The Zagato Zimp

It's the well dressed one...

Small Car takes a longer look at the Imp's rich new relation

From Small Car Magazine, January 1965

Last month we showed you what Zagato could do to Rootes's rather prosaic smallest son with the elegant Zimp. This month we're going to show you what the Zimp itself can do in a full-scale road test. After dogging the stand throughout the Earls Court Show, we managed to grab one of the prototypes for seven days' hard thrashing just before it left to join its fellows at the tail-end of the 46th Salone di Torino.

Minnow-Fish Turbo Avenger

One hundred and fifty bhp from a 1498cc Avenger engine when most tuners are struggling to achieve 120 sounds incredible, but when it's done without spoiling tractability it sounds impossible.

From CCC Magazine, January 1972

Blow by Blow by Blow

The UBM Ford Escort XR300T Turbo, Ford Escort RS Turbo, Lumo Ford Fiesta XR2 105T Turbo

From Hot Car magazine, July 1983

Although not strictly a road test comparison, certain parallels can be drawn from the three vehicles you see pictured in that they are all turbocharged and offer vastly improved performance over the standard models. The first to come under careful scrutiny is a modified XR3i from UBM of Winchester known as the XR300T, the second, a 'works' development car for the Ford Escort Rally Championship uses a kit that should eventually become available through RS dealers and thirdly we have the much acclaimed Fiesta Lumo 105T offered by Trimoco of Dunstable that is based on a brand new XR2.

Tertiary Metronomics

From Hot Car Magazine, July 1983

To many people involved in racing, rallying, sprinting or hill climbing Minis or Metros, Ian (Mr Avonbar) Hargreaves is the guru of horsepower. So, when Ian invited us along to Goodwood to sample a couple of his products recently, we jumped at the chance.

Just to remind us where it all began, we brought along with us a standard MG Metro. Having the cooking version on hand proved to be quite useful as it helped to remind us of the base-line from which the other two cars - a 1400cc road car and the neat little Metro Challenge racer - owed their origins.