Peter Bryant

Chrysler Imp

Peter Bryant's Imp now bears hardly any resemblance to a Group 2 car, other than sharing the basic body shape and general layout of major components.

The shell has been completely gutted of all unnecessary material: the doors, although still metal, are simply single panels. All glass has been replaced by perspex, except the front screen, of course, which remains laminated glass with heating.

The body began life many years ago, being an early Imp shell, which comes with desirable higher pivot points for the front suspension. The longer front springs from an early Imp are also used, along with adjustable Spax dampers (with adjustable spring platforms). The rear end sits on Spax, too, plus Chrysler RAC spec springs.

The engine is very special, having been built by our columnist Andy Dawson many moons ago and used in his works Clan (second overall on the Manx, etc.). This mill revs to around 9500 rpm with ease. and produces something like 100 bhp, helped by a very special, cross-drilled, nitrided, steel crank which Dawson had built for the job. It's recently been refurbished by Andy Chesman, who has, among other things, replaced the 40 DCOE Webers with equivalent Dellortos. The gearbox was also a Dawson item, being a very rare works unit, while the Dawson assembled drive shafts and doughnuts have never given any trouble.

Tyres are Avon crossply - 5.50 rear/5.20 front, mounted on 5 x 12 inch Revolutions at the front, 7 x 12 rear. Maintenance on the car is done by the man who used to tend Pat Mannion's race tmps, Tony Gilham, of Abbey Garage, Croydon.

Literature

Peter Bryant : Chrysler Imp. - Cars & Car Conversions 1975. - pp. 63-64 a.f.
CCC looked at six of the leading cars in the championship to try and find the formula for success. They included Peter Bryant's Imp from the small class because it was technically much more interesting than Jon Lloyd's more successful Gp 2 Imp

Peter Bryant (driver) & Colin Wilson (nav.)

The magazine Cars & Car Conversions had a team, both race and rally, in 1975 which included an Imp: WGT 6M.
In their September 1975 issue they write:

Colin Wilson, now fully recovered from his unfortunate eperiences on the Shenstone and the Scottish rallies, rejoined Peter Bryant in his much refettled, now orange-coloured Chrysler Imp. And on the Lancia-Pointer they actually finished fourth overall, winning the class by a comfortable margin as well.
It was Wilson's best ever result and Bryant's best ever result as a driver. The Imp, now prepared at Tony Gilham's Abbey Garage in Croydon, was running Revolution wheels for the first time, ad Avon's crossply knobblies were used throughout to great effect.

The following weekend was the Arkell, when the Imp finally succumbed to its first mechanical breakdown in 15 rallies: the transaxle expired thoroughly.

The Lancia-Pointer rally was the 5th round in the Clubman's rally champioship.

The real shocks of the event came from the performances of the drivers in our Class A - up to 1300cc. There were three Imps in the first eleven cars home and one of them now leads the overall championship by a clear point.

Peter Bryant provided the biggest surprise, extracting considerably more from his newly painted 998cc Imp than he ever had before. He was clearly fastest on the first run through the slimy, tight concrete tracks of Hockering Wood and actually led the rally at lunch by two seconds. A rather more subdued afternoon left him fourth overall, despite using Avon's crossply knobbly tyres on every stage - even the airfields.

Almost as amazing was the run enjoyed by Dick Lust, whose rather demon 902cc Imp was seeded at 105, but finished 6th overall. Lust, 25 years oldcomes from High Wycombe and has sponsorship from Vulcan Trailers. His six points were his first of the championship, but presumably not his last.

Jon Lloyd was next up, taking the 11th place and four points with his Chrysler Imp, now repainted white and red in deference to new sponsors Fell, Arthur and Bennett, brake part suppliers of Mosely Road, Birmingham. Jon's car was tackling its fifth rally without a rebuild, despite which is now heads our champioship table.