Unipower GT at the 1969 Macau GP

Phil Newsome sent in a picture of a Unipower GT, unseen before to me, through our mutual friend Guy Loveridge. And it's an unusual photo of the car in the sandbags on the side of a racing track in Macau. What happened there? According to Phil the car was crashed in the Sports & GT class race during the 1969 Macau Grand Prix. Next, it was just left there whilst the main GP went on! That is the winner of the GP race seen here flying past the crashed Unipower GT - Kevin Bartlett in an Alfa-Romeo V8 powered Mildren single seater.

I'm not totally sure of the car's racing number. It looks it may well have been number 50 on the picture and that would be confirmed by the hand written entry list that Phil sent over, too. Two entrants are mentioned on that: Mr. William and S.Y. Tam. Who drove it? I found out that it must have been Charles Ching, a very successful barrister from Hong Kong who was educated in Oxford. There is another photograph of Ching's car taken at the '69 Macau GP, from the Imagens Daluz archives. It seems the car is darker in colour, though, but that must have been the light? It was entered under number 27 that year. Who knows more about it? And could it survive? It may even have been turned into this creature..?

Unipower GT was left on the track while the 1969 Macau Grand Prix went on

Picture Philip Newsome archives

Hand written entry list has the car as being entered by Mr. William and S.Y. Tam

Picture Philip Newsome archives

But the car must have been raced under number 27 by Hong Kong barrister Charles Ching

Picture Imagens Daluz / Natalino Cauto Wong

This is what they do to Unipowers in Hong Kong

Look at that! It's a Unipower GT, a Mk2 I think, but not as we know it. It's been modified. And pretty heavily too. In the first place the roof is gone to convert it into a Targa. There is a deep front spoiler and an added rear spoiler, too. The arches have been widened drastically, with an extra air intake here or there. I'd put a bet on the interior to be altered too and I'm actually surprised to see it's still on its 10" wheels. The picture was taken in the 1980s on a show in Hong Kong and I'd love to find out what ever happened to this car. Who knows more?

A Unipower GT at a 1980's Hong Kong car show. What happened to it?

Picture via Desmond Scorey

The Saga continues

Quite a few of the cars that were on my priority list when I started searching for Mini derivatives have been found by now. Some haven’t and one that keeps on haunting me is the ‘Saga’. I was beginning to wonder if the car survives at all, when I received a message about it this weekend.

Stefan Sellin from the very North of Germany writes: “What made me to write you is the Mini Saga in the chapter ‘The cars that didn’t make it’ on page 122 of your book. When I was in the UK in the mid-nineties I paid a visit to a company that had a lot of nice cars there, like a few Radfords, a Mc.Queen Woody and... the lost Saga that was offered to me for 1000 pounds. Unfortunately I did not know about the rarity of the car and did not buy it as it missed one rear light (!!!). Please find enclosed a picture of the car made on the day when I was there. I think the car was sold to Japan or Hong-Kong.”

The Saga as seen for the last time, just before being sold

Picture Stefan Sellin 

I am not so sure the Saga ever made it to Japan or Hong Kong but at least Stefans message now points out it was sold more then once in the 1990’s. The car was built back in 1964 and the story of its birth is both quirky as funny as I have learnt by now from its designer and builder who spends his days in France now. He lost track of the car after he’d sold it in the late sixties, but would love to know if it survives too. He sent me a stack of wonderful pictures of the car from the time of his ownership. Great stuff.

I did track down the subsequent owner too who had it until 1993, but unfortunately he, too, doesn’t know more of its whereabouts after he sold it. He only recalls it went to a man in the Northampton area who intended to restore it to its former glory. Sadly, the trial ends there. Now that it does seem it has been sold at least once more, it may throw a new light on this never ending saga. Stay tuned. Or better: drop me a line when you know where the Saga could be.