Okay, so one way to be eco is to keep that old metal on the road.
Also, once you've got the classic car bug it's real difficult to shake
At present I have a rather nice Hillman Imp from 1968 which after it's had some rather nasty underfloor welding done and is back on the road will be far too pretty to be buggering about with.
However, being a car-nut who is not really at home with 'pretty' I am intending to sell the present imp and replace it with something a little more rustic - ie. a tattier imp
Now these cars, apart from their groovy 60's looks (that I think are iconic even now), are not the lightest small car (compared with a Mini of the time) or the most aerodynamic shape. However I appreciate the shape they are very much, so am interested in other ways to make 'eco' modifications.
Incidentally, the imp engine was a real missed opportunity for the Roots group in that it was incredibly cleverly engineered, ally block giving 50bhp from the tiny 875cc engine (with sport head -like mine has). But it was rushed to market and penny pinched on production - leaving a bad taste from first cars made that was never quite lived down.
Sorry about 'wittering on' but I wanted to lay out some details about the perceived 'project' & I've not even mentioned hybrid-ing yet!
So two key fact about the layout of an imp, it's rear engined and the the block is tilted over to the drivers side with the (ineffective) cooling fan and rad on the other. On this basis, a common performance 'trick' for imps is to move the rad to the front with a long pipe run through the car. This is a sensible design as the ally block temp needs to stay well in limits.
So to the hub of the idea! You now have a largish space to the left of the engine bay right next to the back of the engine with the fan-belt pully facing you (longitudinal engine) - here you put a smallish elec motor/generator and a small battery pack as low centre-of-gravity as possible. Another thread describes a mild hybrid idea that is like driving downhill all the time - simplistic I know, but it got me thinking...
.... I await the ridicule!
