garage Ltd, College Green, Bristol
Telephone: Bristol 20031 Telex 45/125

G.W. Rushworth Ltd., Queens Park Garage
Eastern Avenue, Burnley, Tel. 21511
also at Vale Garage, Colne, Tel. 247

Smith Auto Company Limited
Rootes Group area dealers for over 30 years
145 London Road, Croydon, Tel. 2115 (3 lines)

Dolphin Square Garage
Main agents for all Rootes products
A member of the Charles Rickards Group

North End Motors Ltd, North End Road, Erith 33000
Hythe Street, Dartford - Dartford 20543
300 Broadway, Bexleyheath - Danson Park 2144
Rootes area dealers for any Rootes products in Kent

Motor 1965, week ending 2 Oct.; p.84

Hillman Super Imp - dealers

New Hillman Imp range fitted with
Woodhead Monroe
registered, patented
Double-acting, fluid cushion shock absorbers

Coil springs exclusively by Jonas Woodhead & Sons (Leeds) Ltd.

Members of the Jonas Woodhead Group, the greatest name in Suspension Engineering

Woodhead-Monroe Ltd., Ossett, Yorkshire, Telephone: Ossett 450, Telex: 55-291
Jonas Woodhead & Sons (Leeds) Ltd., Kirkstall Road, Leeds 4, Telephone: Leeds 20814

Motor 1965, week ending 2 Oct.; p.85

 
Hillman Imp Super - Woodhead Monroe
Congratulations from Edward Lewis to Bernard Unett in an Alan Fraser Racing Team Hillman Imp on winning the Westover Saloon Car Championship 1966

The Westover Saloon Car Championship - sponsored by Edward Lewis Shoes Limited, makers of Westover driving shoes - is a 12-event championship for 'Free Formula' saloon cars. Running at Brands Hatch, it is a gruelling season-long battle between cars and drivers from all over the country.
Driving an Alan Fraser Imp, Bernard Unett won the 1966 championship with 41 points - and also snapped up the win for his class.
Ray Calcutt, another of the Alan Fraser Imp Team, took second place in the up-to-1,000 cc class.

Highlights: March 20th
April 11th
May 29th
August 7th
September 18th  
October 2nd
October 16th
November 27th
December 27th
1st
1st
1st
1st
1st
1st
1st
1st
1st  
70.2 mph average
74.6 mph lap record
78.7 mph fastest lap
72.5 mph fastest lap
72.9 mph average
77.7 mph average
75.1 mph fastest lap
71.9 mph average
71.5 mph average

Edward Lewis Westover Driving Shoes, Westover Works, St. James, Northampton

Westover Saloon Car Championship 1966

The most compact.

The compact is an American idea. A small car with big car features. Like the Sunbeam Stiletto. The Stiletto is, without doubt, the most luxuriously appointed small car you can buy. At a standard price. Yet once we said it was 'for men whose wives think they've given up sports cars'. For no other small production car combines performance and luxury quite like this. Thus.

His
Read the other side to your wife to convince her. The engine. Is the Imp Sport version of the famous Imp inclined four-cylinder, 68mm x 60.375mm, 875cc single OHC aluminium engine. Twin Stromberg 125CD carbs, new cylinder head with improved gasflow and larger inlet valves, higher lift cam, stronger pistons, oil cooler, 6¼ in. Laycock diaphragm self-adjusting clutch.
The superb standard Imp gearbox. Synchromesh, top to bottom. 0-50 in 10.6 secs ('Motor' road test). Top speed 90mph. Fully independent suspension. Girling system servo assisted brakes, 8in. drums, 150sq. in. swept area.
Full safety-standard dashboard with matt-bevelled instruments. Plus new 15in. padded leathercloth covered steering wheel. And as a little extra bonus ...

Hers
Just pretend perfo rma nce isn' t for you and read on. The Stiletto has standard big car virtues. Such as wind-up windows. Headlamp flasher. Carpet. wall-to-wall. Through-flow heating and ventilation. Plus: sublimely comfortable front reclining seats. A lockable glove box. Padded arm rests. Beautiful, breathable Amblair upholstery. Individual fold-down rear seats. Curved side windows.
Outside: Great trim. Black vinyl covered roof on the raking fastback. And four headlights to bring a little light into your life.
Consider also: the obvious small car advantages. Parking. Garage space. Economy. Ease in traffi c. So come along for a his/hers test drive. The Sunbeam Stiletto costs just £813* And that's the only mundane thing about it.
Rootes new deal is your new deal.

*Recomended price ex-works inc. p.t.
Seat belts extra

The most compact.

Hot Car 1968 June

   

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