Having my own Imp at home enables me to have a lot of fun competing in Autocross. I find these a first-class way of keeping my hand in, in between rallies. Sunbeam Imp FRW 304C

Andrew Cowan

13 December 1936

Rallying experience since the early 1950s. He was a near neighbour of Jim Clark. He remained a farmer and could not take the time to rally all year round. He could not compete regularly - therefore did not win championships in Britain. He could rally at the end of the year, with his farm work taken care of. So he mostly did his driving on un-British soil, like South America, Australia, Africa.
One of the greater rally drivers with a reputation for stamina and sustained pace.

Co-driver: Brian Coyle

Andrew Cowan and Brian Coyle were a team since they did the 1961 RAC Scottish Rally in Andrew's Rapier. John and Anne Melvin won that time, but they did use a Sunbeam to do it. Cowan used to be a farmer in the Scottish borders (Blackadder West Farm, Duns, Berwickshire).
In 1962 they were given Works support and finished 19th, proving that the combination worked.
Another source states that the team Andrew Cowan & David Thomson won the Scottish Rally in both 1962 and 1963 in a Sunbeam Rapier.

Name: DeLarge
Date: 22 Aug. 2006

Regarding your Andrew Cowan page, I now have two corroborating sources that Cowan did win the Scottish Rally outright in '62 and '63. The Scottish Rally's official site and the man himself, in an interview in the Scotsman last year.

Rootes noticed.
From then on Andrew had either a Works car or Works support for every international rally he did.
He started in Sunbeam Rapiers but also successfully rallied the Imp.

1963

The Glasgow Herald - Nov 30, 1963:

Andrew Cowan joins Rootes To drive Imp in 'Monte' Andrew Cowan, of Duns, Berwickshire, winner of the International Scottish Rally for the past two years, has been made a member of the official Rootes Group team of competition drivers and will drive a works Hillman Imp in the Monte Carlo Rally in January. This was announced last night by Mr. Norman Garad, Rootes competition manager, at the annual dinner at Turnberry, Ayrshire, of the Sunbeam-Talbot Owners' Club. He said: "We intend to enter this Scottish-built car really seriously in international events." Cowan, who will start from Oslo, will have as his co-driver Keith Ballisat, of London. The Scot leaves for the Continent at the week-end for a reconnaissance of the Monte Carlo Rally route.

1964

Monte Carlo Rally, January 1964. Andrew Cowan / Keith Ballisat in 4526 KV (an unmodified Group I Imp) with competition no. 90. Of the eight Imps that were entered by Rootes Works, seven drove the 3,000 miles from the Oslo start and arrived safely in Monte Carlo.

Excerpt from "Why finish last?" (published August 1969)

...later I was approached officially by Rootes with the offer of a co-drive on the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally. This was actually my second Continental rally as I had competed privately in the Tulip Rally and finished 2nd in the private entrants class. But driving the Monte in a factory car was different.
I had been paired with Keith Ballisat, who had driven many events both with Rootes and Standard-Triumph, and I saw from the start that my role was to sit, look and learn. The car was one of the first Hillman Imps built, and it was running in Group 3 form with a modified engine, but the whole trip was a disaster. First of all I don't think Keith was happy with my driving and in my innocent enthusiasm I guessed he wasn't driving hard enough.
Early in the rally we made a mistake in our choice of studs and decided to run on long ones just in case we hit heavy snow and ice in Northern France. However, there was very little and steadily the vibration created by these big studs shook the sump bolts loose and we started losing oil. We stopped and tightened up the sump and filled it with oil but the damage had been done. The tinkle from the bearings told us all was not well and the gearbox began to act up.

With all this going on, we dropped further and further behind and I was thoroughly miserable and cold. When I drove the stages I had a great time, but I had the feeling Keith wasn't happy at all and more than once he suggested we quit. However, as will be gathered later, I'm a stubborn kind of character and insisted we carry on to the finish, which we did.
As the rally was run in those days, you had to get to Monte Caria to be classified and I was determined to get there. At one stage we stopped and realised one big end had gone completely, so I dashed into a garage and bought a gallon of thick gear oil. After draining the sump I started to pour this gear oil, but it was so cold it took half an hour to put the oil in. It obviously helped, because it was thicker and gave the bearings a good larding. We eventually finished 133rd, but there were a lot of disappointments for me. I was disappointed in the preparation of the car, for instance, although it was the first time the Imp had been used and nowadays I'm glad I was able to see the Imps through these early teething days and into more successful times.

RAC Rally, 1964 Production Touring Cars, up to 1150cc (Group 2) 1st: Andrew Cowan / Brian Coyle (Sunbeam Imp Sport 875cc modified)

1965

14th RAC Rally: 1965. Tough rally - due to snow, ice, fog and pouring rain, only 62 out of 162 participants finished. Amongst these 62 were all three Works Imps. Andrew Cowan / Brian Coyle drove 4525 KV.

Andrew Cowan with co-driver Don Barrow drove a works Imp in the 1965 Scottish Rally (June). They had the dreaded transaxle trouble and retired on Special Stage 13. It was the first year Barrow had become involved with the Rootes Group Competition Department, mostly teaming up with Ian Hall.

1966

RAC 1966. Andrew Cowan had to retire due to transaxle problems.

1967

Monte Carlo Rally, January 1967
class: Production cars up to 1000cc
1st: Andrew Cowan/ Brian Coyle

Alpine Rally 1967: 9th overall
The Glasgow Herald - Aug 31, 1967:
Andrew Cowan and Brian Coyle headed the team of 3 Sunbeam Imps in the Alpine Rally. Another Scot in the team will be Margaret Lowrey, formerly Miss MacKenzie, who will drive with Miss Rosemary Smith. The 3rd Imp will be manned by 2 newcomers to the Rootes team: Roy Fidler and Alan Taylor. Marseilles to Menton. 2380 miles over 110 of the highest passes.

Scottish Rally, 1967. Andrew Cowan drove works Imp JRW 700E with Brian Coyle and came 2nd (?).

The 3rd works Imp at Coupe des Alpine 1967 driven by Andrew Cowan: registration JRW 701E.
(Information by Andrew Cowan himself, asked Ian Grindrod) - source: forum-auto.com, posted 05-01-2009 @ 20:34:05 by 2000RS (Keith)

1968

Monte Carlo Rally, January 1968: class win
Andrew Cowan / Brian Coyle win the 851cc to 1150cc class Production Touring Cars and finish 22nd overall. The Imp is JHP 100E with competition no. 45, a modified Sunbeam Imp Sport 875cc.

Scottish Rally, 1968. Cowan in LKW 700F had an accident and retired.

Andrew Cowan - Rallycross Lydden Hill Photos for sale at photohistoric.com

Andrew Cowan in the Gulf Rally of 1968 (Swedish newspaper) driving JVC 123E
Ovan t.h.: Med sin lilla 1000cc Hillman Imp blev Andrew Cowan bäste hemmaförare = With his little 1000cc Hilman Imp Andrew Cowan remained the best driver

His greatest success was winning the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon with Colin Malkin and Scottish Brian Coyle (Coyle had married Cowan's sister Dorothy 4 months ago) in a works Hillman Hunter, which was the only Rootes Works entered car. Cowan turned 32 during the rally. He was engaged with Miss Marjorie Reid of Edinburgh.
The Glasgow Herald - Dec 18, 1968 said: workers and management at Linwood toasted the win. The Glasgow Herald quoted an unnamed worker:

"There is an atmosphere about the factory to-day that you can feel. Everyone is pleased, right from the top to the bottom. We feel that they - and the car - belong to us"

1969

Scottish Rally, June 1969
The works Imp's last international event. (Hillman Imp, 1140cc)
From the Glasgow start 70 forestry Specials had to be negotiated. The forestry tracks were terribly damaging. Over half the field was put into the garage before the first 24 hours were over. 134 started, 71 finished. JDU 48E (with comp.no. 3) suffered transaxle problems. Andrew Cowan replaced the unit with one from his own road Imp, kept on his nearby farm. One night their Imp looked a bit kit-car-ish, with a complete engine and transaxle perched where Brian Coyle normally sits. They swopped their damaged transaxle, without losing any road time, the next morning. Andy and Brian continued to finish second overall to Simo Lapinen's Saab V4.
JDU 48E was later owned and rallied by Steve Brew.

International Scottish Rally, July 1969
Andre Cowan / Brian Coyle drove a Hillman Imp with which they gathered 3782 pts - good for a second place.

Cowan, A.
"Why finish last?" / Andrew Cowan. - Queen Anne Press, 1969. - iii-xi, 129 p : 16 plates, illus., ports ; 21 cm
ISBN 362 002 2
ISBN 0362000522
Subject: London-Sydney Marathon

Author: Andrew Cowan

Book: Why finish last?
Chapter: A dozen years before Sydney
Page: 14, 2nd paragraph and further (edited)

 How do you mean 'a one-off'?

Page: 17, last paragraph

My last rally in a Sunbeam Rapier came towards the end of 1964 with the R.A.C. Rally. Rootes invited me to join them with a factory car, but by now the faithful old Rapier was getting pretty long in the tooth and you had to work hard with it, to keep up with the lighter and more powerful Cortinas. Rootes were developing the Imp and de-emphasising the Rapier and so, as new boy, I was given the Rapier to drive with Brian Coyle.

Page: 25, 2nd paragraph

Back in 1965 with the Monte over for another year, I was still without a full Rootes contract and it looked like I wouldn't have a drive that year until the Scottish Rally. This is a regular for the Rootes team as their Imps are made in Scotland and they get a lot of local support.

Andrew Cowan competing in the Scottish Rally with Hillman Imp JRW 700E, competition no. 7.

Page: 31, first paragraph

During most of my time as a factory driver for Rootes, the Imp has been the only car in the range capable of being rallied succesfully and as I had been involved right from the beginning with the development of the car, I have a great liking for it.

 Right from the beginning? Which year, which month?
How big an influence did a 'new boy' have?
Involvement with what? Competition set up?
Examples? Which experience lead to what?
How did the involvement with the development take place? Meetings?

Personally, I think there are not many cars I would pick to rally before an Imp, and we have made great strides with the car from the early days with the original prototypes. What also encourages me, is the fact that the development engineers have learned a lot from competition and have improved the production cars accordingly.

 Which development engineers? Names?
How did changes happen?
How did the information flow?
From the drivers to team manager Des O'Dell to competition manager Marcus Chambers to Production, then down to the engineers?
More directly? How did that sort of thing come about?

In the 1967 Tulip Rally we were leading our class by eight minutes until we lost a rear wheel a few miles from the end. Competition no. 110.

My biggest disappointment with the car was on the Alpine Rally in 1967, when Brian and I had been very confident with the car after our recce. We felt that the event was just about 'on' for us in terms of having a penalty free run and winning a Coup des Alpes is what everyone strives for. We went right through the event to the last special stage when a rotaflex coupling broke. And we had a coupe in our pocket, for the rest of the course was well within our capabilities. This would have been one of the few occasions on a recent Alpine where a car of less that 1,000 ccs had won a Coupe, but it was not to be; and this was probably my greatest disappointment in rallying. Not only did we have the class sewn up, but running GT, we were leading the entire GT class, which included Lancias and 904 Porsches.

One of out biggest disappointments was the cancellation of the 1967 R.A.C. Rally due to the Foot and Mouth epidemic. However, Indepent Television Authority held a special event for the drivers at Camberley for the benefit of T.V. audiences.

Probably the best Imp which Rootes have ever prepared was the 'hot rod' we build for the group 6 class in the 1967 R.A.C. Rally. This car never actually ran in the event, as it was cancelled due to the foot and mouth epidemic, but in a TV special stage, put on in an unaffected area, it went very well.

photo no. 8 in 'Why finish last?'

This car had a lightened body shell and a Group 6 engine with a very hot cylinder head and Weber carburettors. It was producing about 94 b.h.p., which was remarkable for a car of 998 ccs. And this power output was remarkable for an Imp at that time. At the special stage near Camberley, we managed to beat Timo Makinen in his works Mini and as I heard from Tony Fall -who had gone with him- that Makinen had been driving absolutely flat out, the car's performance gave me a great deal of satisfaction.

 What about the body shell?
What all was done to it to lighten it?
What about the engine?
Specifications of a Group 6 Imp?
What about the cylinder head?

I drove this car on the Circuit of Ireland Rally, but it was short lived, as I was collected by a drunken driver shortly after the start and the accident put me out of the raly.

Page: 37, first paragraph

It was during the Monte Carlo of 1968 that I first heard about the London-Sydney Marathon. We in Rootes were pleased with a good class win on the event with one of our 875cc Imps and we came back to find copies of a simple little information sheet with a map and some details about this Marathon.

When in the late seventies Competitions Manager Des O'Dell was developing the Sunbeam Lotus, Andrew Cowan did the competitive driving of the rally-prepared version, WRW 30S, with the 2 litre 230bhp Lotus engine. (Bernard Unett carried out development testing)

Nowadays Andrew Cowan is Team Principal of the Mitsubishi Ralliart Europe world rally championship team.