Hello,
That Imp engine was developed from the Coventry Climax man-portable
fire-pump engine, the FW(A). Wally Hassen and his team designed it, and used it
as the basis for a number of racing engines. There was a 2.5 four that
Jack Brabham raced in his World Champion Cooper in 1958-59 and the superb 1.5
liter V8 Formula 1 engine (two FWAs) that was so potent in Lotus and other
F1s of the 1961-1965 period. Jim Clark nearly won the World championship
in 1962 but dropped out with a broken suspension bolt in the S.African GP.
Graham Hill went on to win it and the championship with BRM power. In 1963,
Lotus and the CC V8 took the Championship. Jim dropped out in the last
race in 1964 (oil leak) and Ferrari won. Coventry Climax/Lotus and Jim Clark
took the last year of the 1.5 liter formula in 1965 winning most races.
Finally a note on the Coventry Climax FW (Feather Weight) engine. The
Rootes licensed production car version the FWA was deemed too powerful for the
Imp. Prototype Imps with the Rootes version of the FWA were just too fast.
The production version was significantly de-tuned.
Jim Armstrong
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