1966 Janspeed Unipower GT

[mk1coopers]

Jens, if they can't tell how fast they are going it won't scare them as much

[dbo]

Speedo drives are just extra drag through the driveline and every little bit helps. The drive should be disconnected at the 3rd motion shaft in the trans as just disconnecting off the back of the speedo would kind of defeat the purpose.

Cheers
Dennis

[cookie1071]

posting that Youtube link led me to this one for another Unipower that people have probably already seen but I hadn't.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar5rERSxXKg

Anyway, I hope your one moves move than that Pete and congrats from me on what is a great find and purchase - I'm well jel!! Niall.

[Pete]

Thanks very much Niall , mine's a tad noisier than that one (and that one's not exactly quiet !) Need to get the Db meter ready once the engine goes back in and see what can be done, as you can imagine the exhaust is very short !

That Unipower was for sale a year or two ago, it did sell but needed some work ! Quite an interesting discussion about it here :

http://bringatrailer.com/2010/11/05/rev ... ipower-gt/

[Pete]

I think this is Gideon Lloyd driving my car for Graham Goodman (Auto Speed Developments) in 1969 though need to confirm the date. You can see that the rear body has had a first attempt at relieving the arch to accept those huge Brabham F2 rear wheels :



I've a second shot later in the year where you can see it's been cut back even more to the shape it is now which I'll post when I've scanned it. It ran an overbored 1071 engine here.

[JC T ONE]

Jens, if they can't tell how fast they are going it won't scare them as much

Lool, agree

Speedo drives are just extra drag through the driveline and every little bit helps. The drive should be disconnected at the 3rd motion shaft in the trans as just disconnecting off the back of the speedo would kind of defeat the purpose.

Cheers
Dennis

just as I thought-thanks.

never checked the gearbox in my race Min.



Jens Christian

[JC T ONE]

I think this is Gideon Lloyd driving my car for Graham Goodman (Auto Speed Developments) in 1969 though need to confirm the date. You can see that the rear body has had a first attempt at relieving the arch to accept those huge Brabham F2 rear wheels :



I've a second shot later in the year where you can see it's been cut back even more to the shape it is now which I'll post when I've scanned it. It ran an overbored 1071 engine here.

That is stunning my new favorit picture of all Unipower,s .

[JC T ONE]

Hey Pete,

More good news in your mail box.


J C

[Nevsmini]

Pete, you have to find a set of those wheels. They really give it that powerful look!

[Pete]

I see your point Nev, looks pretty aggressive, maybe slightly too much ?! One thing it will have done having those huge wheels on the back is tilt the body at a slightly better angle and possibly produce some more downforce.
The next shot shows how the rear body was cut back even further, later in Graham Goodman's ownership (around 1969/69, need to pin down the date for this one) due to insufficient clearance of the Brabham wheels shown on the previous shot. This is the way it looked when it was offered for sale in Autosport (see earlier in the thread) and essentially the way it looks now.





How it looks now ,well about five years ago, it's been repainted since (again in yellow) about 6 months ago and it's a lovely paint job but the wrong colour !


The lightweight Revos that are on it now have been on since the late 70's and to be honest I do like the way it sits with them on.

I'll try and post some more shots of the car in it's current state when I get a chance.

[999 ORX]

Pete I'm pretty sure I have a set of 13 by 7 jap mag wheels that would look bang tidy on your unipower!

Congrats by the way, you lucky git!

[BRI MK1]

Hi Pete the car is the wrong colour the wheels are the wrong ones its got silly mirrors, you should sell it to me for 2k great car mate all the best with it and enjoy it would love to have a little drive

[Pete]

would love to have a little drive

See you a Blyton then.

[Pete]

Hi Pete the car is the wrong colour the wheels are the wrong ones its got silly mirrors, you should sell it to me for 2k great car mate all the best with it and enjoy it would love to have a little drive

Certainly worth a butchers. Email sent.

[Pete]

There's a nice photo of Mabbs at Combe with a lovely white Unipower GT (with Minilites on it) in what looks very much to me like the Summer of 1966. The photo was reproduced in Mike Taylor's article on Janspeed in Miniworld in 2012 and captioned 'Janspeed Racing Unipower GT'. I had heard a story that the Janspeed racer was white when new but I'm not quite so sure about this , maybe that's a demo car because I think the photo's too early. I'm going to look further into that.

Found a list of races at Snetterton it entered in 1968 :

30.06.68 West Essex Car Club Car Races
Formula Libre Race 15 Laps
41 G.L.Goodman Unipower G.T.S. 1133cc Red

14.07.68 750 MC
Scratch Race for Sports and GT Cars 8 Laps
121 Graham Goodman (Dvr: Gideon Lloyd)Unipower GTS BMC 1140

28.07.68 BRSCC Clubman's Car Races
Special Grand Touring & Special Sports Car Race 8 Laps
121 Graham Goodman Unipower GT 1140

06.10.68 BRSCC Clubman's Car Races
Scratch Race for Special Grand Touring & Special Sports 8 Laps
115 Graham Goodman (Dvr: Gideon Lloyd)Unipower G.T. 1149cc

Engine capacities are mistakenly all over the place.

Anyway, the engine's in bits, the box is looking good, as is the crank, the block's gone off to be dipped and bored.

[AndyB72]

I bet you're really enjoying the research on this cracking project. Have you got any engine/interior shots? I really like the 70s/80s look of the car as it stands, it def seems to have matured well.

[Pete]

I spotted that the fella on the left looking at the car is Jonathan Buncombe, anyone able to name the others ?

[Pete]

I bet you're really enjoying the research on this cracking project. Have you got any engine/interior shots? I really like the 70s/80s look of the car as it stands, it def seems to have matured well.

I'll get some engine bay shots when the lump's back in, bit of a mess at the minute, will post some recent pics tomorrow.

Found this from the 1969 Motor Show, Unipower GT features in that @1.26 :

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/speci ... y/unipower

Anyone that's tried to get in one will know that model must have practiced getting into that car a few times !

After several displays at previous Racing Car Shows something tells me if they'd have spent more time and money building the cars the company may well have succeeded, sadly they didn't and went bust shortly after this despite having a full order book.

In this clip you can briefly see the cars being made at the factory :

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/glass ... y/unipower

[Pete]

Have you got any engine/interior shots?

The engine bay was a bit of a mess and is the first thing to be sorted out, you can see the remains of the central original cut out for the rear mesh grille (where the road cars stuck their registration numbers) on the inside of the rear body. That was glassed over and a new wider opening created further down. That'll be put back to original soon hopefully...



The dash has been altered a bit, probably going to be the last thing to do on the car :



Did quite a bit of racing in 'recent' times :

[rich@minispares.com]

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/glass ... y/unipower

I wonder if anyone actually ever crashed a quazer unipower....................

I bet it would have looked like an explosion at the safestyle UK factory