Imp National 1992

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IMP CLUB NATIONAL WEEKEND 1992
Beale Bird Park
Pangbournen
Near Reading
1st/2nd August

Reading Area Centre

Every National Weekend is different but some things never change. The post-event write-up had the following to say :

“It’s nice to see the old ‘do-it-yourself’ spirit of The Imp Club lives on as evidenced by the member who, finding himself with a dud engine, bought another from the autojumble and proceeded to carry out a complete engine swap on the camping field. Fortunately after a public announcement, somebody was able to lend a clutch aligning tool.”

It is certainly true to say that the best place to break down in an Imp is at the annual National get-together in August, where else would you find so many spare parts and helping and knowledgeable hands?

A bit about National itself

Rally Control started welcoming visitors at 2pm on the Friday and over the next four hours almost 50 cars arrived, many taking advantage of the Clan Club’s ‘bring your own food’ or ‘buy it from us’ barbecue. Needless to say the nearest local pub also did brisk business during the evening! From 8am onwards on Saturday the field continued to fill up with further day visitors arriving on Sunday. In total there were 383 cars in attendance of which 282 were Imp/Imp based vehicles.

Beale Bird Park was Gwen and Brian’s first National and proved to be a successful one. Gwen’s very smart blue Singer Chamois not only won the Singer Class but was chosen by Rosemary Smith to receive her perpetual trophy.

Proud winners of the Rosemary Smith Perpetual Trophy – Gwen & Brian
Peter’s Sunbeam Imp Sport – Winner of the Modified Class

In addition to the usual line up of cars for judging on the Sunday other organised activities included the following:

  • A 30 car convoy to Didcot Railway Museum
  • A circular scenic tour of the area of around 50 miles
  • Bird Park Treasure Hunt
  • Saturday evening barbecue
  • Informal tug-of-war won by the mid-Wales contingent of the Warrington AC
  • Driving Test
  • On Sunday afternoon the  NSPCC/Imp Club Raffle was held. The star prize was a specially drawn Gambols cartoon by Barry Appleby. The mature amongst you will probably remember the Gambols which appeared regularly in the Daily Express for many years. I wonder if the original drawing still exists?
Unique Raffle Prize

More photos from the weekend

A few statistics :
Full Club members numbered 1750 at this time
Attendance was up 26% over 1991
There were 193 camping pitches
150 Barbecue tickets sold on the Saturday


Many thanks to those members who have provided photos and information about this and other Nationals – without you these pages would not exist.