How much are Unipower GTs really worth?

How much are Unipower GTs really worth?

Author
Discussion

imagineifyeswill

1,223 posts

165 months

Wednesday 14th January 2015
quotequote all
Looking really good now considering the state it was in when it left Beauly.

Pete F

46 posts

115 months

Thursday 15th January 2015
quotequote all
imagineifyeswill said:
Looking really good now considering the state it was in when it left Beauly.
Thanks for the comments. Long shot but has anyone got a photo of it from it's time in Scotland?

imagineifyeswill

1,223 posts

165 months

Thursday 15th January 2015
quotequote all
Cant help you there Im afraid.

bigblock

772 posts

197 months

Thursday 15th January 2015
quotequote all
Sorry I didn't take any photos of it at the time,no camera phones 30 years ago.

It was parked for years at the front of the then owners house which was the old station in Beauly. It was a dark maroon/brown colour with possibly magnesium minilite syle wide wheels and well worn slicks. I don't think they were 10" rims like the Minis though.

It only had one seat fitted but the interior looked to be complete and it had a right hand gear shift.The owner told me it was running a 1275 Cooper S engine, I don't know if that was true but I do remember seeing twin SU carbs through the rear engine cover. I think it may also have had rear disc brakes from the front of a Cooper S, is that right ? I had a 1968 Cooper S at the time which is why I paid so much attention to it.

Even although the body was covered in moss and it had weeds growing through the suspension I thought your Unipower was a stunning little thin,g well done for restoring it and I hope you enjoy using it.

imagineifyeswill

1,223 posts

165 months

Thursday 15th January 2015
quotequote all
He also told me it had a 1275S engine which was probably right, his best mate was a Mini fanatic and had loads of Cooper S parts.

Pete F

46 posts

115 months

Thursday 15th January 2015
quotequote all
It started life when new in late '66 with a Downton 1275S engine, then Janspeed fitted their own 1275 S race engine in June '67. Janspeed then changed that for a Weber fed 1140 (ish)cc engine (overbored 1071 S lump) to fit in with the smaller 1150cc Special GT class as it was not competitive in the larger class (it pretty much got spanked in the smaller class anyway by Costin Nathan etc). It was raced like that until the end of the 60's and suffered from lack of development potential as the latest crossflow set up for a Mini engine would not fit in it due to the front of the engine being up against the bulkhead (needed FVA really). Like any competition car (it's never been road registered) it'll have had a few engine swaps in it's life and could have had a 1275 back in it when it was seen in that garden. The wheels were possibly JAP mags but it did have some 13" lightweight Revolutions fitted when it left Beauly (still fitted)(for now). Unipower GT competition cars did have Cooper S discs front and back.

I have found a couple of very fuzzy photos of the car when it changed hands from Beauly down south to Chris Alford (any idea what year it left that garden??) and yes it does look pretty rough! I'll try and post them up. The car was restored first time round in Belgium , to where Alford sold it as far as I know. It was repainted yellow and Roland Petit used it in endurance races at Zolder and Spa quite a number of times in the 90's.

Edited by Pete F on Thursday 15th January 21:21

imagineifyeswill

1,223 posts

165 months

Thursday 15th January 2015
quotequote all
It wasnt allways in the garden in Beauly, before that it was on a farm, his wifes family were farmers, he had cars lying all over the place in derelict sheds and the like. Cant recall when it left Beauly but hes been away from the area quite a while now.

Pete F

46 posts

115 months

Friday 16th January 2015
quotequote all
Soon after it's liberation from the undergrowth...





Post early 90's restoration in Belgium, racing at Spa..



..and now..


thegreenhell

15,110 posts

218 months

Thursday 16th April 2015
quotequote all
I thought this would be appropriate for here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXjTsbkwb5s

TonyRPH

12,963 posts

167 months

Friday 17th April 2015
quotequote all
When I first saw this thread about 3 months ago, the Unipower put me in mind of something, but I couldn't think what it was!

So I went trawling through my car magazines and eventually found it.

The Unipower reminded me of a Deep Sanderson DS301 as featured in Classic & Sports Car here


imagineifyeswill

1,223 posts

165 months

Friday 17th April 2015
quotequote all
On the current page of, classics left to die/rotting there is a pic of a Rover Limo and an Aston Martin, the guy who owned that Unipower in Beauly also left a very similar early sixties Aston lying in an old wet shed along with a Bond Equipe and a Daimler Sovereign until the shed fell down on top off them.

Pete F

46 posts

115 months

Monday 20th April 2015
quotequote all
TonyRPH said:
The Unipower reminded me of a Deep Sanderson DS301
Similar in some respects,like night and day in others.The Unipower comp cars had Cooper S brakes front and rear, were coil sprung, had Arch Motors square tubular spaceframes front to back as opposed to subframes and a Specialised Mouldings body, both companies supplied the top sportscar manufacturers and F1 teams of the day. The Deep Sanderson also lacked a rear bulkhead! So the Unipower GT was much more sophisticated but came too late to be truly competative with Ginetta, Costin and a plethera of home built specials on the scene by 1967. Unlike the Deep Sanderson ,Ogle and some of the other early Mini derivatives they're also not eligable for pre '66 events like Goodwood (well not the Revival), sadly!

Pete F

46 posts

115 months

Monday 4th May 2015
quotequote all
Blyton Park this weekend, first time back on a track in 20 odd years, first time back on a track in it's Janspeed livery since 1968! And yes I did spin it, quite easily.






V8 Fettler

7,019 posts

131 months

Friday 8th May 2015
quotequote all
Minilites? Handsome and understated wheels. OP, do you have the centre caps with the crossed chequered flags?

Pete F

46 posts

115 months

Wednesday 23rd September 2015
quotequote all
Unipower GTs only come up for sale every now and again (maybe once a year?)mainly as there's only about ten cars in the UK and of those very few in one piece. Well like waiting for a bus there's currently three for sale. One in Sweden and two in the UK, see here :

http://maximummini.blogspot.com/search/label/Unipo...

Pete F

46 posts

115 months

Sunday 20th December 2015
quotequote all
New Facebook page dedicated to the Unipower GT here :

https://www.facebook.com/Unipower-GT-9260961307433...


threespires

4,289 posts

210 months

Sunday 20th December 2015
quotequote all

Huntsman

8,026 posts

249 months

Sunday 11th June 2017
quotequote all
I saw a red Unipower on the A34 today. Looked fantastic.

Unipower GT

6 posts

158 months

Tuesday 24th December 2019
quotequote all
Owners Club now has a website on www.unipowergt.uk. Lots of good accurate information on there. Prices have very much held up, with cars needing work going for around the £35-£40k recently. There are also some pristine examples going for nearly three times that.

Contact the Owners Club & Register on contact@unipowergt.uk

john2443

6,322 posts

210 months

Sunday 26th September 2021
quotequote all
Kop Hill hillclimb 24 Sept, Unipower #1