Following a lead from Michael today I went hunting an Imp that was hidden away in someones back yard in South Hobart. Going from memory of Michaels directions as to where the car was located, I stumbled across a place that was like some guys own private wrecking yard, full of old Fords and Holdens and a few Valiants (even half a Charger) and a few random Dattos and bits and pieces. No sign of any Imps and no sign of any people so I left and rang Michael who gave me better directions to the house that saw me find it no problems whatsoever.

I parked the WRX in the driveway and walked up the drive, noticing a few interesting cars in the front yard that looked like they had been there for a while. As I got up the drive I noticed a bunch of cars stashed out the back, and caught glimpse of the rear end of an Imp. Then I noticed it had a vented engine cover. OMG its a GT!! Then I spotted the lady inside the house in the kitchen, with the door open. I said “Hi there I hear you have an Imp” to which she replied “oh I have two but I used to have four”

A nice lady who likes to talk about her and her husband large collection of cars… old trucks and buses and Lada Nivas and Ford Falcons and Customlines and the like. A lot of which got destroyed in the Scamader fires.

Anyhow the Imp GT was the bronze color like the one on the sales brochure, and was last registered to October 1974, she said it was the last one produced but the chassis number seemed to just be 43 which makes it older than my blue car. The car was mostly complete, I noticed the oil cooler was missing, the bumpers were nice and shiny, but the car has a lot of rust. I couldn’t get much of a look inside as it was full of junk, but the door panels were broken, but I could not see that much really. A look underneath and the sills were fairly rusty, but I am sure it would be saveable. Apparantly they broke reverse gear and brought it home and parked it and it remained there since.

I did mention she had two Imps… the other car was not a GT, just a regular imp. I could not really get a good look over this car, I was not sure if it was sitting in a hole or just really tall weeds, it was a bit hard to get to but here is a pic.

Such a bitter-sweet find… so nice to find these two cars, especially considering I was expecting one and for it to be really damaged, and REALLY nice to find another GT, but so sad to see them in such a neglected state. Apparently the ladies grandson is going to restore the GT, once he finishes his house, and I do hope he makes contact with me. If he does not decide to restore it, I would love to get my hands on the car for parts or whatever.

This brings the number of Imp GT’s in Tasmania that I know of now to 4 – my two, this bronze one, and the GT that moved to Railton from South Australia (still waiting for the owners of that car to contact me, someone sent them my address)

There is or was one other GT in Tassie, seen here next to friends of ours Jensen Interceptor (since sold to the mainland) at a car show in the early 1990s. A search of the DIER rego status page brings no results for this cars plates, so I have no idea if it is still in existence or not. Would love to find out where it is! Though its hard to tell in this dodgy scan, its actually metallic green.

Actually… I just looked at the print of this photo, and it still looks blueish. My memory was of the car being green, but if the photos color was off, the Jensen would be wrong, and it is showing in its correct color. I will have to see if I can find the color options for the GT again, maybe its a dark blue after all. It looks to have the blue interior trim as well, where the light is shining into the back seat area. Gee, the lady at the back of the car looks almost like it could be the lady who owns the bronze and white Imps, given this photo is around 15-18 years old thereabouts….