Rallye Imp in Targa 99
From: Andrew Bryson; 30th November 1998
Please let me introduce myself; my name is andrew Bryson and I have had the Imp obsession for over 20 years. My Imping started in 1972 with a 1967 Super Imp that I used for road rallies in Scotland. The car was not very reliable but fun. The main reason for its poor reliability was my lack of funds, being a student at the time.
In 1975 I went overseas to work, ending up in Singapore. I have moved around a bit since then, and have lived in Malaysia, China, USA, Singapore (again), Australia, Indonesia and now Thailand.
I was member #132 of the club when living in Malaysia.
I have had my current Imp since 1978, but it is now on its third bodyshell, fourth engine and fourth gearbox - something like that. I first bought the car to compete in autocross in Singapore. I had numerous Fastest Times and won the class championship in 1981.
I then started using the car for racing in Malaysia in the Limited Saloon Class. The rules were very simple: the car had to remain standard looking with interior trim; standard suspension mounting. The engine had to look standard from the outside. After a few disasters, the engine blew up in Penang (1979) in my first race.
The car eventually became a regular winner in the up-to-1,000cc class and often finished in the top three overall.
I retired the car in 1988, as the regulations were changed to cars under ten years of age.
I changed the gearbox at some stage (1982, I think) to a Jack Knight 4-speed with LSD, as I kept breaking standard differentials!!
In 1988 the regulations for racing changed and the Imp was no ,onger eligible, as it was now more then 10 years old. This was unfortunate, as it was still very competitive in the 1000cc class, having the legs of Starlets and Datsuns.
As the car was not eligible to race, I prepared it for Stage Rallies in Malaysia. This was not a success, as the stages were too rough. This led to shell number 2. I did a few more rallies and then retired the car before it broke again. It competed in Car Park rallies in Singapore (more exciting than it sounds) and the Autocross series, in which it acquitted itself quite well.
In 1992 I entered the car for the Macau GP Historic Race and was leading my class when the gearchange broke. For this event, it was engine number 3, as the previous one was getting a bit old.
In 1993 I moved to Perth, Western Australia, taking the car with me. On examining the shell I found serious corrosion and bought a semi rust free shell in Perth.
The car then had a full rebuild, with the shell sand blasted (it is still coming out, four years later) to enter for appendix 'J' that has similar regulation to the Limited Class I ran in Malaysia. I installed the front radiator as per an article in Impressions, exhausting air through the rear of the spare wheel well. This has woked well, even racing at 100°F+, the main reason for this solution was to minimise external body mods, which are not allowed. I rebuilt the engine and gearbox and fully overhauled the suspension brakes. I rewired the car, using a new loom from Autosparks, and fitted a Works replica dash. I incorporated all the hard-earned lessons from previous rebuilds into this car.
I did almost a full season of Appendix 'J' with the car improving on every event. The biggest improvement coming from the tyres: 2 seconds a lap. The tyres being Bridgestone RE 1 S, size 175 x 70 x 12, but they are not suitable for road use, as they have little thread.
In October 1993 I transferred to Jakarta, Indonesia, but prior to this I had entered the 1994 Targa Tasmania. My entry to the Targa started with a West Australia Sports Car Club meeting. They showed a video of the 1993, and the event looked ideal for an Imp.
The event is a rally round Tasmania of 2500km with 500+km of Special Stages on closed public roads. I quickly prepared the car and shipped it to my friend Ponz Sabas in Tasmania, who called and volunteered to navigate. (I met Ponz as a lad in Malaysia.)
The 1994 event was a disaster.
The oil filter blew the seal on the Prolog, setting fire to the back of the car.
On Stage 1 the gear linkage in the gearbox broke. Do not use solid universal joints, as I am sure that is what caused the failure in Macau as well. We fixed the car overnight.
On Day Two, Stage 2, the distributor drive failed, leaving a dog in the engine. That meant the sump had to be dropped to clean out the oil.
On Day Three the car ran well !!
On Day Four the car overheated at the end of a 35km stage and I decided to retire before doing serious damage.
I entered the 1995 event, and because I was living in Indonesia, I sent the engine and gearbox to Hartwell for a rebuild. The engine has an R20 cam, a Carter head, etc. with everything else to full race specifications. The ignition was by points, as electronic ignition as not allowed by the rules. A rev limiter was also fitted, it was, and set to 7500 on Day One and raised during the event to 8000 for the last day. I cannot recommend enough fitting a limiter, as I found my rev counter lagged by up to 1500rpm when accelerating in First and Second. The gearbox was build with a new casing as the old one had cracked. The gears fitted on Ray Payne's advice were:
13.56
8.55
6.3
5.05 with LSD
Ponz put the engine and gearbox back in the car and prepared it. As he could not navigate this year, he was our team manager.
My navigator for the event was Rodger Anders. We met while in Singapore in the early eighties and he was now in Jakarta. As he had lots of navigating experience, he was an obvious choice.
Let me explain a little about Targa Tasmania. It is a rally run over public roads in Tasmania, with the origins coming from the Targa Florio in Sicily. The total length of the event is 2,100km, including 500km of Targa Stages run over closed public roads. It is a FIA approved International event. It is split into Categories related to age - the Imp was in Category 4 for 1960-1965. It was then split into classes based on engine capacity. We were in class A: up to 1600cc, which was not good !
There are a number of prizes.
The first is a Targa Trophy, which is presented to competitors who complete the course with no road penalties, and complete all the Targa stages within the maximum time. The maximum time being calculated for each Category and Class.
The next is the handicap Award, which is based on a minimum time for each Targa Stage. Again all Categories and Classes have a 'Handicap' that is added to the stage Minimum time.
The last is the overall for Category & Class based on total penalties for the event.
We departed on the evening of the 14th of April via Bali and Melbourne to Hobart. We arrived in Hobart at two in the afternoon, in time to sample the local beer.
On Sunday we worked on the car, fitting seatbelts and generally checking out the car; and in the evening pace noted a nearby stage.
Monday was a holiday. We calibrated the trip meter and tested the car at Baskerville race circuit (to the north of Hobart). The only problem being the fuel pump kept cutting out, but it was kept going with the assistance of a rock.
The next three days were spent pace noting the route, and in the process we clocked up 2,500km in a car kindly loaned at very reasonable rates by Bargain Car Rentals in Hobart.
We spent the next day fitting the dash around the new front section of the rollcage and sorting out the intercom. I also gave the car a complete spanner check.
On Saturday we drove 200km to Launceston with the Imp getting 35mpg running a 5.05 top gear.
I have attached the spec sheet of the car for Targa 99, but '95 spec is the same, apart from the clutch and gear ratios.
The car was scrutineered and we went out on the town for a few beers - finally returning at 05:00. We only managed to recce a few stages on the Sunday, much hungover. We spent Monday recceing stages we had missed on our original tour.
The Targa has a social event every evening and Monday was meeting of the Marques, that led to another very late night (we did not bother going to bed). The Prolog to determine start order was the following day. Our results were less than impressive, being 167. Rosemary Smith, who was driving a Mazda Mx5. Rosemary gave us much support during the event and was supposed to start in front of us. Normally we only saw her on the first stage and then she was gone.
Day One we took it easy, having the limiter on 7500 and conserving the car. We finished the day in the middle of the field, butr managed to clean all the stages on Handicap. The Imp averaged 125kph on one of the stages and it is only geared to 150kph. The car ran well, the only problem being we ran out of revs in fourth a lot. The clutch release bearing sounded horrible, so I only used it for starts.
Day Two the rev limit was raised to 7700. This section is run down the East Coast to Hobart. Most of the Stages are over passes with uphill sections, which did not suit the Imp, but downhill sections that did! We had to change rear brake shoes at the lunch halt, as they were down to the rivets after 500km !!
Day Three - the limit stayed at 7700. This section is run down the East Coast to Hobart. This was the easiest day of the event with only 190km total distance. It is run round the south of Hobart with excellent stages. The day was not easy for us, as we had our first problems. On the second last stage of the day, the car refused to go round right hand corners and a nasty rattling noise was coming from the front of the car. We managed to get to the end of the stage loosing only 10secs. At service we found the petrol tank overflow had come off and fuel was lubricating the LH front tyre. The rattling was our radiator fan falling off !
Day Four we upped the limit to 7800. The day is 470km, the first couple of stages are not too demanding. At simmons Plain we ran out of revs half way up the straight.
After lunch the rally starts to get serious with Long (38km) stages to finish the day. Again the car ran faultlessly, apart from the fuel pump (the replacement) which stopped 1 km from the end of the last stage. A quick change of wires got us to the end with two seconds to spare. The gearbox also appeared to be tightening up, and we changed the oil before the night halt. The tight gearchange was found to be a large rock, which had somehow found its way into the tunnel. The rear brake shoes were again down to the rivets and were changed. The front pads did the whole event without problem. The clutch release bearing was now really horrible.
Day Five - the longest day of the event with 510km and 150stage km. The rev limit was raised to 8000 and we went from 7 to 9 tenths trying. The weather was wet for the first time, which suited us, as we had selected the tyres for the wet. We were lying fifth on Handicap at the start of the day and hoped our pace would improve this position.
As the stages were long we were passing up to eight cars per stage, including Porsches, Ferraris, Jaguars and other exotics. On the stage before lunch a nasty rattle developed at the rear and we had to change a broken gearbox mounting.
The run to the finish was over the longest stage in the event at 53km on which we averaged 110kph. We made it to the end with the alternator not working, the clutch marginal and the rear bearings groaning. The release bearing made it to the finish ! Checking into the final control was a great relief.
We knew we had won our Targa plate, but were directed to the winners enclosure and were told we had won a major trophy. We had been classed 2nd outright on handicap - the only car beating us was an Elfin Clubman (Australian Lotus 7), who also happened to be in our class. The car and driver combination were too much to compete, as we could not get close to their times - Ross & Ruth Williams deserved their victory.
At the end of event celebrations most people were amazed that an Imp could do so well, as they are not highly regarded in Australia ! Not Imp Register persons.
I have entered for 1999 and made a few modifications, which will help reliability and, hopefully, speed. The class structure has changed and our class will be up-to-1300cc, so I look forward to beating the Cooper S's.
