Imp National 1997
IMP NATIONAL WEEKEND 1997
Hutton Moor Leisure Centre
Weston Super Mare
North Somerset
1st-4th August
Somerset Area Centre
Imp Club National Weekend 1997 was advertised as the 17th Imp Club National Weekend
What will Imp 1997 be remembered for?
The weekend at Weston is known by those who were there as ‘The Wet One’! The rain persisted throughout Sunday and into Monday but did little to dampen the spirits of the hundreds of members present. Saturday was the best weather day of the event with the sun making a brief appearance. With near hurricane force winds on set up day and on the Friday the event only needed snow to complete a full set of weather conditions!
From the Programme
- Catering – provided by KFS Catering with a Saturday evening barbecue
- Saturday trip to the Haynes Motor Museum/RNAS Yeovilton
- Saturday trip to Cheddar Gorge and SS Great Britain
- Quiz
- Concours voting on the Sunday
- Skittles Competition – something the Imp Club had not tried before, it was well supported both by players and spectators
- Inter Area centre Tug-o-War – unfortunately this was cancelled due to the weather
- Autotest
- Raffle – main raffle prize of a “Car” magazine test drive – what a great prize!
- A statement from the programme:
Noise
Children – Please remember to be quiet in the mornings, some of the grown ups will still be asleep. come along to the main marquee from 7:00am until 9:00 and we’ll keep you amused.
The following photos of the winning cars appeared in December 1997 Impressions. The narrative against each included the colour of each car – remember – Impressions did not become a full colour magazine until August 2009!
“Singer in the Rain”
Derek’s superb and much admired maroon Chamois was voted best Singer.
The rosette won by the third placed Imp in the Singer class.
Ann’s 1996 Rosemary Smith Trophy Winner was awarded the prize for best Chrysler Hillman. It looked stunning in Aquarius metallic.
Ron’s Midnight blue Husky was winner of the Husky/Van trophy.
Consistent prize-winning Hillman Imp Mk1 was brought along by Colin and scooped the prize for best Rootes Hillman. This remarkably original car is in Loch blue.
Best Modified car was Gary’s Forest green Super – hope the hood didn’t leak Gary!
The best modified Imp was sponsored by Imp Sweets (Ernest Jackson & Co) who supplied ‘Mighty Imps’ sweets in the welcome packs
Best Sunbeam trophy went to Brian with his recently acquired metallic green Stiletto.
Sadly, around 6 years later this car caught fire when the petrol pump came apart. The insurance scrap was sold but nothing has been heard of this Imp since
The winner of the best Imp based car and the Rosemary Smith trophy was Robin’s superb orange Ginetta G15. This photo is from October 1997 Impressions when the magazine was still in black and white.
Many thanks to those members who have provided photos and information about this and other Nationals – without you these pages would not exist.
