unipower gt

 

  

Technical specification.

  

 
 

Make.

  

Unipower GT.
 

Year of manufacture.

  

1968.
 

 

 

 

  

 
 

Engine.

  

1293cc 'A' series
   

Gearbox.

  

Straight cut 5 speed.

 

Brakes.

  

Mini discs on the front, mini drums on the rear.
 

Suspension.

  

Mini based, modified by Unipower.
 

Wheels and tyres.

  

13" alloys.
 

Exterior.

  

2k straight colour to be finalised.
 

Interior.

  

Race trim.
 

 

  

 
 
 

As you can see from the pictures above this is a bit of a 'basket case' project. As it is my own car, and I have to earn a living doing customer restorations it will inevitably be a long term project.

The intention when the car is finished is to take it racing with other historic sports cars, hopefully in the HSCC historic GT championships.

The first job on this car is to restore the lightweight spaceframe chassis which has turned itself into rust.

To restore the chassis I really need some close up photographs of the Unipower chassis which was originally built by Arch Motors who are better known for their Brabham chassis, any assistance in this area would be most welcome.

We have recently started on the task of re-commissioning the chassis for the Unipower, as I had imagined the job will be one of archaeology rather than pure research. As can be seen from the adjacent pictures we have our work cut out.

  

 

The car pictured above was taken at Chimay in 2003 for me by a friend. This is what my car should look like when finished.
     

The rear part of the chassis is fairly much in tact which is more than can be said for the rest of it. The centre section of the 1" box section chassis which is then bonded to the glassfibre tub has taken it upon itself to return to its natural state. All we have to work on are the remnants of rusty steel and the evidence of where it was bonded to the glass.

  

     

Luckily one of our specialities is in restoring and building space frame chassis, using traditional materials and techniques. If I can do an accurate drawing of what the chassis should look like we can build the centre section and graft it onto the rear. I am keen to use as much of the original as possible to maintain the cars integrity.

 

     

  

 

Progress at last, my thanks go to several people who have helped me to collect all the information together to build a new spaceframe for my Unipower. We are now at the final stages of production of the new chassis, as soon as we have finished it will be prepared for painting and the build-up can begin.

Although this is my own Unipower project the techniques and materials I have used are exactly the same as all the other spaceframe chassis that we have built over the years.

 
   
           
I have finally got to the stage where we can roll the almost complete chassis around the workshop, although it does tend to spend a lot of time on the back burner. I have to finish off the welding which means unfortunately the suspension needs to be stripped off again and the chassis painted before we see any real progress.

 
 
Having all but finished the spaceframe chassis of my Unipower the time has come to effect the repair work necessary to allow the body to be moulded, this is going to involve all the skills and techniques we use in our day to day restorations. Once all the body panels are repaired and prepared for painting it is my intention to take moulds so that in the event of a shunt, (as the car will be racing) we can repair the damage easily. The other advantage of this is that I will have a set of moulds from which to carry out some of the styling should we decide to go ahead with our own car.
   

 

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