1966 Janspeed Unipower GT

[Pete]

I wondered if anyone's got any tips on how to revive the photos on this thread , seeing as it's now wrecked due to the photobucket debacle. Don't want to have to try and repost all the pics using a different host.

Anyhow, here's a little vid from the NEC recently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GP3lv2A7gg

My plan in the new year is to get the car set up again properly on the rollers, get it roadworthy and road registered so I can use it more plus hopefully take it out again to compete seeing as I got a run at Shelsley this year. I've also decided to replace all the perspex (even though it's all original) as its showing it's age.

[rich@minispares.com]

I wondered if anyone's got any tips on how to revive the photos on this thread , seeing as it's now wrecked due to the photobucket debacle. Don't want to have to try and repost all the pics using a different host.

.

pete


its easy, just pay photobucket the money they require...........

[Ronnie]

Well I never I think part of the link is missing

[timmy201]

If you view the forum using the google chrome browser you can install a plug-in patch that will restore the images.

Look here:
viewtopic.php?p=163356#p163356

[surfblue63]

Correct link for Unipower video from the NEC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GP3lv2A7gg

[Ronnie]

Thank's Stu

[Pete]

If you view the forum using the google chrome browser you can install a plug-in patch that will restore the images.

Look here:
viewtopic.php?p=163356#p163356

Thanks Tim, will give it a go!

[nimbusprint]

If you view the forum using the google chrome browser you can install a plug-in patch that will restore the images.

Look here:
viewtopic.php?p=163356#p163356

That works a treat, thank you

[Pete]

I'd have been more than happy to talk to camera but me and Gary had an urgent appointment with a couple of pints of John Smiths! One little thing they missed was that the cars at each end of the stand had last been displayed together like this 50 years ago at Olympia. Highlight of the weekend was my chat with malcolm Clube, who seemed to know everybody in the 60s, and seeing Tim being booted off the Routemaster from the top of which he was trying to take a photo of us all. "I'll get you Butler"!!

[Pete]

http://www.viaretro.co.uk/2017/11/meet- ... -register/

[Pete]

Quick history update :

Its amazing after all these years how 'new' history of the car keeps cropping up. This time from Facebook when a chap called Ian Sharp popped up with this!

"I believe this was the car my Uncle bought. (Ron Barnacle) It was located in Stratford on Avon, Warks.

I used to work at my uncles garage after school and at holidays. I also worked for 6 months before going to Uni. One day Ron asked me to go with him to Gerards Cross that evening to help him pick up a vehicle. (This Unipower GT) This would be in around 1970-71 or so. We drove down with a trailer and he bought the car. This was quite late in the evening when we got back to Stratford on Avon. It was the most beautiful car I had seen or been in close proximity with, and was partly what started my Automotive career, in F3 (Nigel Mansel), F1, Lotus, Jeep (Detroit) etc, etc. I must admit at that time I did also have hankerings after the Lamborghini Espada and Ferrari Dino. Ron painted it Gold for some reason, obviously his choice of colour. We did take it to Mallory park for test days 2 I recall, but the Amal 4 carb set up was tricky, mounted on an Arden racing engine cross flow head/block. So Ron planned to convert it to a road vehicle, hence the gold colour I believe. He never had much time running the garage etc, so I must admit it languished, lovingly covered and stored at the garage, but not run hardly at all. I always had visions of purchasing it off him, but I to was busy and quite often not in the UK. I would love to know more about the car and current owner. I was at Shelsley Walsh last year for a visit,and often visit with my friends at Silverstone and the area. Ian Sharp, Michigan USA."

Brilliant, cos that fits perfectly with what the 7th owner Alan Nicholson (Scotland) told me when I first got it , that he bought it off Paul Weldon (Church Green). I asked Paul and he said he'd bought a bronze/gold coloured Unipower from Stratford and it was a road car, which I questioned cos it didn't sound like mine. Well it turns out it was and he bought it off 5th owner Ron Barnacle of Stratford (as described above) ! Also fits with the 4th owner Goodman who raced it and was based in Gerrards Cross (on the Autosport ad for the car in 1969). Who got it from Unipower factory owner and racer Piers Forrester, who bought it off Triple C's Brian Harvey, who bought it off Jan Odor, who bought it new from the factory as a comp spec car without it's original Downton engine.

So in all that makes me the eleventh owner and I've now found them all. Not spoken to four of them : Forrester (spoke to a few of his mates) , Barnacle (spoke to Ian his nephew), Chris Alford , and Roland Petit . Also Geoff Mabbs obviously (died in the early 80s) but have spoken with his son Glenn.

As for the car,need to book a rolling road session soon!

[Pandora]

Excellent - it's lovely when you feel you've completed a missing link in the story.

I managed to trace Pandora back to about 1968 when the then owner was apparently killed in a Formula Ford, but all leads went cold as to exactly who that was, and where he'd got it from, then a breakthrough on the autosport forum led to the guy who built it, and he'd managed to track it forward to the same guy, so our 2 lines met with the same guy, Ron Riley.

When you are interested in the history of the cars it's a lovely feeling to know you have a full time line - a bit like getting a complete 'set' when you collect cards, medals, widgets etc.

Get it registered and get using it, Pete.

Al

[Pete]

Get it registered and get using it, Pete.

Al

Yes there is that!

[Pandora]

'cause I TOTALLY practice what I preach.

Al

[Pete]

Just spoke to Ian Sharp again and coincidentally his uncle Ron Barnacle also owned the 1071 crossflow Aurora BMC sports racer which he kept alongside mine in his garage in Stratford in the early 70s, another car I've had a real interest in and probably had the chance to buy when it was in a microcar museum down in Kent years ago but dithered about as usual (well it's a long drive! ). Now owned by someone I know. Such a small world with these cars sometimes!

[mk1]

Well done Pete!

It's great that you have more or less completed the story.

Took a while, but well worth it!

[Pete]

Not much to report in the last year other than a few new pieces of my car's history to add.. a '68 Harewood proggy, another couple of photos of the car at the '67 Racing Car Show,one of Mabbs in the car in the pitlane at Castle Combe in August of the same year and I never thought I'd find the sticker from the '67 Spanish Grand Prix that Jim Clark won and where Geoff Mabbs raced my car in the GT support race with a great finish.Mega chuffed as the sticker came from Whizzo who raced his McKechnie Mini at the same event and travelled down with Mabbs.

[mk1]

For anyone researching history of any car that ever competed at Harewood, their history site is absolutely fantastic.

http://www.harewoodhillhistory.co.uk/

[Pandora]

It certainly is. And throws up questions every time.....

I clicked on the link and onto a random event in '64 - Class 14 & 15 have entrants in Mallock U2s (including John Houghton of Houghton Coldwell in the Mallock U2 that later gifted it's ID to the Mink) under the Team N.A.S.T.Y banner

http://harewoodhillhistory.co.uk/blog/w ... lclimb.pdf

What does NASTY stand for? (the 'TY' being Team Yorkshire, I assume?)

Al

[Pete]

Amazing what Still turns up , like this photo from January 1967 at the Racing Car Show. Tim Carpenter’s Chassis #1 with Monika purched on the bonnet and my car in its original white paint behind. The press release described the first Comp models as having a Downton 1293 which I assume was fitted when the car appeared here. George Mark was working on this Unipower stand at this event, can’t remember if the engine was Downton or not, but a couple of years ago he came to the NEC with his son and brought his 1967 show badge with him. He also saw these two cars together for the first time in 50 years.