Ulster details/Photographs

[JonE]

Has anyone ever taken a sounding of how many "original" cars are still with us,or coined a registry of such rare creatures ?
I've been searching for several years for a genuine Ulster with no success ... in a market that's awash with incredibly rare exotica the Austin Sports is indeed a unicorn.

An interesting question. One can start to interrogate the Association Chassis register, but that of course that is only the cars which are notified - many want to retain privacy. But searching on "Sports" car type (Ulster Replica notifications easy to separate) and interrogating chassis age and body number gives a start at hoping for identifiying originals. 

It would also be interesting to look at the numbers of sports manufactured in the known Ulster years. In the back of Rinsey Mills. Comparison to 65/Nippy which seemed to be about 35-40% survival rate - pretty high.

Did they have transmission tunnel body stamps as per later 65?

[Edgar Lowe]

Has anyone ever taken a sounding of how many "original" cars are still with us,or coined a registry of such rare creatures ?
I've been searching for several years for a genuine Ulster with no success ... in a market that's awash with incredibly rare exotica the Austin Sports is indeed a unicorn.

Hi Albert
All original genuine Ulsters and TT are accounted for. All reconstructed Ulsters and TT from few original parts are known ie. a car built around an engine, around a chassis or a panel of an original car. The rest (90% of the total around) are replica's being on a short or long chassis are immediately recognisable from the inaccuracy of the body measurements, the wrong engine, the wrong chassis etc.
Price reflect this. No doubt we have seen cars being describe as original in fact they belong to the 90% Ulsters replica's out there.

[JonE]

Edgar - how many originals ARE there?

[Mike Costigan]

Somewhere I have a list prepared back around 1970; at that time I think there were about 40 known survivors. There have been several more come out of the woodwork since then, so it wouldn't surprise me if there are about sixty known today, which is pretty close to that 35-40% survival rate out of a total of about 180. However, I very much doubt if all those built have been accounted for; I would like to see chapter and verse on evidence supporting that claim.

Edit: ...and yes, they have a body number stamped on the transmission tunnel; the body number is also stamped into the spare wheel cover.

[JonE]

so presumably they link to the Factory build registers to "sports" for 1930 (48), 1931, (97) and 1932 (22) which gives 167...

Interesting that a whole year (in total) of that 3 year period is covered by the Austin Heritage records - makes life a lot easier disconnecting those short chassis which have crept in from other sources.

[austin]

Has anyone ever taken a sounding of how many "original" cars are still with us,or coined a registry of such rare creatures ?
I've been searching for several years for a genuine Ulster with no success ... in a market that's awash with incredibly rare exotica the Austin Sports is indeed a unicorn.

Hi Albert
All original genuine Ulsters and TT are accounted for. All reconstructed Ulsters and TT from few original parts are known ie. a car built around an engine, around a chassis or a panel of an original car. The rest (90% of the total around) are replica's being on a short or long chassis are immediately recognisable from the inaccuracy of the body measurements, the wrong engine, the wrong chassis etc.
Price reflect this. No doubt we have seen cars being describe as original in fact they belong to the 90% Ulsters replica's out there.

Really? I'd like to see you prove that... We have original Ulster parts that aren't on cars, and have cars that have some original parts.

Copies of the original ledgers have been created by my dad after lots of time in Gaydon archives. (You aren't allowed to take photos). It doesn't cover the full timeframe that "Ulsters" were produced as some ledgers were destroyed / lost.

Ledgers, click on the arrows to view the others.

[Robert Leigh]

Has anyone ever taken a sounding of how many "original" cars are still with us,or coined a registry of such rare creatures ?
I've been searching for several years for a genuine Ulster with no success ... in a market that's awash with incredibly rare exotica the Austin Sports is indeed a unicorn.

Hi Albert
All original genuine Ulsters and TT are accounted for. All reconstructed Ulsters and TT from few original parts are known ie. a car built around an engine, around a chassis or a panel of an original car. The rest (90% of the total around) are replica's being on a short or long chassis are immediately recognisable from the inaccuracy of the body measurements, the wrong engine, the wrong chassis etc.
Price reflect this. No doubt we have seen cars being describe as original in fact they belong to the 90% Ulsters replica's out there.

Really? I'd like to see you prove that... We have original Ulster parts that aren't on cars, and have cars that have some original parts.

Copies of the original ledgers have been created by my dad after lots of time in Gaydon archives. (You aren't allowed to take photos). It doesn't cover the full timeframe that "Ulsters" were produced as some ledgers were destroyed / lost.

Ledgers, click on the arrows to view the others.

Many thanks to your dad for his ledger copying the hard way. I have finally proved that a suspected Ulster is genuine.

[austin]

Many thanks to your dad for his ledger copying the hard way. I have finally proved that a suspected Ulster is genuine.

Any chance of the details? (Obviously Edgar already knows about it )

[JonE]

Yes, fabulous stuff to see those. Do you think that those notes might be theoretically put into the Association archive, just so they can be scrutinised at a larger scale?

Presumably the remaining records in the Heritage archive will always be 'held' just because they want to generate income from them in queries? Or do they make no charge for car searches within their ranges?

[Austin in the Shed]

Has anyone ever taken a sounding of how many "original" cars are still with us,or coined a registry of such rare creatures ?
I've been searching for several years for a genuine Ulster with no success ... in a market that's awash with incredibly rare exotica the Austin Sports is indeed a unicorn.

It would be very interesting to know how many genuine Ulster based cars survive out of the circa 180 produced,but I doubt we will ever find out. Several enthusiasts have lists of cars they have personally researched and rightly or wrongly prefer to keep the information to themselves.
It gets more difficult when a vehicle is exported and the registration is separated from the car,or the number is "stolen" off a car.I knew a row of 3 survivors which all lost their registration numbers.
I think many of the cars now sell through word of mouth rather than advertising.There was one advertised in the VSCC a while ago,correct late engine, Reg and Big back axle £35k at the time.
Albert,consider a good replica you will have just as much,or more fun driving and owning it as an original car.