....the ugly but effective Ultima.....

[USCANAM]

In the current June 2004 issue of Car and Driver magazine there is a short Minitest on the Noble M12, and also a short bit about it's creator.
Here's a short piece of one paragraph..

".....Lee Noble, a talented and enthusiastic engineer, if a reluctant businessman, his previous projects include the ugly but effective Ultima, which Gordon Murray chose as the test bed for the Mclaren F1, the Prosport 3000 sports racer, and the Ascari, another of Britains specialist sports cars....."

I guess the author of this article, Ray Hutton, was referring to the GTR!!!

B.T.W., took the CanAm on a 350 mile ride yesterday through Massachusetts, which included the airport at Orange, where an aerobatic contest was being held. I showed my past competitors why I haven't been competing these past 2 years.
Then on to my Mother inlaws house in the Berkshire mountains, which we decided to reach by taking a scenic drive through the liberal and free thinking town of Northampton. What we encountered was severe pedestrian traffic, and many policemen. As we slowly approached some of the men in blue, one of them held up his hand for us to stop. Just by looking at the front of the car, he could nail us for 2 things. One, no front license plate, and two, no inspection sticker since it was on the full windscreen, and we had the small one mounted. (do carry a photo of it though). Actually, all he wanted to say was what a beautiful car, and he replied rather sheepishly when I asked him what was happening,was that a "gay pride parade" was just finishing. That also explains the weird looking people looking at us.
Just had to get the "beautiful" comment in!!!
Jack






>>> Edited by USCANAM on Monday 3rd May 12:31

[davefiddes]

Hmmm. Whose opinion should I give more weight. A jaundiced, myopic car journalist or the unsolicted opinion of every stylish, well dressed young woman I meet ....tough one!

[d3vine]

The Ultima cars Gordon Murray used as a test bed for the Mclaren F1 is the old Ultima Sport. They bought two Sport, one called Albert. Forgot the name of the other one.

[Mr J]

By the 'ugly ultima' they mean the first ultima, not the later models. It's a box sort of shape, hasn't got the curves of the modern models.

[USCANAM]

davefiddes said:

Hmmm. Whose opinion should I give more weight. A jaundiced, myopic car journalist or the unsolicted opinion of every stylish, well dressed young woman I meet ....tough one!

Not really tough David.
The latter of course!!!
Jack

[kb58]

d3vine said:

The Ultima cars Gordon Murray used as a test bed for the Mclaren F1 is the old Ultima Sport. They bought two Sport, one called Albert. Forgot the name of the other one.

"Edward." Have the amazing McLaren book right here. As I recall Murray wasn't too happy with the Sport either, from a structural point of view.

[ultiman]

I suspect you will find that structuraly the sport and GTR are identical.
The ugly comment was of course the first ultima which I recall was intended to look like a Porshe 962 but didnt. I have an old magazine article on these somewhere.

[james]

kb58 said:

"Edward." Have the amazing McLaren book right here. As I recall Murray wasn't too happy with the Sport either, from a structural point of view.

But then he was coming at it from the point of view of somebody who designed F1 cars, and was in the process of designing a million dollar supercar. I think that if Ted had that sort of budget to play with, he could improve the Ultima no end. The Ultima is also designed to be built by us lot. The McLaren F1 designed to be put together by some of the best racing mechanics in the business.

[jschwartz]

I just read that last night.
I propose a email campaign to: [e-mail]
And maybe send em a photo of a recent Ultima because the car in Gordon Murrays book Driving Ambition is kinda ugly.
Jeff

[Ultimarobert]

Jeff, I sent my two-bits:

Dear Editors,

Opinions are opinions, so here is mine ready for publication in digital color print: my Ultima GTR so described in your June 2004 issue (Mini Test Noble M12) as “...the ugly but effective Ultima, which Gordon Murray chose as the test bed for the McLaren F1…”.

I would appreciate letting your readers decide.

Ugly-not, judging from the number of drivers trying both to steer their vehicles and fumble with their mobile phone cameras as I pass on by.

(sent pic in my profile)

[ultiman]

I would guess that car and driver is a US publication? I too may send my pennyworth/2 cents worth.

[bigmack]

"...the ugly but effective Ultima..."

I guess this is better than some of the "pretty but ineffective" trash the automotive world has produced over the years!

Cheers!
-Mack