Feeding my addiction

[Pokpok]

Hello All
I’ve been lurking here for about a year now and thought it was time to say hi. Well that and I have a question; Anybody with a GTR that lives close to Portland Oregon (in the US for you fine people across the pond) that I could visit and bribe a test ride from? I’ve been drooling over the GTR for quite some time now and I think it’s time for me to make the longing worse!

Bit of background for me. I’m a one-armed guy living in Portland Oregon and I reaaaaaly want to build (and drive of course!) a GTR. I work as an automation engineer but wife/family seems to drain the pay check every month. I used to own a Nissan GTR but had to sell it after my divorce, and at this point I’ve been without my speed for far too long! I even went as far as emailing Ted about a year ago to see if we could work something out in order to get my paws on a kit. Of course he wasn’t interested but I give him high marks for at least responding to my unrealistic request!

So anyway, anyone close(ish) to me? Washington or even California?

[Storer]

Welcome Dave

I am sure one of our friends from over the pond will be along as soon as they get up!!!!

I will be interested to see how you engineer the car to overcome your disability. I think electric power steering would be a must. Some form of automated gear change activated from the steering wheel too.

Anyway, good luck with your quest.


Paul

[Pokpok]

I'm not sure if power steering would be required and I have drivin a stick before. Back in my GTR days I swapped cars for a day with a friend of mine that owned a elise. Fun car but wouldn't feel safe driving a stick all the time. So I would need to do something other than the normal stick but really don't want to go full automatic... would seem kind of anticlimatic in a Ultima

[Storer]

The steering on an Ultima is quite heavy at low speed, especially parking.

I don't think you will get an auto unless you go down the Audi engine/transmission route rather than the normal Chevy/Porsche setup. A mechanised shifter for a later style Porsche box is probably the best route.


Paul

[F.C.]

Storer said:

The steering on an Ultima is quite heavy at low speed, especially parking.

I don't think you will get an auto unless you go down the Audi engine/transmission route rather than the normal Chevy/Porsche setup. A mechanised shifter for a later style Porsche box is probably the best route.


Paul

A tip box would do the trick surely? Would need a matched torque converter and ecu but doable.

[02PRUV]

Build one with an Albins sequential gearbox and get Proshift to supply the paddle shifter kit for it and use buttons to shift instead of the paddles. Problem solved. My mate has also fitted power steering to his and hopefully we can do mine soon too. He is making templates too so he can fit it to more Ultimas. That's all your issues solved

[macgtech]

02PRUV said:

Build one with an Albins sequential gearbox and get Proshift to supply the paddle shifter kit for it and use buttons to shift instead of the paddles. Problem solved. My mate has also fitted power steering to his and hopefully we can do mine soon too. He is making templates too so he can fit it to more Ultimas. That's all your issues solved

A box such as the Albins with a paddle or similar setup would be the sensible way to go. Give us a shout if you want any info on this kind of setup.

There are also options to use a standard Porsche box with a semi automatic setup, but they are very expensive and I am not convinced that they are terribly effective.

[02PRUV]

Ultima factory said:

Apologies that we were unable to comply with your request for a complete Ultima kit free of charge and help with transporting around to shows but we are a business.
You will probably not be surprised that we receive e mail requests for free Ultima kits several times a month.
Incidentally we are currently helping a customer build an Ultima GTR with all hand controls and plan to have the car finished in the New Year so we do have experience of supplying and building cars to suit different disabilities.


Regards to all,

LOL

[UltimaCH]

Ultima factory said:

Incidentally we are currently helping a customer build an Ultima GTR with all hand controls and plan to have the car finished in the New Year so we do have experience of supplying and building cars to suit different disabilities.


Regards to all,

That's great news and I'm now reassured that when age forces me in a wheel chair, I can get the Ultima converted with hand controls. Don't know if the brain will be able to follow though...

[BogBeast]

UltimaCH said:

That's great news and I'm now reassured that when age forces me in a wheel chair, I can get the Ultima converted with hand controls. Don't know if the brain will be able to follow though...

Complete with hoist to get you in and out...

[Storer]

F.C. said:

A tip box would do the trick surely? Would need a matched torque converter and ecu but doable.

I don't believe you can use a tiptronic box inverted.


I can't believe people think small companies can afford to give their product away even with the hope of future sales based on possible good publicity.

I get numerous enquiries for sponsorship with the majority offering very little possible benefit to my business. This topic is a bit of a sore point which winds me up, so I will sop at that!!


Paul

[UltimaCH]

Why not use a tip-tron box from the Boxster or Cayman? They are designed for mid-engined vehicles, but perhaps not sufficiently resistant for the torque of a V8, but seeing who G50's support the V8, it could work albeit getting the electronics to work...

[spatz]

these tip tron boxes have a control box and need to be attached to the porsche loom. The amount of work to make them work in an Ultima environment is probably too much masochism even for the most crazy guy...........................