PROTOTYPE ZAGATO HILLMAN ZIMP
She's not quite unique but is one of just 3 prototype Hillman Imps designed and built by Carrozzeria Zagato of Milan in the early 1960's.The development and consequent shelving of the project goes as follows.
In 1964 there was an anouncement in the form of a small paragraph in The Autocar magazine headed 'Hillman Zimp'.It read: 'A new company called British Zagato of Kingston-upon-Thames is to market the Hillman Imp with bodywork styled by Zagato of Milan.The car is to feature lightweight aluminium body and retractable headlights.The price in Britain has yet to be announced'.
This was the first mention of the promised Zimp,Zagato had received 3 Imps from the directors of British Zagato ltd and it took them just 9 months to turn them into Zimps ready for the 1964 Earls Court Motor Show.Designed by Ercole Spada,the car sits lower than the standard Imp 128cm as apposed to 138cm and weighs in at 630kg's,this helping to increase the top speed to 140kph.With the cars ready it seemed all would go ahead,however when Chrysler who had a 50% share in Hillman heard about the project they blocked it,possibly as it would have competed directly against new Imp models and so what could have been never was!
The 3 cars were handed to directors of Hillman and eventually dissapeared into the English car market.
The one of three we have here was found by someone with knowledge of what it was in the late 1970's and returned to the road in the late 1990's.Simply put this could be the only chance you have to buy a Zimp protoype designed by one of the top Italian styling houses of the 1960's.Cars don't come much more rare than this.It is a very sweet little design with typical Zagato styling touches such as the pop-up headlight covers and is also a road worthy usable car.A must for serious Zagato collectors!
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