Maximum Mini: Peel Coachworks Kingston-upon-Thames

Showing posts with label Peel Coachworks Kingston-upon-Thames. Show all posts

Tuesday, 26 January 2016

Racing Car Show 1966: Unipower GT

It's the 26th of January today - the last day of the Racing Car Show in London exactly 50 years ago. So let's have one more look back at one of many Mini based cars debuting here: the Unipower GT. Universal Power Drives Ltd. hired stand number 60 and dressed it with a fully finished car as well as a complete rolling chassis. There are several good pictures of this cool display and one of them shows the car from a low frontal view, revealing there are no air intakes below the front grille as on production cars. Could it be the aluminum bodied prototype that was built by Peel Coachworks in Kingston on Thames? That didn't have the signature intakes of the production cars either. Like the production chassis' the tubular space frame chassis on show was built by Arch Motors, close to Peel's premises, and gave clear sight on the twin masters cylinders, clever gear linkage and suspension and of course the Mini engine; a 998cc with 55bhp according to the program booklet.

In an interview in Which Kit? magazine Unipower-instigator Ernie Unger told some 10 years ago that the Unipower name actually came about due to some pressure of getting things ready for the show. Initially the car was christened Hustler GT, but when that name went to one of Universal Power Drives forklifts, a new name was needed, and rather quickly too. Unger: "We had to get the brochures printed in time for the car's launch at the Racing Car Show and there was an element of panic. As the company already had the Unipower name registered, someone, in desperation, suggested that we call it the Unipower." Perhaps not a bad decision after all. The Racing Car Show programme booklet mentions an 'Open Spyder' version 'with detachable hard top panels available to readily convert the open car to the closed specification', but that was stillborn.

Unger recalls in the same interview that the GT got plenty of attention during the show. Not in the last place from a man he much admired: "Carlo Abarth and his entourage spent hours on our stand, which made the day rather special for me. They crawled all over the car, eager to find out what made it tick." Maybe the GT inspired Abarth for some of his designs? Who will tell?

Debutant: the Unipower GT on stand 60 of Universal Power Drives in January 1966

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The bare chassis gave a good idea of what the car looked like underneath those swift lines

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The tubular space frame, built by Arch Motors, gave a good idea of the GT's layout

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

It may not be Monika Dietrich but in 1966 the Unipower GT attracted the ladies too!

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

And now in colour - note lack of air intakes below grille. Could this be the aluminum bodied prototype,

built by Peel Coachworks in 1965?

Picture courtesy Ray Green

Despite having a different shade of grey, this may be the same car? Seen here in May 1966

Picture courtesy Peter Sellers / Jeroen Booij archive

And photographed by none other then Peter Sellers, who is said to have owned a Unipower himself

Picture courtesy Peter Sellers / Jeroen Booij archive

Thursday, 31 May 2012

Urban Legend 5: the WSM 1100

Don't think I am running out of Mini derivatives material - au contraire - but as I mentioned before on these pages, there are a couple of creatures based on Mokes or 1100s that I find least as interesting as the stuff you will usually find here. See here and here to get an idea of what I mean. In fact one car that's been intriguing me from the very first time I heard about it deserves a place in our gallery of Urban Legends. It is the WSM 1100 that was built in 1965 by Douglas Wilson-Spratt and his team. After he'd joined forces with Jim McManus in 1961, WSM (Wilson-Spratt-McManus) soon started converting Sprites in lovely aerodynamically shaped coupes. Several were built and they proved quite succesful on the track, too. And there were not just WSM Sprites. A few more models followed.

When Wilson-Spratt could lay his hands on a rolled MG 1100 in 1965 with wrecked body work but undamaged chassis, he decided to turn it into a 100mph and 30mpg four-seater for personal use. A unique body was crafted by aluminium specialists Alec Goldie and Fred Faulkner of Peel Coachworks of Kingston-on-Thames. They transformed the car into a shapely 2+2 with aerodynamic nose section, inspired by Ferrari's 275 GTB, and long Kamm tail. The WSM 1100 retained it's donor's 94" wheel base as well as its interior and hydrolastic suspension and was painted bright red before Douglas Wilson-Spratt's private number 'DWS 97' was issued to it. One source mentions that the engine was the car's original 1100 bored out to 1139cc and now fitted with twin 1 1/2" SU carburettors, while another one believes the car was equiped with a 1275 Cooper engine.

Although WSM reportedly received several enquiries about replicas, the WSM 1100 remained a one-off. According to some because Wilson-Spratt was put off by the 70mph speed limit that was about to get introduced in the UK. The one built car was sold in late 1966. Perhaps its new owner was not too happy with it, as it was advertised for sale again less then a year later. This time in Charlton-on-Otmoor (Oxfordshire) and for 795 pounds, but that's where the trace ends. In the 1980's it was reportedly seen in a scrap yard, while in 2001 a former WSM Sprite owner said he'd seen it in original condition in Devon but despite several attempts it was never rediscovered. Another 10 years passed when Wilson-Spratt passed away in March last year, but his 1100 remains as mysterious as ever...