Amazing one-off mid-engined special on Ebay

RobBeddington · 02-24-04, 03:45 PM

I saw an article on this car years ago. It's now on ebay. The guy built it from scratch, even the body molds. With an aluminium space frame, a mid-engine, race car suspension and fuel tanks in the sills, he did an incredible job. A sort of mini GT40?

Ebay link to Lawther Special

Rob

MK -IV J6 · 02-26-04, 10:08 AM

Way cool. I like the homage to Ferrari, Shell photo.
It's a buy.

40 Bud · 02-26-04, 08:36 PM

From the windshield back, it looks like he was looking over Eric Broadley's shoulder when designing the Lola GT.

Kevin M · 02-26-04, 11:53 PM

Fascinating little car. With a transverse 4-cylinder engine, I wonder what he came up with for a transaxle. In 1963 there wouldn’t have been much available. A front wheel drive Saab unit or something out of a Morris perhaps? I hope whoever buys it gives it a good restoration.

Kevin

RobBeddington · 02-27-04, 02:45 AM

Hi

The MG 1100 which donated the powertrain was front-engine and front-wheel-drive, so I imagine the transaxle issue sorted itself. It must have involved some intelligent engineering nonetheless.

Rob

Rick Muck- Mark IV · 02-27-04, 07:22 AM

I second the Lola GT opinion....

Very much on the same page as a Unipower GT. There was a Unipower parked in a back yard around the corner form my home for years. I always said "I'm gonna stop and ask about it" as I thought it would make a neat car to have. Alas, one day it was gone....

I know they didn't build a lot of 'em. Any of our Brit brethern know how many?

Rick [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

RobBeddington · 02-27-04, 08:00 AM

Rick

Around 75 Unipower GTs were made and quite a number survive. They were entered by the factory at Le Mans, Targa Florio, Daytona etc in the late 1960s, with Unipower boss Andrew Hedges at the wheel. Sadly, they were always a DNQ, DNS or DNF. The money ran out in the early 1970s. Shame. As this is a GT40 forum, how about the one in the pics below, from Japan... [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]?

Cheers!

Rob