Barn find Unipower now sold for a very fair price

Almost forgot to mention this. I learned more about the Unipower GT that was spotted in a barn in Kent last month (click) and found out it was owned by a garage holder in Elvington named Wayne. I phoned him up and he told me he had indeed taken over the car from Nick Gerolomou. Nick now has a very poor health and has been admitted to a care home. His two daughters looked after his interests and sold his house and his cars, the Unipower to Wayne through a sollicitor. Wayne wanted to put the GT back on the road, but didn't have the time to do that while it was also not quite his kind of car. What's more: "It is sitting here and where it is now it is not doing the car any good", he added. Quite so, it seemed.

But before Wayne took it over, Nick had already started work on the car. According to Wayne he'd paid £7,000 for the paint job alone. The rebuild of the engine, suspension and transmission had also been carried out under Nick's control by a company in Herne Bay where he used to live. A number of parts had also been missing but were sourced or remade, the Perspex rear screen in the first place, which supposedly came at £900. The rare headlight surrounds were also gone with new ones found.

So Wayne told me the car had to go. He planned to auction it at a local auction house in October, but when I said I knew of several people who would be interested, he decided not to bring it to auction. His price? £17,000, which was non-negotiable. I thought that was very fair considering the work that had already gone into it and the money spent on it. I tipped a mate and told him to be quick. But he was busy and by the time he rang up Wayne the next day... it had already been sold. No surprise perhaps. Let's see where it turns up next!

One final note: this and another recently sold-and-offered-again-Unipower make it seem that the prices being asked for these cars in the last couple of years are not too realistic. Here for more - note update.