Ah, the mighty Unipower GT! So many of us are attracted to the model and so it is great that this particular Mini derivative has finally received a tome of its own describing its creation and development. The car's history is definitely worth telling as its wasn't a particularly straightforward one with ups and downs along the way, a change of ownership half-way through its production life span and some interesting racing history too.
The book's author is Gerry Hulford, a man who knows the marque. Hulford is a Unipower owner since 1971 and owned several GTs since. He knows many of the car's owners too and runs the Unipower GT Owners Club & Register. He has been thinking about writing a book for years - and here it is in 172 pages and illustrated with many photographs. "In 1976", he writes in the preface "I was fortunate enough to purchase all the surviving factory paperwork, drawings, parts lists, documentation and production records." So the book promises a real must-have for us aficionados.
And it does share some real in-depth information. And while there are lots of pictures, too, I was disappointed though by the small number of previously unseen ones, which might be expected from the preface. Most of them are well-known with better quality ones available and I also recognized some of my own! And there's something else. I am not a great adept of chassis number listing, which Bugatti and Ferrari owners can't seem to live without these days. Well, chassis numerology seems to have penetrated deeply into this book with Hulford using these numbers throughout. That doesn't make this an easy read, you really need to concentrate.
The inclusion of a production register in the back of the book is welcome and fascinating, though, listing all cars produced by chassis number. Some years ago I sorted my own Unipower GT files and had to decide that the car's chassis numbers were the way to go. Perhaps the devil is in the detail by my own list doesn't always match this one. This may say something about my own numerology, but I'm not sure!
So, yes, this is a book which tells you an awful lot about the great Unipower GT and it will get you through the Christmas days but don't expect a light-hearted read. It's available from the club website here at 39.95 GBP plus p&p (and import fees when you live outside the UK like me).
