Ultima

Ultima Sports Ltd. are a sports car manufacturer currently based in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. Founded in 1992 by Ted Marlow, Ultima manufacture the components to construct cars derived, as road going versions, from the Noble Motorsport Ltd. originated Ultima racing cars, which were designed by Lee Noble who is more famous now for the models produced by Noble Automotive Ltd..

There are now 2 models in the current Ultima range; the GTR; and the convertible Can-Am. Previous models have been the Sport and Spyder.

All models in the Ultima range have always been primarily supplied in component form, that is Ultima produce the parts required for an owner/builder to construct the car offsite, and this is the only way to receive such a vehicle in the USA (including a 'rolling body' fully constructed minus engine and transmission). However a few cars are manufactured onsite as "turnkey" models for the European market.

The preferred engine supplier for Ultima is currently American Speed, a company who specialise in re-engineering Chevrolet V8s for increased performance. It was with a 640hp version of the Chevrolet small block V8 built by American Speed, that Richard Marlow was able to set a number of performance records in an Ultima GTR during 2005, this combination now being dubbed the Ultima GTR640.

In 2006 Ultima beat their own 0-100mph-0 record set in the GTR640 with the GTR720, again using an American Speed SBC engine but now with 720hp. The new record shaved 0.4 seconds off the time completing the 0-100-0 dash in 9.4 seconds, a new world record for a production road car with street tyres and exhaust.


-- Wikipedia