Ultimate Sports cars
Ultima Sports Ltd. is a British sports car manufacturer dating back to 1922. Ultima Sports Ltd. was founded by Ted Marlow and is currently based in Hinckley, Leicestershire. All Ultima models have been primarily supplied as components, and the purchaser will assemble the car offsite. A few fully assembled models has however been produced for the European market. In the United States, you have to purchase your Ultima car in parts and assemble it yourself or hire someone to do it for you. You can however get a so called ‘rolling body’ which is fully constructed except for the engine and transmission.
Most Ultima owners use a America Speed engines in their cars. American Speed is specialized in re-engineering Chevrolet V8 in order to make them perform better. When Richard Marlow squashed a number of old performance records in 2005, he was for instance driving an Ultima GTR car powered with a 640hp version of the Chevrolet small block V8 that had been altered by American Speed. This combination is now referred to as the Ultima GTR640.
During recent years, Ultima has been marketing themselves by participating in a wide range of record-breaking events. After the Ultima GTR640, the Ultima GTR720 was constructed – a car equipped with a 720 bhp engine. Today, Ultima holds a series of official, independently verified records for production cars with road tyres and exhaust. An Ultima car did for instance do 0-60 mph in 2.6 seconds and 0-100 mph in 5.3 seconds. An Ultima also managed to go from 100 mph to 0 in 3.6 seconds and do 0-100-0 mph in 9.4 seconds. When tested on a skidpad, an Ultima car sported 1.176g lateral grip in a 200 ft circle.
The two current Ultima models are the GTR and the Can-Am (which is a convertible version of the GTR). The Ultima GTR is a two-door coupe supercar designed by Lee Noble and Ted Marlow. In Europe, you can get the Ultima GTR both in kit form and as a turnkey car.
The Ultima GTR is mid engined with rear wheel drive. If you assemble your Ultima GTR from a kit, you can have your pick among a wide range of engines and transmissions. The Ultima factory does however recommend using a Chevrolet small block V8 engine from American Speed, and a transaxle from Porsche or Getrag. This is also the combination that you will get if you decide to purchase a turnkey Ultima GTR. All Ultima GTR cars have a tubular space frame chassis and GRP bodywork.
The GTR720 offers a power-to-weight ratio of over 650 bhp (480 kW) per tonne, which out-compete famous cars such as the Enzo Ferrari, Bugatti Veyron, Koenigsegg CCX and CCGT (but not the CCXR), Ascari A10, and Saleen S7. The Ultima GTR chassis are rated for engines up to 1000 bhp and it is therefore possible for GTR owners to put even more powerful motors than the 720 hp in their cars. If you use a 1000 bhp engine in your GTR, you get a power-to-weight ratio of circa 950 hp/tonne, which is almost as high as the power-to-weight ratio of the infamous Caparo T1. (The Ultima figures above are ‘wet weights’, while the official 1170 hp/tonne figure for the Caparo T1 is measured before the car has been filled with gasoline, oil, coolant etcetera.)