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The Imp and its derivatives were great little cars. Unfortunately, the early cars damaged their reputation, almost irretrievably, since they were released to the public before all the little bugs, some mentioned above, were resolved. As a competitor to the Mini, they were overpriced, except that in reality, it was the Mini that was underpriced as the Ford Motor company proved. However, having owned both Imps and Minis, the Imp, in my view was better built, and certainly more fun to drive.
The only time I had a blown head gasket on one was entirely down to me. A combination of allowing the water level to get too low and thrashing it around the M25 at max revs will do that to a lot of cars. Since it was my wife's, Sunbeam Stiletto, I was not popular. I was only allowed back in the house because our eldest son, Kevin (then, only about 5 or 6 years old) was with me!
A tweaked version of that little Coventry Climax engine is a joy to hear. I had a Ginetta G15 with a 1040cc (the biggest you could go, I think, without expensive restroking etc) which rev'd to 9000rpm (possibly more but I didn't want to go there); fabulous sound.
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