Bristol newbie ultima owner

[deadscoob]

Hi All,

Not exactly a newbie owner, but a newbie to BKCC.

Been a fan of kit cars for a while, building my first Westfield, an XTR2 in 2003, followed by an XTR4.

Had a hankering for an Ultima ever since being blitzed by one at Donington in 2001, so after selling the XTR4, the itch became worse and worse until I bit the bullet and ordered the first stages of the kit in 2007.


I never really liked the GTR lights, always preferring the older, simpler design of the earlier Ultimas which seemed to fit better with the 80's group C styling, so I had some pretty firm ideas of what I wanted to change over standard looks wise:

Front lights and air intake design
Add arch vents
Update rear styling

On the journey I did a lot of investigating, looking into some of the areas I thought may be weaknesses as I wanted it to be reliable for road and track, and the XTR2/4 experience hadn't been exactly great in that respect.

With that in mind I paid extra attention to the brakes, running gear, wiring, fueling and heat management.

Obviously with this track day mentality I then added an amplifier, decent speakers and air con....

The brakes I chose were AP, 6 pot calipers all round with 360mm disks, compared to the unique to Ultima size of the factory supplied kit. My thoughts being if a disk ever needed replacing, finding a standard sized 360mm disk would be far easier and more likely, than an Ultima sized one.
Running gear had changes to the uprights, where I've had prosport ones cast with bigger bearings, changes to the the geometry, additional bracing added an nitro shocks instead of factory.

Wiring was updated with additional feeds to supplement borderline areas

Fuelling was simplified hugely over the factory setup over tin pumps, polak valve and switch valves, to a single pump hp and lp pump setup with dry break couplings all round.

Heat management was improved with additional vents in the rear clam, plus new vents behind the rear wheels and the existing rear vents enlarged.

Interior was updated with carbon cill covers, carpet, alcantara headlinig and roll bar covering, stalks to replace a multitude of switches,  centralised stack instuments, touch screen hifi, different vent arrangement and a heated screen to negate the need for demist vents.

Loads of other little changes, but 5 years and lots of cursing later it was ready for IVA. Passed that in July 2012, ran it in a slightly rat look for a year, then had it painted in Porsche RS grey black last year.

As usual, there a re lots of little details I want to finish, but I don't get the time and when i do have time, I want to drive it!!

Anyway, enough waffling, I hope to bring it to a meet in the future, would be good to meet up with some like minded people.

A few pics below,

cheers

Craig

[Hairy Santa]

Hi Craig,

welcome to the madhouse, good looking car you have there

come on down to Queens Square 2nd Sunday of the month 9am should be a few of us looking like idiots in santa suits to welcome you to the club
   

[Moleman]

Hi & welcome to the club.
Nice looking car mate can't wait to see it in the flesh. What is the weight of it & it's BHP?
Feel free to join us for the Santa run or just pop down to Queens Square to say hi. You are also more than welcome to join us on our Christmas meal. 

[garry h]

H Craig welcome to the club great looking car 

[Iancider]

And a very big welcome from me too.

I have been looking forward to seeing one of thes in the club and to me its the ultimate car.  I like the way you have left it understated - it just shows its beautiful contours off perfectly.  You have to show this off and you will have an appreciative audience too.  We are also fond of a few track-days too but pass me gently please!

Enjoy the club
Ian

[sanzomat]

Wow - that is an impressive looking machine. That must turn a few heads. Look forward to seeing it in the flesh.

[Bulldog Bri]

Hiya and welcome. Can't wait to see it for real.

['The Gaffer']

Hi and a warm welcome to our club. Looks like you had firm plans for the car and you in it. Fair play.

Looking forward to a test drive

[CC Cyclone]

Lovely. A big fan of the light treatment, I agree they never quite got it right IMHO.
Looking forward to a passenger ride

[Daley Down Under]

Really nice job you've done there Craig.  Welcome to BKCC

Cheers Adrian

[deadscoob]

Hi All,

Thanks for the warm welcome 

It weighs 1020kg, not a light one, not heavy either. Have used lots of insulation on the cockpit to keep heat at bay and didn't approach the build looking to make it super light. I understand the desire to do it to lighter cars. But 20kg on a 1000kg car is not noticeable. Only lightweight parts I actively looked for and bought were the wheels.

Engine is an LS7 with tweaked heads and cam. Not a big powered one but adequate for what I want with 630ish hp.

Will definitely come along to one of the meets once I've got a fresh set of rear tyres fitted!

The best view 

[Facial Hair Optional]

Let's call a spade a spade here... GREEN WITH ENVY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a job! It never ceases to amaze me how clever people are in this club. I would not have a clue how to do half of what you have done here even though my background is in engineering!

No idea what an LS7 is but ~600bhp/tonne?? WOW!!! So it's not slow then??? 

Super job Craig

[dave_bence]

Hello, welcome and WOW

[Bulldog Bri]

The best view 

That's a Beast 

[deadscoob]

Thanks again everyone.

LS7 = 7.0 litre small block Chevy. I grew up wanting to build a GT40 and Cobra, 427s to me were the ones I aspired to, so it had to be a full fat 427 when building the Ultima. I know £/bhp the smaller engines are better, but once you want something it's hard to change

The exhaust is very different to standard, I needed something that wasn't restrictive, but also quiet enough to pass any trackday noise tests. Although I ended up with that, it's a little too quiet, so oneof the winter jobs is to change that. Not sure whether to go for a better compromise or a full on T70 type approach just for road

[alastair]

Hi mate, in my opinion that is the best looking ultima I've seen! Love the colour, much nicer than the bright red you often see. The wheels look perfect and set the car off a treat. I look forward to seeing it in the flesh.

[Facial Hair Optional]

Not quite in the same league I know but on my Cossie RS Turbo Fury I have a custom made Wunoff exhaust system where the back box (on there to meet track noise regs) can with one or two bolts be removed and a straight through pipe fitted, GRRRRRRRRR! Takes about me about 7 mins to change them over. May not be an option on a machine like yours but just a thought.

['Mendip Wurzel']

Superb piece of kit...

[Moleman]

That is one nice bit of kit.  Can't wait to see it out on one of our Meetings & Track days. 

[deadscoob]

Cheers for the wunoff suggestion, sounds like a good option.

[bluehornetrider]

Stunning car, looks very professional. Ant wait to see in the flesh.