Brief History About Ultima
Ultima Sports Ltd was founded in 1992 in England by Ted Marlow and Richard Marlow. The Ultima car however started life back in 1983, when Lee Noble setup Noble Motorsport Ltd and introduced the Ultima Mk1, followed shortly by the Mk2. It was then that Ted Marlow, who had a Civil Engineering company purchased an Ultima Mk2 running a Ford 3.1 litre V6 Essex engine. Together Noble and Ted raced their cars and in order to get more from his Ultima, Ted then swaps the Ford V6 for a small block Chevrolet V8 and also makes more changes to his car, creating a more than competitive race car.
During the late 80’s and early 90’s Noble then also releases the MK3, but it is still powered by a V6 and many customers swap this out for V8’s. These V8 cars become so successful in races, that they are banned from the races as being unfair to other competitors!
In 1991 McLaren bought two Mk3 Ultima’s for helping in the development of the McLaren F1.
In 1992 Ted Marlow purchases everything for the Ultima car from Noble Motorsport Ltd and forms Ultima Sports Ltd. The company sets out to primarily offer their redesigned and developed cars as a relatively easy to construct kit. In 1993, left hand drive kits are offered.
In 1998 further development leads to the Ultima GTR being built.
In 2004 a 640bhp GTR breaks the world record for a production road car for the 0-100-0 mph time and then goes on to smash many other speed and performance records and becomes a sensation. Not satisfied, in 2006 they have another go at the 0-100-0 mph record in a GTR720 with street legal tyres and exhaust and record a time of 9.4 seconds and like the GTR640 before it, also sets many other records, including fastest lap times on several tracks.
Ultima have continued to develop the GTR and Can Am, with kits and turnkey cars being made available.
