Photos taken during the June 2008 photo shoot of Motor Clássica's photographer
Rui Bevilacqua (Lisbon, Portugal) is the proud owner of a rally tuned 1970 Hillman Imp Super.
LF-67-58
"This is my first Imp, and I have had it since 2005. Ever since they were launched in '63, I am collecting everything related, and as a teenager, I had a photo of Roger Nathan's car on the wall."
Only 3 years ago, Rui managed to find his favourite car: an Imp (as well as the Lotus Elan). This Imp was recently roadtested by a Portuguese classic car magazine 'Motor Clássico'. The photos to the left were taken during the photo session of 'Motor Clássico'.
"This magazine wanted to do an article on my Imp, and as Malcolm Anderson usually spends his holidays in Portugal (and visits me every year), I suggested doing the story with him, and it worked very well."
- 998 cc
- R17 camshaft
- 2x Weber 40DCOE
- Carter type block strenghtening plate
- Janspeed combined exhaust manifold
- front discs
- Monte Carlo springs
- AVO adjustable shock dampers
- 5,5" x 12" Minilites
- Dunlop Racing 4,50 tyres
- 6" x 13" Minilites
- Toyo F1 175/60
Rui built this Imp himself, based on an immaculate Imp Super, that spent most of its life inside an house, absolutely rustfree.
"In two weeks time, I will be entering it in the Historic Rally of Portugal, and of 115 entrants it will be the only Imp. It is a very tough rally (1.700 kms in 3 days). My aim is to get to the finish - in fact, the same aim we used to have in the 12 years I entered this rally in the 70's/80's."
"The twelve times that I entered the Rally of Portugal, it was still a World Rally Car event, one of the most important (in 1982 it was Michele Mouton first overall win with the Audi Quattro). The Historic Rally of Portugal of these days is a new event, but using same roads. They started in 2005, to commemorate 40 years of the first edition."
"In 2005 I entered with the Imp, but I had lots of mistakes made from the engine builder so I retired early. Last year I wanted to use the Imp again, but new problems hours before the rally, forced me to use a borrowed car (a Datsun 1600SSS), and I finished, but had several braking problems.
This year, the Imp seems to be very good, I already did 1.800 kms to debug, and let's hope it all goes ok."
From the entry list: competition n. 22, Rui Bevilacqua and Joaquim Capelo, driving a Hillman Imp Sport (?), category F, class 5.
There are 23 in category F, none other in class 5.
Rui Bevilacqua
I am 58 [Sep. '08] and competing in rallies and racing for the last 38 years. The Imp (as well as the Lotus Elan, both 63) were my all-time favourite cars, but only now I managed to have my Imp. I found this one absolutely immaculate and rust free, and I was unable to resist preparing it for classic rallies.
In 38 years of competition, I have used lots of cars, some of my own, others from teams. And I did a bit of everything: rally, race, hill climbs, either driving, or co-driving and even organizing, but all lots of fun.
In 1979 I was Portuguese National Rally Champion with an Opel Kadett GTE, and in 1996 and '97 I was Historic Portuguese Champion with my Lotus Elan 26R, and in between several other smaller titles.
As a classic car fan, I owned several classic cars, and that is why the magazine has a strong relation with me, and they waited until my Imp was finished to do a test.