How much are Unipower GTs really worth?
Discussion
medieval said:
Just caught this thread - I had not realised these cars were so valuable and if I recall correctly, watching the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2010, I am sure a number were racing in the moded and standard mini section.
If you mean the Fordwater Trophy this year I think notMini Dart - Nicky Swift which won
Mini Jem - Rae Davis which retired
Ogle
Deep Sanderson
and a bunch of WSM and Speedwell Sprites
but no Unipowers
[quote=Eagerbeaver]
I'm going to extract it from where it lies. The tyres are flat, brakes are stuck on and it is very very dirty. My neighbour has offered to trailer it back to my house so I'll get some photos up once I've cleared the muck away.
Have you managed to get any pictures of the car yet? it would be good to see even in the untouched state in the back of your fathers garage.
(Nik 123 may need to swap details/get in touch as I really need to get mine sorted)
I'm going to extract it from where it lies. The tyres are flat, brakes are stuck on and it is very very dirty. My neighbour has offered to trailer it back to my house so I'll get some photos up once I've cleared the muck away.
Have you managed to get any pictures of the car yet? it would be good to see even in the untouched state in the back of your fathers garage.
(Nik 123 may need to swap details/get in touch as I really need to get mine sorted)
Edited by rpb203 on Tuesday 16th November 08:09
Edited by rpb203 on Tuesday 16th November 08:15
john2443 said:
Errrr ... that's the same one as in the first post!(And still unsold - and in my view, not a real world price)
rpb203 said:
Have you managed to get any pictures of the car yet? it would be good to see even in the untouched state in the back of your fathers garage.
(Nik 123 may need to swap details/get in touch as I really need to get mine sorted)
Apologies to all. I've not been back to this thread as matters have turned a little difficult after we found out the true worth of the car. My brother and I were in disagreement over how to move forward and since then I've missed the window I had to do anything with the car as I've been posted to several locations around the world until the New Year. I'm home this weekend but that is it now until next year. I have got a snap on my phone and I'll post this when I work out how to get it off my phone.(Nik 123 may need to swap details/get in touch as I really need to get mine sorted)
Edited by rpb203 on Tuesday 16th November 08:09
Edited by rpb203 on Tuesday 16th November 08:15
Regarding the comment about it being a "kit car", my dad says the previous owner had said it had been built by his work colleague who was an "engineer" but I've got to say that the quality of the car is that of a low volume manufactured car. Not up to the standards of say my old Marcos but nor just a GRP shell screwed to a VW floorpan!
I can't think of anything on the car that is unique which can't be remade at low cost in a simple workshop so that should make restoration simple and inexpensive. We have got concerns over the integrity of the chassis but this is fairly simple as it is all complete and hasn't been messed with previously.
I will almost guarantee that the frame is rusted. Mine and everyone I have seen is rusted. Repairing the frame is easy. The hard part is that you have take a sawz all to the body to get it off. I know I sat and drank many beers before deciding that cutting the body into 3 parts was the only solution. I got lucky on my first try and cut the body in the correct places so that it went back together cleanly. If you get to that stage talk to me or someone who has been through it before. It will save you a lot of grief in the long run.
Mine is nearing completion. Here are some pics.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56148253@N04/51941273...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56148253@N04/51935285...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56148253@N04/51941274...
Mine is nearing completion. Here are some pics.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56148253@N04/51941273...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56148253@N04/51935285...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56148253@N04/51941274...
drtarkir said:
I will almost guarantee that the frame is rusted. Mine and everyone I have seen is rusted. Repairing the frame is easy. The hard part is that you have take a sawz all to the body to get it off. I know I sat and drank many beers before deciding that cutting the body into 3 parts was the only solution. I got lucky on my first try and cut the body in the correct places so that it went back together cleanly. If you get to that stage talk to me or someone who has been through it before. It will save you a lot of grief in the long run.
Mine is nearing completion. Here are some pics.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56148253@N04/51941273...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56148253@N04/51935285...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56148253@N04/51941274...
Looks nice that Dr ...Mine is nearing completion. Here are some pics.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56148253@N04/51941273...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56148253@N04/51935285...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56148253@N04/51941274...
Much prefer the fastback lurking behind though ... how I envy you guys with the space you have, look at the size of the garage!
No I have the headlights. They were some strange Cibie type that are no longer available. Sometimes you can find them on ebay. The lights have a ring of metal with the glass molded to it. I cut out the glass and modified the left over ring to act as an adapter to a standard headlight bulb.
The lights are from a Renault R5 rally model. They are the inner driving lights.
In fact when I bought the car it was missing one of the chrome trim rings from the headlights. It took me over 20 years to figure out what they were and to find one.
The lights are from a Renault R5 rally model. They are the inner driving lights.
In fact when I bought the car it was missing one of the chrome trim rings from the headlights. It took me over 20 years to figure out what they were and to find one.
Drtarkir Do you have pictures of where you made the cuts to get at the chassis, it would be good to use them as reference for my car.
What other pitfalls did you find with doing the rebuild?
It does look like an extremely good finish.
any chance of finding out what the chassis number is?
What other pitfalls did you find with doing the rebuild?
It does look like an extremely good finish.
any chance of finding out what the chassis number is?
Edited by rpb203 on Wednesday 1st December 14:01
rpb
My chassis # is 23. Let me look through my pics this weekend. If I do not have pics of the cuts I can jig something up for you.
Make sure you replace the long water pipes that are welded to the chassis. Because of the way the run they almost always have rust. When you do be careful of the bends at the front. The pipes are very close to the front tire. I got lucky. I put my chassis together before I put the body back on and found that the pipes needed to be re-bent to clear the tires.
The reason I test built the chassis was to modify the suspension arms so I could get camber adjustments. I cut the suspension arms and welded on adjustable joints. I had curbed the car and the camber was way off with no way to adjust it. I think that many of the Mini suppliers now make something similar that will work.
I also replaced the rear engine mount bracket. No one seems to know what the original rear engine rubber mount is from. I used a standard rubber isolation mount. In order for the engine to maintain the proper vertical angle I had to replace the mounting bracket.
Dennis
My chassis # is 23. Let me look through my pics this weekend. If I do not have pics of the cuts I can jig something up for you.
Make sure you replace the long water pipes that are welded to the chassis. Because of the way the run they almost always have rust. When you do be careful of the bends at the front. The pipes are very close to the front tire. I got lucky. I put my chassis together before I put the body back on and found that the pipes needed to be re-bent to clear the tires.
The reason I test built the chassis was to modify the suspension arms so I could get camber adjustments. I cut the suspension arms and welded on adjustable joints. I had curbed the car and the camber was way off with no way to adjust it. I think that many of the Mini suppliers now make something similar that will work.
I also replaced the rear engine mount bracket. No one seems to know what the original rear engine rubber mount is from. I used a standard rubber isolation mount. In order for the engine to maintain the proper vertical angle I had to replace the mounting bracket.
Dennis
MikeyT said:
john2443 said:
Errrr ... that's the same one as in the first post!(And still unsold - and in my view, not a real world price)
But that price is daft, despite that description it looks as if it needs a full restore. Sussex Motors had a stunning fully restored one available for many months at £30k. I suspect that in the end it did not sell for that.
Having said all that, it is such a rare car that they are worth what anyone is prepared to pay for one at any given time.
Came across this thread and thought that there are a number of owners out there who may be interested in my involvement with the Unipower GT in supporting its continued presence and the information I can help with.
Since buying my first car in 1972, the works (Universal Power Drives) 998cc demonstrator as featured in many magazines in 1968, I went on to own the 1st car made, the last ever factory car from late 1969 (this one was a painted chassis with a complete set of all parts to complete the car) and was the only factory produced two-tone coloured car. When I bought this car I also obtained all the factory documentation/paperwork associated with the production of the cars, parts lists and details of every car produced along with delivery details. In 1976 I also bought one of the works race cars, which had extensive in period competition history. Over the next few years I bought many spares from damaged/written off other works race cars along with the bare chassis of another written off road car. After some negotiation with Specialised Mouldings (who built the bodies) I bought all the original body moulds, both for Mk1 & Mk2 cars left and right hand drive. Unfortunately Arch Motors had thrown away all the chassis and suspension jigs a short while before, so these were lost forever. I also have original copies of what I should think is the largest collection of magazine articles, road tests, factory brochures and photographs taken by the factory and journalists. A number of authors have used this collection when researching and publishing books which have featured the Unipower GT.
By the mid-1970's I had been in contact with a number of other owners and started the Unipower Owners Club. During the 1970's we exhibited at many Classis Car shows at Crystal Palace, Earls Court and the NEC Birmingham as well as meetings at Syon Park, where I like to think that we put up some very good examples of the car and we certainly attracted lots of attention.We used to meet every month at the Royal Oak pub in Brockham, Surrey and regularly had at least eight Unipower cars of both Mk1 (UPD) & Mk2 (UWF Automotive Engineering). Owners would come from as far away as Wales (seemed a long way at the time just for a pub lunch anyway !.) As time went on cars changed hands occasionally, however most stayed in the same ownership even after their owners got married and had children. At this time I had about 39 cars on the Register, scattered all over the World, of the 75 cars built.
The advent of the Japanese desire for small British cars meant however that we started to see many cars finding their way to Japan via a number of short term ownerships which boosted the price of the cars. Cars which had been bought for about £1000 years earlier were now changing hands for anything up to £25,000 (an immaculate very low mileage example). The whereabouts of the cars became harder to keep track of as ownership passed to traders who sadly were not willing to divulge information which might compromise their 'deals' and profit. As a consequence many of the cars whereabouts 'disappeared' only to surface again through sales adverts or the odd mention on websites. As to the debate over 'what are they worth now', well as usual this is all down to condition (as it will cost a lot more than you think to restore properly) and that there are less of them for sale these days. Anything with substantiated race history in period will of course be worth more. Be aware that there were some road cars produced with rose-jointed suspension, some of which have been purported to be race built cars. Also please note that the cars were NEVER produced in kit form. To avoid Purchase Tax, cars were handed over to the new owner minus some parts, windscreen wipers, etc.. Oh and you paid for the car minus engine (which had already been fitted) and then a separate cheque to Stewart & Arden for the engine so that it was incomplete for tax purposes.
By the 90's the number of owners in the UK had diminished to the extent that having an active Owners Club was not viable, so I changed the name to the Unipower Register as far as the Classic Car magazines were concerned.
Over the many years I've provided many owners with spare parts and pointed them in the right direction as far as setup and restoration. I did lots of work on owners cars like Peter Philby's car which was featured in his magazines of the time as well as some restoration on some cars in Europe. Even on one occasion, I built a complete Unipower for an owner who had a car in very bad condition, building a stainless steel chassis and a very special modified body with integrated front airdam, wide wheel arches and top exit for the radiator, as the owner wanted something very different.
Many years ago Classic Cars registered me as the official authority on verifying the authenticity of any Unipower's which needed authenticating, partly as their value had become significant.
Over time I sold the first car built, to an owner who totally restored the car and still owns it. The other two I am sad to say I also sold as my collection of other cars grew. I now only own a factory race car (the car in the picture of a preceding post taken at Brighton Speed Trails), which I originally raced successfully in Mod-Sports in the 70's and HSCC races until the mid-80's. I even won the Forrest Lycett Trophy at the Brighton Speed Trials for 5-years running, until they increased the class capacity !. After this for many years I only drove the car by invitation on a number of occasions in the Legends event at the Le Mans 24hrs, where I was always amazed at how many people, both French and English, who remembered the car known then by the ACO as the 'Yellow Flea'. Its reputation as being a small car against the might of Ford (different class of course !) in 1969 is legend and was featured with affection in one of the ACO's Le Mans annuals. I've also attached a couple of pictures taken this year of my car.
Of late I have driven the car for a few years at the Reims Historic event and gave the car its first race for 25 years this year in the HSCC Guards Trophy at Brands Hatch. The car is exactly as it was raced by the Works, except for a new FAI fuel tank and I've moved on from the old Graviner fire extinguisher system and the ex-aircraft seat belts !.
Please note, as I saw in one previous post, that it was suggested that they could their drive the car in the Goodwood Revival etc.. Unfortunately as the Unipower did not race Internationally until after 1966, they will definitely not allow it to run. The car that appeared in 2010, took part in the celebration of the Mini as a variant. Also on the subject of FAI approval of wheels for FAI events, whilst I had previously obtained FAI Papers for my Works car with both 13" or 10" wheels, the International requirement in 2010 to re-apply for FAI Papers, ended with the FAI only being happy to issue them with 10" wheels. So I now run the car on period Dunlop CR65 tyres.
If I can be of any help to those of you who own cars or anybody else needing any help/advice , I can be contacted on gerry.hulford@btopenworld.com or Tel: 01403 891543. Please note that I have moved from the South Plain Cottage, Plummers Plain, West Sussex address (although I'm still in Sussex), which many people still have on record. I did have a Unipowergt.co.uk website until earlier this year, but now only hold the domain name, but may resurrect this when I get the time.
![](http://thumbsnap.com/sc/PuD2rAr9.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/NAYNkuZt" Target="_blank">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/NAYNkuZt.jpg)
Since buying my first car in 1972, the works (Universal Power Drives) 998cc demonstrator as featured in many magazines in 1968, I went on to own the 1st car made, the last ever factory car from late 1969 (this one was a painted chassis with a complete set of all parts to complete the car) and was the only factory produced two-tone coloured car. When I bought this car I also obtained all the factory documentation/paperwork associated with the production of the cars, parts lists and details of every car produced along with delivery details. In 1976 I also bought one of the works race cars, which had extensive in period competition history. Over the next few years I bought many spares from damaged/written off other works race cars along with the bare chassis of another written off road car. After some negotiation with Specialised Mouldings (who built the bodies) I bought all the original body moulds, both for Mk1 & Mk2 cars left and right hand drive. Unfortunately Arch Motors had thrown away all the chassis and suspension jigs a short while before, so these were lost forever. I also have original copies of what I should think is the largest collection of magazine articles, road tests, factory brochures and photographs taken by the factory and journalists. A number of authors have used this collection when researching and publishing books which have featured the Unipower GT.
By the mid-1970's I had been in contact with a number of other owners and started the Unipower Owners Club. During the 1970's we exhibited at many Classis Car shows at Crystal Palace, Earls Court and the NEC Birmingham as well as meetings at Syon Park, where I like to think that we put up some very good examples of the car and we certainly attracted lots of attention.We used to meet every month at the Royal Oak pub in Brockham, Surrey and regularly had at least eight Unipower cars of both Mk1 (UPD) & Mk2 (UWF Automotive Engineering). Owners would come from as far away as Wales (seemed a long way at the time just for a pub lunch anyway !.) As time went on cars changed hands occasionally, however most stayed in the same ownership even after their owners got married and had children. At this time I had about 39 cars on the Register, scattered all over the World, of the 75 cars built.
The advent of the Japanese desire for small British cars meant however that we started to see many cars finding their way to Japan via a number of short term ownerships which boosted the price of the cars. Cars which had been bought for about £1000 years earlier were now changing hands for anything up to £25,000 (an immaculate very low mileage example). The whereabouts of the cars became harder to keep track of as ownership passed to traders who sadly were not willing to divulge information which might compromise their 'deals' and profit. As a consequence many of the cars whereabouts 'disappeared' only to surface again through sales adverts or the odd mention on websites. As to the debate over 'what are they worth now', well as usual this is all down to condition (as it will cost a lot more than you think to restore properly) and that there are less of them for sale these days. Anything with substantiated race history in period will of course be worth more. Be aware that there were some road cars produced with rose-jointed suspension, some of which have been purported to be race built cars. Also please note that the cars were NEVER produced in kit form. To avoid Purchase Tax, cars were handed over to the new owner minus some parts, windscreen wipers, etc.. Oh and you paid for the car minus engine (which had already been fitted) and then a separate cheque to Stewart & Arden for the engine so that it was incomplete for tax purposes.
By the 90's the number of owners in the UK had diminished to the extent that having an active Owners Club was not viable, so I changed the name to the Unipower Register as far as the Classic Car magazines were concerned.
Over the many years I've provided many owners with spare parts and pointed them in the right direction as far as setup and restoration. I did lots of work on owners cars like Peter Philby's car which was featured in his magazines of the time as well as some restoration on some cars in Europe. Even on one occasion, I built a complete Unipower for an owner who had a car in very bad condition, building a stainless steel chassis and a very special modified body with integrated front airdam, wide wheel arches and top exit for the radiator, as the owner wanted something very different.
Many years ago Classic Cars registered me as the official authority on verifying the authenticity of any Unipower's which needed authenticating, partly as their value had become significant.
Over time I sold the first car built, to an owner who totally restored the car and still owns it. The other two I am sad to say I also sold as my collection of other cars grew. I now only own a factory race car (the car in the picture of a preceding post taken at Brighton Speed Trails), which I originally raced successfully in Mod-Sports in the 70's and HSCC races until the mid-80's. I even won the Forrest Lycett Trophy at the Brighton Speed Trials for 5-years running, until they increased the class capacity !. After this for many years I only drove the car by invitation on a number of occasions in the Legends event at the Le Mans 24hrs, where I was always amazed at how many people, both French and English, who remembered the car known then by the ACO as the 'Yellow Flea'. Its reputation as being a small car against the might of Ford (different class of course !) in 1969 is legend and was featured with affection in one of the ACO's Le Mans annuals. I've also attached a couple of pictures taken this year of my car.
Of late I have driven the car for a few years at the Reims Historic event and gave the car its first race for 25 years this year in the HSCC Guards Trophy at Brands Hatch. The car is exactly as it was raced by the Works, except for a new FAI fuel tank and I've moved on from the old Graviner fire extinguisher system and the ex-aircraft seat belts !.
Please note, as I saw in one previous post, that it was suggested that they could their drive the car in the Goodwood Revival etc.. Unfortunately as the Unipower did not race Internationally until after 1966, they will definitely not allow it to run. The car that appeared in 2010, took part in the celebration of the Mini as a variant. Also on the subject of FAI approval of wheels for FAI events, whilst I had previously obtained FAI Papers for my Works car with both 13" or 10" wheels, the International requirement in 2010 to re-apply for FAI Papers, ended with the FAI only being happy to issue them with 10" wheels. So I now run the car on period Dunlop CR65 tyres.
If I can be of any help to those of you who own cars or anybody else needing any help/advice , I can be contacted on gerry.hulford@btopenworld.com or Tel: 01403 891543. Please note that I have moved from the South Plain Cottage, Plummers Plain, West Sussex address (although I'm still in Sussex), which many people still have on record. I did have a Unipowergt.co.uk website until earlier this year, but now only hold the domain name, but may resurrect this when I get the time.
Oh, I should have mentioned that by the time I sold the original 998cc Cooper engine'd UPD Works demonstrator car, it had done best part of 360,000 miles in its 20 year life to that point, testimony to the integrity of design of such a low production car. Don't get me wrong though, I had the usual problems of a rusted chassis uprights, corroded chassis water pipes and went through two or three engines, ending up with running a 1275Cooper 'S' engine and a change of colour from white to Unipower Aquatic Jade. However given that it was used 365 days a year in all weathers, snow and shine as my main transport, it did pretty well. I even toured Scotland in it when I got married. Probably why I have a soft spot for these cars and I still think the race car I have looks fantastic especially as its performance embarrasses many a more exotic marque.
Attached a pic of the car at Le Mans in 2006.
Attached a pic of the car at Le Mans in 2006.
Gassing Station | Classic Cars and Yesterday's Heroes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff