ZHead
Well-Known Forum User
Hi Guys,
As you know, I was gutted that for whatever reason, I realised that without a lot more money and heartache, my V8 project would never see the light of day. There were only a couple of options :
1) Carry on with the V8 project and accept that I was destined to continually shell out good money after bad, knowing I would not drive anything for another few years.
2) Change the specification to straight six, standard type suspension etc which would be far easier, cheaper and quicker to build
3) Give up totally
4) Have a kit car that would allow me to do the majority of work myself.
Options 1, 2 and 3 did not light my fire so I chose number 4
On 3rd November 2008 I made the decision to sell my current project and start a new one that I could play a much bigger part in, so scoured the web all day looking at options and bought all the kit car mags. By tea time it was a toss up between a Gardner Douglas 427 Cobra replica and the Ultima so I rang and booked to go to see both.
On 4th November I went to Ultima ........
When I saw the cars close up my jaw dropped. From the outside they did not look like kit cars at all, but more like production supercars. The inside, however, was more spartan but easy to take up from a bland and basic race design to a well trimmed sports car level.
Ted Marlow, Ultima's MD offered to take me for a spin in the factory's silver demonstrator, so despite being a nervous passenger, in I climbed. The fuel pumps whirred then went silent. As if in slow motion, Ted's finger hit the start button then 500 horsepower of small block chevy didn't so much roar into life but hissed and spat and warned me of what was to come.
The first thing that hit me was how civilised the car was considering it was 500BHP, weighed less than a ton (even less with an all aluminium LSx engine) and was a race car.
We pottered around town, burbling and crackling until we turned left onto a country lane ...... Ted floored it..... On a wet day, with no traction control and no ABS, the Ultima launched itself like a thing posessed without a single twitch from the massive 13" rear wheels. The phrase "adrenaline rush" is an understatement. smidgeon over three seconds to 60 and 180 miles hour .... mental.
I never got to Gardner Douglas.
We all know the details of selling my project as it was done on this forum, the upshot being that today on 14th November 2008 I ordered and paid for stages 1 and 2 of 17.
There is a 12 week delivery on the space frames but someone smiled on me and I was in the right place at the right time. A customer had asked to delay his delivery until early next year so they gave him my production slot and I will take his chassis ...... in 3 to 4 weeks.
I will document each stage, 1 to 17 as they happen.
As you know, I was gutted that for whatever reason, I realised that without a lot more money and heartache, my V8 project would never see the light of day. There were only a couple of options :
1) Carry on with the V8 project and accept that I was destined to continually shell out good money after bad, knowing I would not drive anything for another few years.
2) Change the specification to straight six, standard type suspension etc which would be far easier, cheaper and quicker to build
3) Give up totally
4) Have a kit car that would allow me to do the majority of work myself.
Options 1, 2 and 3 did not light my fire so I chose number 4
On 3rd November 2008 I made the decision to sell my current project and start a new one that I could play a much bigger part in, so scoured the web all day looking at options and bought all the kit car mags. By tea time it was a toss up between a Gardner Douglas 427 Cobra replica and the Ultima so I rang and booked to go to see both.
On 4th November I went to Ultima ........
When I saw the cars close up my jaw dropped. From the outside they did not look like kit cars at all, but more like production supercars. The inside, however, was more spartan but easy to take up from a bland and basic race design to a well trimmed sports car level.
Ted Marlow, Ultima's MD offered to take me for a spin in the factory's silver demonstrator, so despite being a nervous passenger, in I climbed. The fuel pumps whirred then went silent. As if in slow motion, Ted's finger hit the start button then 500 horsepower of small block chevy didn't so much roar into life but hissed and spat and warned me of what was to come.
The first thing that hit me was how civilised the car was considering it was 500BHP, weighed less than a ton (even less with an all aluminium LSx engine) and was a race car.
We pottered around town, burbling and crackling until we turned left onto a country lane ...... Ted floored it..... On a wet day, with no traction control and no ABS, the Ultima launched itself like a thing posessed without a single twitch from the massive 13" rear wheels. The phrase "adrenaline rush" is an understatement. smidgeon over three seconds to 60 and 180 miles hour .... mental.
I never got to Gardner Douglas.
We all know the details of selling my project as it was done on this forum, the upshot being that today on 14th November 2008 I ordered and paid for stages 1 and 2 of 17.
There is a 12 week delivery on the space frames but someone smiled on me and I was in the right place at the right time. A customer had asked to delay his delivery until early next year so they gave him my production slot and I will take his chassis ...... in 3 to 4 weeks.
I will document each stage, 1 to 17 as they happen.
!
