 The Ultima is appropriately named as it has redefined the meaning of performance in the specialit car world. In doing so, it has confirmed the pedigree of the tried and tested engineering that underpins many of the cars we build and drive. That said, nothing can prepare you for the impact of an Ultima unleashed, as Ian Hyne relates.
It's hot today. 25 degrees hot. As I strap myself into the six-point harness that will secure me to the seat, the casual effort prompts small beads of perspiration that test the validity of my deodorant manufacturer's claims. Normally under such climactic conditions a spin in an open car brings with it the welcome prospect of a cooling breeze... but, in an Ultima Spyder, nothing conforms to the norm.
As I sit ahead of the stock Chevy 350 HO I know that in 3.8 seconds, the mere blink of an eye, I could be doing 60mph. Very shortly after, I could be doing a ton and if I could summon the balls to keep my right foot down, I could ultimately be travelling at 170mph. To accompany the spaceship shove would come a furnace blast of hot air to scour my scalp and fry my hopefully sweet-smelling sweat.
THAT is what an Ultima can do that no other road-going car can emulate. It's what makes the thing unique among performance machinery and what confirms its right to the name.
In truth you've never experienced performance until you've experienced an Ultima. True, there are more than a few cars that can and do make maximum use of a Chevy 350 HO but the Ultima's mid-engined configuration allows it to jump all over front-engined Cobras in the handling and cornering speed stakes. What's more, its lightweight and better developed chassis and suspension put it well ahead of the heavier, mid-engined supercar clones.
Supercar. Now there's a word. But what does it mean?
In essence, the Supercar Club comprises the very best the world's top sports car manufacturers can create. Within its ranks you will find Ferrari's F50, Porsche's 959, Bugatti's EB110, Lambourghini's Diablo, Chrysler's Viper, Mercedes' CLK, Aston Martin's Vantage and arguably the top dog in the form of McLaren's F1. In addition to the acme of artistic styling and a price tag that ensures you and I will never be able to walk into a showroom and place an order, recent years have added the necessary credential of potential 200mph ability.
Well the Ultima displays a flattering visual form that's far from upstaged in such exalted company. What's more, it can be geared and powered to deliver 200mph potential. But sadly it fails to gain admission to the club at the last hurdle due to an inescapable flaw in its paper statistics; namely that, with a few personal sacrifices, both you and I can afford one! However, as that wise old sage Meatlof once said: "Two out of three ain't bad!"
Someone else once said that 'Forewarned is forearmed' but the knowledge of the tamest Ultima's ability does nothing to settle the butterflies that beat in the pit of my stomach as I prepare for blast off. Of course, in reality, it's nothing so dramatic. For a start I'm on the A447 that runs past Tescos. There's a bloke in a Daewoo Noxious who doesn't seem to know where he's going and a bloke in a tractor lining himself up for a low speed pass. But negotiating the familiar fracas that characterises everyday driving reveals a seemings chink in the Ultima's macho armour; it's actually easy to drive.
The realisation immediately quells the internal fluttering such that I'm soon keeping pace with the ebb and flow of urban traffic with no problems at all. The clutch is smooth and surprisingly light and the throttle has a well-regulated action. The steering is direct but fluid and precise. The brakes are a bit heavy at first touch but you rapidly get a feel for the pedal and they work quickly and efficiently. Even the apparent complex, rose-jointed mechanics of the right-hand gear change find the required slots with unerring ease and accuracy such that you soon come to wonder what all the fuss is about. You soon find out whae you have developed sufficient confidence to push it a little harder.
Though this particular Ultima Spyder is very much a road car, as amply demonstrated by its easy driveablilty at normal speeds, when you push the throttle you soon come to realise the significance of the much abused term 'race-proven'.
Give the right-hand pedal a good shove and you get a thump in the back for your trouble. Squeeze it harder and keep on squeezing and you get a smooth surge of inexhaustible power that just keeps coming rocketing you towards the horizon. 3,000rpm is a good time to change up, especially as you'll not often have the road space to take it much further. You're really travelling at 3,000 so when you think it'll rev to 6,000 and beyond, you begin to realise just what 345bhp means. Into third and up to 3,500 sees 100mph on the clock and it's still accelerating with awesome purpose and two cogs to go!
As the bends approach you go into automatic pilot, shut down the power and go for the brakes but a few repeat performances soon convince you that you don't really need them. For a start, coming off the power provides excellent engine braking while tipping the Ultima into the turns at an ever increasing rate of knots demonstrates prodigioud front end grip that the relatively innocent twists of public roads will seldom break.
With such knowledge committed to the internal computer you can really start to enjoy a driving experience that's on an altogether different plane from the vast majority of kit-form machinery. That's not to denigrate other top-notch cars but more to emphasise the diametrically opposite approach to the Ultima's design to that of most kit cars.
As confidence grows, you get braver and your right foot gets heavier, the Ultima really starts to fly, its grip allowing you to carry a lot of corner speed, but you are still surprised that it remains a pretty easy car to drive. Not that 1900lbs of Chevy-propelled Ultima can't become a handful with the simple trick of rapidly exhausting the skill of the bloke behind the wheel, but when you think about it, its confidence-inspiring feel is pretty logical.
Driving a car like this is about far more than blasting off the line and atopping before you hit something. If you're going to create a car with 345bhp of shove behind it, you need to ensure that it can take the strain. And if you're going to drive it flat out, you need to know it will do your bidding. That means ride quality, balance, braking efficiency, cornering ability, grip and above all driver feed-back. Indeed, much of the trick of driving this car quickly, not to mention bloody fast, is speaking its language and making use of the constant flow of dynamic intelligence being fed to Mission Control by the sensory antennae scattered throughout the car. The feel through the steering column and brake pedal backed up by the aural symphony behind you are vital aids to keeping it flowing. When you really get the hang of it is when you suddenly realise you DO need to hit the brakes and hard... and therein lies a graphic pointer to why this car performs in the manner it does.
When you hit the brakes you're not making OTT demands of a system scavenged from a breaker's yard saloon. Hit the middle stump in an Ultima and AP's tailor-made expertise ensures the car stops. There are four cross-drilled, ventilated discs under the bodywork, each clamped by a four-pot aluminium caliper. It's the same with every other component in the Ultima's mechanical armoury. Rather than making use of available off-the-shelf components and accepting the dynamic compromises they inevitably inflict, every component in an Ultima is purpose designed for its job and is supplied brand new.
The basic engineering of the Ultima's steel tube spaceframe chassis and double wishbones all round may be pretty straightforward but, like all the performance stars that really shine within the specialist car industry, it's the development and dedicated componentry that distances the Ultima from the wannabes.
The other significant aspect of the car's simple construction is its cost. Though you can spend a fortune on building one, a car such a that pictured can be on the road with a Chevy 350 amidships for around £20,000. You may not have it lying around as loose change but it's certainly not an exorbitant sum in the 1990's.
There isn't really a kit price. Every component and component package is individually priced in build sequence order such that you start off with the chassis pack representing Stage 1 at £2,790 and carry on to the wind deflector and headlamp covers representing Stage 17. When you get there you will have accounted for £14,172 plus VAT. Thereafter you will require an engine, a Porsche G50 five-speed transaxle, wheels and tyres, all of which Ultima can supply, and the final embellishment of paint.
In an age in which supercars routinely carry a six-figure price tag, that's some achievement.
This is some car.
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