1966 Janspeed Unipower GT

[mk1]

Pete, have you contacted Richard yet?

If not, let me know & I can put you in touch.

[Pete]

I've got his details thanks mate, I'll let you know what happens!

[JC T ONE]

You will need to write a book about this car

Nice finds you are doing


J C

[Pete]

Not sure about that Jens, a Unipower book would be good though!

It's interesting to find how many people that were involved with my car were linked. Unipower factory boss Tim Powel (who I spoke to yesterday) went power boat racing with Andrew Hedges (Unipower sales director amongst many other things), he knew Richard Miles who supplied the original engine (big mates with Paddy Hopkirk also, he was his Best Man!) Hedges also knew Mabbs and went testing, and racing with him : at the Snetterton 500K in 1965 for example in Mabbs' own Janspeed works entered/tuned Mini '170 TYD' pictured here in the pits :



Hedges also raced a Ford GT40 with Piers Weld Forester ,Tim Powell is also big pals with Stirling Moss , possibly why he's pictured with the car at Olympia? (not that Tim can remember that), add Roy Pierpoint, Val Dare Bryan, Ernie Unger, Specialised Mouldings and Arch Motors into the mix and yes there's a lot to the story! There's even a Broadspeed connection with the later Unipower race cars which I'll post up soon.

Talking of Andrew Hedges, I came across this interview online, weighted mainly toward MGs but a really good read if you have the time to sit down with a brew. Even a little shot of the Targa Florio Unipower on there I hadn't seen. Other than Mabbs' Mini, plus the odd appearance in Minis for the BMC works team Hedges also raced an early Don Moore 1071 which isn't mentioned.

http://www.sebringsprite.com/pdf-files/ ... erview.pdf

Should be able to bung some up to date pics of the car up next week all being well.

[JC T ONE]

More history nice pic too

Have a good weekend

[rpb203]

Pete,
Certainly haven't seen that picture of the Targa Unipower before, body roll seems pretty excessive!

Rui Sanhudo in Portugal wrote a book on the rebuild of his car, quite and interesting read with a bit of history on the marque as well.
I am sure that you have enough history to do something similar with yours?

Ernie Unger was always going to write a book on them but not sure how far he got?

Regards
Gary

[Pete]

Garry I'd be really interested to find pics of my car when Roland Petit stripped it and rebuilt it that appeared online years ago. Any ideas? I can try and contact him I suppose?

[rpb203]

Hello Pete,
I did copy a couple of the pages from a web site on the Unipower that was set up by a David Small, (he sold his cars to Mark Butler), a good few years ago and there are a few shots of the car as it was being stripped and looks like its in a bronze colour, I'll see if I can dig them out and get some copies across however the quality of the originals is pretty poor. The web site doesn't seem to exist anymore.

Not sure if Mark has the details for David Small and he is able to forward copies? if not I guess that the best bet would be Roland, do you have his details?

[Pete]

Yes I'll try and contact Roland, the car came with quite a few shots of him at Spa etc.

Found a few new shots of the car from early '67, quite interesting for different reasons...


Racing Car Show at Olympia, looks like it's on CR65s and it's got the early wind-up windows (not that any of you are looking at the car! ) that were changed to sliders soon after, along with those on all the other early cars, due to issues with them.

...and a shot of Mabbs at the Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama in July...



..you can see in this shot that though the car is still white the body has already been modified as per the other (3?) early race cars such as the ones John Miles and Piers Forester raced and the track looks way to narrow on the back as they're still on the Minilites. He did pretty well though against some pure bred sportscars so the handling couldn't have been all that bad? So the front air dam came a few weeks after this shot along with the new red paint scheme and JAP wheels, not all in one go then.

Car's back from Tony Law's who's worked magic with the exhaust and manifold, should see some power improvement now and not so much noise! Pics soon.

[Pandora]

She looks rather startled. Did it have a wing mounted ariel at the Racing car show?



Al

[rpb203]

Pete,
Monika Deitrich seems to have been an interesting girl, seems that she had an insatiable appetite? according to the press at the time!

Excellent pictures of the car and ones that I've never seen before, and have never noticed the windows! by the time the car is pictured at Castle Coombe with Janspeed, (the one with the cut away arches), it has the sliding windows. A quick change.

The other car on the stage at the show had sliding windows.

The Mabbs shot is a pretty interesting shot showing the progress on the body work.

Well done! there is more than enough to write a book on this one?

[rich@minispares.com]

Pete,
Monika Deitrich seems to have been an interesting girl, seems that she had an insatiable appetite? according to the press at the time!

she is a bit of a mystery as she seems to have vanished (at least on the internet), but I suppose she may have got married and changed her name.

she also used to breed parrots, apparently

[surf-blue-850]

Mmmm Monika

http://maximummini.blogspot.co.uk/2013/ ... beast.html

[surf-blue-850]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4j1gd3Ivqs0/U ... etrich.jpg

[mk1]

I heard that she liked a Cockatoo!



Budum, Ching

[rich@minispares.com]

I heard that she liked a Cockatoo!



Budum, Ching

OI!

that was MY punchline.....



grrr............joke stealer!!!

[mk1]

I know you too well mate!

[Pete]

...and a shot of Mabbs at the Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama in July...

One thing I noticed in this shot is that the rear body hasn't been modded for the rear brake cooling yet, I remember Whizzo telling me that the brakes overheated in this race (sounds familiar!) so it makes sense that it was done when they got back, ali side scoops also added and holes made behind the front wheel arches to help the air flow through (all still in place). Also, checking the side profile of the rear in the Olympia shots, confirms that the white rear end sticking out behind the Porsche and in front of the Sunbeam Tiger here is the Unipower..



Also found an entry for Forester in late May '68 at Brands in an 1149cc Unipower GT (no colour stated), this was the time he bought my car off Harvey so may be mine or he had two! (which I suspect he could afford). The only Unipower I've seen pictures of him racing was a yellow one in '68 with a green stripe down the centre, VERY similar to the one John Miles raced in '67 (possibly the same car).

Gary Marlow's also sent me some stuff printed from the internet some years ago (no longer up) showing the car before Roland Petit restored it for the first time. It looks like it'd been dragged out of a garden having been there some time, and of course it had! Too fuzzy to put up here (though I may have a go) but it's clearly on slicks , is painted in that copper colour we found under the yellow paint and looking very tired indeed ! From what the Scottish owner (Alan) who stored it in his garden in the 80;s told me , it came from Paul Weldon, of Church Green fame. Paul, I'm sure would be able to throw some light on it's 70's history of which I know pretty much zip!

Right going for a lie down.

[Pete]

A little teaser...





Still plenty of jobs to do, front and rear grill to sort, odd size rose joints to source, some thinking to do about wheels and tyres, but getting there!

[mk1]

Looking good Pete.

The only snag is that if you look closely at the first picture & compare it to the second one, you have built the car as an exact mirror image of the original