1966 Janspeed Unipower GT

[Pete]

Don't think so. The handling was only tricky when cornering on the limit, the most important bit ! The weight transfer with the engine still being transverse and high up behind the driver was problematic from what I have gleaned plus in 1967 there was a distinct lack of tyre and wheel choice to balance the problems. Once those little JAPs were replaced with bigger wheels/tyres I think it was sorted (1968).
You have to remember also that Janspeed only used these cars to gain publicity, which they did in spades. They managed to grab a "Pit & Paddock" editorial slot several times with the Unipower and the SCA Mini not to mention a couple of exclusive write ups on the cars. That's quite some advertising in a national journal like Autosport and obviously showed Jan's excellent business acumen.
They didin't keep any of their cars very long, Jan 4, the Marcos (Jan1), the 850, the SCA Mini nor the Unipower and I understand from what I've read that Jan had a three month race car policy back then , buy it , race it, move it on. There must have been something about the Unipower they liked , they kept it longer than all the others ?!
I think the other thing to bear in mind is that the opposition such as Ginettas, Diva,Costin etc were purpose built racers.

[Pete]

1071.....you know it makes sense

In reality it probably doesn't nowadays if I'm gonna use it, which I am. My heart says 1071 (+60), my head says 1293.

[mk1coopers]

1071.....you know it makes sense

In reality it probably doesn't nowadays if I'm gonna use it, which I am. My heart says 1071 (+60), my head says 1293.

I guess you are right, the 1071's got to win for smoothness every time though

[JC T ONE]

I guess you are right, the 1071's got to win for smoothness every time though

Lovely & pleasant to experince

[Jack of all trades]

You have to remember also that Janspeed only used these cars to gain publicity, which they did in spades.

Still strange that they mention the fact they couldn't sort the handling of the car in their 1972 catalog, as they are more or less saying they couldn't sort this one But still as they used it even 4 years later in their own catalog you might be right!

[Pete]

Proof positive how much of a handful the car was ..



Brian Harvey at Woburn in 1968 :





Just received a colour slide in the post which dates from August '68 at Snetterton thanks to John Elwin in France who took the shot in the paddock. I've crudely scanned it but will have it converted to digital format when it'll be crystal clear hopefully. I can see already that the interior door trim is missing (and it still is). Hopefully I'll be able to zoom in to the interior and under the engine cover once converted. (if only I'd kept my old slide viewer !)



I'm pretty certain having chatted with a couple of ex Janspeed staff plus Brian Harvey that the car was indeed Tartan Red.

[rich@minispares.com]

1071.....you know it makes sense

In reality it probably doesn't nowadays if I'm gonna use it, which I am. My heart says 1071 (+60), my head says 1293.

pete

1071 all the way

in the interests of helping you decide, I can confirm that the 1071 that's in my 'baby unipower' is fantastic, never goes past a qtr on the temp gauge (in fact im going to put an 88 in it to try and warm it up), and its fantastic to drive on the road - its got 'just enough' umph top make it a nice, well behaved road car.


I bet if it was a 1293 it would have kettled up by now

[graham in aus]

Hi Pete, haven't commented on this thread yet, but have to now, you are a lucky man, it's a great looking car with history of ownership to match!
My comment is about the colour, it surely has to be the red, those last two pic's seal the deal for me!

Engine, yes 1071 would make sense, what about a short stroke 1299? compromise? You'd have to buy a crank though! (76.5mm stroke?)

Love the car, VERY JEALOUS!

[Pete]

Thanks for the comments chaps. Funnily enough Graham my Mutant has a 1299 'S' stroker in it, but to get it right I suppose the Unipower will have to go back to what it had for the majority of it's races. I've already put a few entries into some nice historic speed events this year, looking forward to the "what the hell's that ?" comments already.

Still loads of research to do whilst the motor's being built, especially the Graham Goodman /Autospeed connection, Jan Odor, Chris Alford, Paul Weldon who all owned the car. Also need to find out if Piers Weld Forrester did actually race it because as I say according to the entry list he raced a Unipower GT shortly after he bought the car from Harvey at the Brands Mini Fest in 1968. Was it this car ?

Another penny dropped the other day aswell in that I did wonder why Paddy Hopkirk's model girlfriend (wife to be) was pictured in the Unipower Quasar (shower cubicle on wheels) in some publicity shots and what her connection possibly was with Unipower. Well it can't be a coincidence that one of Paddy's best mates was Andrew Hedges who was the main salesman and a co director of the firm (and fellow BMC works driver). Jenny Manser (as she was then) was a model working for an agency called Geers Gross at the time and met Paddy through mutual friend Hedges whilst round at Unipower boss Tim Powell's London Eaton Mews house for drinks in 1966. So there you go , it was a small world !

[Pete]

Another ad (thanks to Paul C), a fair bit of wonga was this in it's day......




Thanks to Gary Marlow (and Ted Walker) for this shot of the engine bay in Sept '67 at Combe :



Wonder what colour that Janspeed 1143cc engine was ?

Nice close up of the air dam here (thanks to Mark Butler)



This explains the wide bodied race car that was sent to the U.S in '67 and now believed to be in Canada :




Add that one to the Gordon Allen and Piers Forrester cars and that's four similar cars so far. There was another white car possibly pictured at Zandvoort also.

I've now got Tim Powell's contact details thanks to Paddy Hopkirk (blatant name dropping ) and Ernie Unger's thanks to Mark Butler so much more to find out yet.

[Tim Harber]

Certainly wonga compared to this

[Pete]

Still digging into the history of my car and am making corrections as I'm going along. I know that this means that the thread contains some inaccuracies but as I see it is a work in progress. In fact if it wasn't for doing this I'd not have found out a lot of new information , for instance :
I'm perfectly happy that my car is certainly the first race car, raced by Mabbs as pictured at Combe earlier in the thread , sprinted by Brian Harvey of Triple C and raced thereafter by Gideon Lloyd up until 1968/1969 (even the wonky race tape on the headlamps is identical on every shot of the car Ive seen so far), the mystery has been the early incarnation of the car as yet I've not found any images from the first three races (ie from June '67). The white car previously pictured with Mabbs and Odor at Combe in the Summer of '67 I was told by an old member of Janspeed staff was probably just a test car (no comp numbers). Well the following race shot of Mabbs at Brands not only disproves that but also does confirm reports that I'd read previously that my car was indeed white for the first few races :

Combe, June '67


Brands Hatch (date to confirm)


This would also disprove my suspicions that separate wider race body moulds had been produced by Specialised Mouldings for the handful of race cars manufactured (and actually I've found no other evidence of this). So it looks like (contrary to previous advice from a previous owner) that my car's body was built using standard moulds and later modified after all (along with the other wide race cars). Should be able to learn more as my paint comes off shortly...

I've been talking to Unipower expert Gerry Hulford recently who has all the factory build records and he reckons that the car is the white competition version shown at the 1967 Racing Car Show at Olympia in January '67 and bought by Jan Odor shortly after, ex stock albeit minus knock on wheels and pictured here with Sterling Moss and Monika Dietrich :



Forget Stirling, does this mean Monika sat on my bonnet ??



As I say this has turned into quite an investigation and hopefully by the end of this story I'll have all the facts in the right order, and hopefully soon some photos of progress !

[Ghul]

Hi Pete,
You didn't mention you were posting all this info on forum's !. As you say, lots of vetting of information is required before the definitive history is confirmed in many areas.

As mentioned, your car was definitely Cirrus White when it was built and sold as the ex-stock/Show car to Janspeed, the car had been originally destined for the Spanish importer. The car was fitted with a 1275 Cooper S engine but along with no wheels in the sale, was sold less engine as I assume that Janspeed had there own ideas.

You mention that the air dam was perhaps not developed with the aid of specialist 'tools'. Well a certain member of the team had access to a major manufacturers wind tunnel and it was during efforts to reduce frontal lift, that the benefits of such an appendage were discovered along with reduced drag. Hence the variations of design that were fitted over time.

The rear end on your car was of course a comp design but not as radical as that developed by maybe Janspeed, but I am doing some research to determine who did this work.

Keep in touch via my usual mail and see you at Blyton as my car is now 99% restored after considerable use by myself since I bought it in 1976.

If anyone out there would like any info on the world of Unipower in the broader sense, then please get in touch as I have more time now since running the Owners Club for many years way back in the 80's. We did most of the early Classic Car Shows as well in those days, when there were more cars on the road and in this country and not now in Japan !.

Gerry

[Pete]

Hi Pete,
You didn't mention you were posting all this info on forum's ! Gerry

Not forums Gerry, just this one Welcome to the board !

Yes researching this car is going to take time and hopefully doing this online will continue to be as beneficial as it's proved to be so far. The key to unlocking most of the questions I still have will come from Jan Odor at some point.

More soon...

[rich@minispares.com]

im a bit worried for you now pete, its only a matter of time before you turn up Monika Dietrich and that's it, you will so busy keeping her happy that we will never see you, or the unipower ever again

[Ghul]

Hi Pete,
I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the amount of info and pictures that others on the internet have come up with. Keep up the good work !. Oh, in my last post I meant that of course the Janspeed car as supplied had the standard comp rear end (at the Show) and that Janspeed or another, did the more radical version. Should have an answer on that shortly.

Gerry

[Pete]

im a bit worried for you now pete, its only a matter of time before you turn up Monika Dietrich and that's it, you will so busy keeping her happy that we will never see you, or the unipower ever again

Is she still going ?! You never know, Stirling might still have her phone number.

[Pete]

Hi Pete,
I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the amount of info and pictures that others on the internet have come up with. Keep up the good work !. Oh, in my last post I meant that of course the Janspeed car as supplied had the standard comp rear end (at the Show) and that Janspeed or another, did the more radical version. Should have an answer on that shortly.

Gerry

Ta Gerry, it's such a shame Mabbs has gone, ditto Forrester though I'm not even THAT sure he ever owned my car as the report I have from Triple C announces the sale of the car to Gideon Lloyd , I'll post that up later. Harvey recalls selling it to him in detail though ?

Lloyd seems to have had the car looked after by Graham Goodman (Autospeed Developments) in late '68 and I've yet to find anything out about either other than shots of the car racing (including a fantastic colour slide I've been sent at Snetterton which I should have a high res image of imminently). The trouble is that this car went through four owners at least before 1970 so there's lots to find out. I've also yet to contact Paul Weldon and Chris Alford about it's '70's history.

[rich@minispares.com]

Is she still going ?! You never know, Stirling might still have her phone number.

she might be the reason that he used to advertise a solution to that, er, problem.............


she must have worn him out

[Ghul]

Hi Pete,
I know Chris Alford very well. I'll have a word with him and see what he remembers.

Gerry