Overall, the ride is acceptable and nonpunishing. Since Mullin retained the cats and muffler that come with the LS1 engine, the loudest noise we heard was some wind roar. On the highway, the Ultima didn't wander a bit. But even when we could see a nasty patch of road ahead and braced ourselves for some kidney upset, the unpleasantness never came. The ride is certainly firm, and yes, we did drive the car on smooth California roads. The real test comes on public roads, and that's where the Ultima really surprised us. Scorching performance is all well and good on the track. Considering how well the car hooked up under acceleration and the excellent 0.98-g lateral-acceleration figure, we know the Ultima has plenty of grip. We experienced some early rear lockup that lengthened the stopping distance from 70 to 0 mph to 199 feet, but Mullin said some brake tuning would shorten that distance quite a bit. The Ultima's suspension employs unequal-length control arms all around and big vented, cross-drilled disc brakes that performed without fade. The doors didn't hint of binding, and the interior displayed impeccable fit and finish. Every weld of the steel-tube frame displayed nearly perfect beads. The fiberglass body of our test car had not a ripple across its curvy flanks. In England, race shops dot the countryside, and it's apparent that skilled fabricators with talented hands have turned out this car. Other than the engine, transmission, and lights, it's virtually all original. Most kit cars borrow heavily from existing vehicles. There is nothing kit-carish about it in reality. The car felt solid and didn't play sensitive even once during our tough performance testing. (But remember that the nearly $160,000 Raptor has passed federal crash standards, a feat the Ultima GTR has not attempted since it is, technically, a kit car.) At more than 150 mph, which comes in 26.3 seconds from standstill, the Ultima's high-drag shape and optional $3700 rear wing slow things down a bit, but nonetheless, the 157-mph top speed occurs at the 6000-rpm redline in fifth gear. It'll hit 100 mph in 8.4 seconds, and that's quicker than any current production car we've tested-it even outruns Warren Mosler's Raptor, the other street-legal Group C wannabe. Zero to 60 mph flashes by in 3.3 seconds. Our Ultima GTR weighed just 2314 pounds, so the Vette engine practically lifts the front wheels off the ground at full throttle. Pumping out 345 hp, the aluminum V-8 is a proven, trouble-free, instantly responding gem. The LS1 engine in the car we tested felt perfect. The brakes, for example, were designed by the well-known firm AP Racing. He farmed out some bits and pieces but did most of the work himself. Marlow replaced the Renault parts with Ultima-specific units. His goal was to turn the Ultima into a civilized street car yet retain its prowess on the track. In 1992, after four years of modifying and perfecting his car, Marlow, then 44, purchased Noble's enterprise. He swapped the V-6 for a 440-hp Chevy small-block V-8. One of the 13 new models was purchased for about $25,000 by a civil engineer named Ted Marlow.Ī weekend racer, Marlow did what most race-car owners do-he customized the Ultima to his liking. It was a success at the track, so Noble went on to sell 40 race cars before 1988, when he updated it. It used many Renault parts, including a 270-horsepower V-6 engine mounted amidships.
![ultima gtr evolution race car for sale ultima gtr evolution race car for sale](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/59/5e/c4/595ec42d703ecfa09ef241c22ee0900f.jpg)
Lee Noble, a freelance car designer, designed and built the first Ultima in 1983 for a British kit-car racing series.
![ultima gtr evolution race car for sale ultima gtr evolution race car for sale](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8cj-Bf4TPdU/maxresdefault.jpg)
The car, called the Ultima GTR, hails from the fertile race-car turf of Britain, the land where McLaren, Reynard, Williams, and Van Diemen build race cars that win with remarkable regularity.