Searching for my Dad's old Ultima
Discussion
Hi everyone,
I know this is a bit of a long shot, but I'm hoping the community might be able to help.
One of my earliest memories of getting into the automotive world was through my dad and his Ultima GTR. I'm now on a mission to track it down, and ideally, buy it.
Unfortunately, I don't have dates, a chassis number, or much else to go on, just a few photos.
What I do know:
. It was owned by Eric McClenaghan
. It was red and had an LS7 engine
. Based in the UK during his ownership
. Frequently taken to Spa
If anyone has any leads or information, no matter how small, I'd be incredibly grateful.
Thanks in advance!
I know this is a bit of a long shot, but I'm hoping the community might be able to help.
One of my earliest memories of getting into the automotive world was through my dad and his Ultima GTR. I'm now on a mission to track it down, and ideally, buy it.
Unfortunately, I don't have dates, a chassis number, or much else to go on, just a few photos.
What I do know:
. It was owned by Eric McClenaghan
. It was red and had an LS7 engine
. Based in the UK during his ownership
. Frequently taken to Spa
If anyone has any leads or information, no matter how small, I'd be incredibly grateful.
Thanks in advance!
Certainly sounds like a great mission. Hope you achieve your objective.
My best bet would be you contact the Ultima Factory. They certainly will have details on your father's purchase, the date of purchase, chassis number, specification, options, etc..
They may be able to give you the name(s) of subsequent owner(s) provided the info was transmitted to the factory upon change of ownership(s).
Good luck in your quest
My best bet would be you contact the Ultima Factory. They certainly will have details on your father's purchase, the date of purchase, chassis number, specification, options, etc..
They may be able to give you the name(s) of subsequent owner(s) provided the info was transmitted to the factory upon change of ownership(s).
Good luck in your quest
Duncanmc
I have only just seen your post.
Your dads old car was chassis number 235347, and the car was built by a bit of a mad bloke from Rapid GB from memory.
You are in luck, as I bought your dads old Ultima GTR (my second) a good few years ago, I then sold the car (in August 2009) to a chap called Greg Coburn who owned Mercury Aero GmbH , Haufen 220, CH-9426 Lutzenberg in Switzerland.
Greg was an engineer who did vauation inspection on aircraft for banks and finance houses, plus he was a bit of a trackday enthusiast.
I remember the day that Greg flew over to inspect and test drive the car, I hired Bruntingthorpe for 2 hours (it only cost me about £150 believe it or not!). I picked Greg up from Birmingham airport and we drove over to Bruntingthorpe with the Ultima on a trailer (the car was never UK road legal).
The guy on the security gate literally gave us a radio (to let them know if we crashed - those were his actual words!) and he said to just keep an eye out for the Bentleys (they were testing the new Continental GT Speed on the same day) and try not to hit anything!
Unfortunately, the weather was shocking and there was standing water at several points on the main straight (the old runway), so we both strapped ourselves in and I took Greg out in the car to show him what she could do.
Remeber that this was a short stroke 6.3L small block Chevy (it made well over 700bhp and revved to well over 8,500 from memory) with Kinsler fuel injection, MOTEC everything, a Hewland NLT gearbox with air-shift paddles, Reiger dampers (also linked to the MOTEC) and a chassis that was set up by Tim Harvey (yes, they hired the touring car driver to set the car up) and was wearing full slicks on Image split rims (I bought the car with 14 wheels / tyres in slick, intermediate and wet configurations).
I did a couple of sighting laps to see where the grip (and water) was and to get a bit of temperature into the tyres (no chance!), before I gave it the full beans!
After a full oposite lock moments at over 120mph on the main straight (I nearly shat myself!) and a demonstration of how 700+bhp per ton feels, we finally pulled over to catch our breath.
I hadn't noticed (I was obviously concentrating), but Greg was as white as a ghost when we pulled up and I think that his life must have flashed before his eyes when we went full on sideways - he only said a few words - "I will have it" - and that was it, he bought the car and I had it shipped over to Switzerland.
Greg went on to replace the engine in the car with a very high spec LS7, which he had built by Peter Knight (Knight Racing Services) and a saw some pics of the car at the Ring in that spec, but I never saw the car in the flesh since I sold it.
I will dig out any info I have on the car (and Eric), if you drop me a PM I will share them with you.
I have only just seen your post.
Your dads old car was chassis number 235347, and the car was built by a bit of a mad bloke from Rapid GB from memory.
You are in luck, as I bought your dads old Ultima GTR (my second) a good few years ago, I then sold the car (in August 2009) to a chap called Greg Coburn who owned Mercury Aero GmbH , Haufen 220, CH-9426 Lutzenberg in Switzerland.
Greg was an engineer who did vauation inspection on aircraft for banks and finance houses, plus he was a bit of a trackday enthusiast.
I remember the day that Greg flew over to inspect and test drive the car, I hired Bruntingthorpe for 2 hours (it only cost me about £150 believe it or not!). I picked Greg up from Birmingham airport and we drove over to Bruntingthorpe with the Ultima on a trailer (the car was never UK road legal).
The guy on the security gate literally gave us a radio (to let them know if we crashed - those were his actual words!) and he said to just keep an eye out for the Bentleys (they were testing the new Continental GT Speed on the same day) and try not to hit anything!
Unfortunately, the weather was shocking and there was standing water at several points on the main straight (the old runway), so we both strapped ourselves in and I took Greg out in the car to show him what she could do.
Remeber that this was a short stroke 6.3L small block Chevy (it made well over 700bhp and revved to well over 8,500 from memory) with Kinsler fuel injection, MOTEC everything, a Hewland NLT gearbox with air-shift paddles, Reiger dampers (also linked to the MOTEC) and a chassis that was set up by Tim Harvey (yes, they hired the touring car driver to set the car up) and was wearing full slicks on Image split rims (I bought the car with 14 wheels / tyres in slick, intermediate and wet configurations).
I did a couple of sighting laps to see where the grip (and water) was and to get a bit of temperature into the tyres (no chance!), before I gave it the full beans!
After a full oposite lock moments at over 120mph on the main straight (I nearly shat myself!) and a demonstration of how 700+bhp per ton feels, we finally pulled over to catch our breath.
I hadn't noticed (I was obviously concentrating), but Greg was as white as a ghost when we pulled up and I think that his life must have flashed before his eyes when we went full on sideways - he only said a few words - "I will have it" - and that was it, he bought the car and I had it shipped over to Switzerland.
Greg went on to replace the engine in the car with a very high spec LS7, which he had built by Peter Knight (Knight Racing Services) and a saw some pics of the car at the Ring in that spec, but I never saw the car in the flesh since I sold it.
I will dig out any info I have on the car (and Eric), if you drop me a PM I will share them with you.
I have emailed Duncan (the OP) with my contact number, so hopefully I can help him to locate the car.
Thankfully, I keep EVERYTHING, so I still have the details of the chap that I sold the car to, including all of the paperwork that was needed to get the car into Switzerland.
Looking back at my last email relating to the car (from May 2012), Greg actually got the car road registered.
I have emailed Greg to see if he still owns the car - fingers crossed.
Thankfully, I keep EVERYTHING, so I still have the details of the chap that I sold the car to, including all of the paperwork that was needed to get the car into Switzerland.
Looking back at my last email relating to the car (from May 2012), Greg actually got the car road registered.
I have emailed Greg to see if he still owns the car - fingers crossed.
So the journey continues!
I have heard back from the chap that I sold the car to in Switzerland back in 2009, and he actually sold the car on a few years later to a gentleman from Austria, BUT he shared his details with me, so I have forwarded these on the the OP - lets see if we can find the car!
Here are a few pics of the UK track friendly exhaust system ( a work of art by Pipwerx near Wigan) that I had custom made for the car - just to keep you lot interested.
The system was absolutely mega for noise supression (well under 90db) and didn't rob too much power (we lost about 15bhp at the top end, but low down grunt was much improved)!
You can see the Reiger remote shock adjusters and MOTEC bump and rebound sensors in the pics - this car had more technology than most race cars back then, absolute WEAPON!
I have heard back from the chap that I sold the car to in Switzerland back in 2009, and he actually sold the car on a few years later to a gentleman from Austria, BUT he shared his details with me, so I have forwarded these on the the OP - lets see if we can find the car!
Here are a few pics of the UK track friendly exhaust system ( a work of art by Pipwerx near Wigan) that I had custom made for the car - just to keep you lot interested.
The system was absolutely mega for noise supression (well under 90db) and didn't rob too much power (we lost about 15bhp at the top end, but low down grunt was much improved)!
You can see the Reiger remote shock adjusters and MOTEC bump and rebound sensors in the pics - this car had more technology than most race cars back then, absolute WEAPON!
VR6VR6 said:
So the journey continues!
I have heard back from the chap that I sold the car to in Switzerland back in 2009, and he actually sold the car on a few years later to a gentleman from Austria, BUT he shared his details with me, so I have forwarded these on the the OP - lets see if we can find the car!
Here are a few pics of the UK track friendly exhaust system ( a work of art by Pipwerx near Wigan) that I had custom made for the car - just to keep you lot interested.
The system was absolutely mega for noise supression (well under 90db) and didn't rob too much power (we lost about 15bhp at the top end, but low down grunt was much improved)!
You can see the Reiger remote shock adjusters and MOTEC bump and rebound sensors in the pics - this car had more technology than most race cars back then, absolute WEAPON!
very very much heat here under clam.I have heard back from the chap that I sold the car to in Switzerland back in 2009, and he actually sold the car on a few years later to a gentleman from Austria, BUT he shared his details with me, so I have forwarded these on the the OP - lets see if we can find the car!
Here are a few pics of the UK track friendly exhaust system ( a work of art by Pipwerx near Wigan) that I had custom made for the car - just to keep you lot interested.
The system was absolutely mega for noise supression (well under 90db) and didn't rob too much power (we lost about 15bhp at the top end, but low down grunt was much improved)!
You can see the Reiger remote shock adjusters and MOTEC bump and rebound sensors in the pics - this car had more technology than most race cars back then, absolute WEAPON!
ultima already has overheating probs in traffic and with gelcoat of clam
VR6VR6 said:
So the journey continues!
I have heard back from the chap that I sold the car to in Switzerland back in 2009, and he actually sold the car on a few years later to a gentleman from Austria, BUT he shared his details with me, so I have forwarded these on the the OP - lets see if we can find the car!
Here are a few pics of the UK track friendly exhaust system ( a work of art by Pipwerx near Wigan) that I had custom made for the car - just to keep you lot interested.
The system was absolutely mega for noise supression (well under 90db) and didn't rob too much power (we lost about 15bhp at the top end, but low down grunt was much improved)!
You can see the Reiger remote shock adjusters and MOTEC bump and rebound sensors in the pics - this car had more technology than most race cars back then, absolute WEAPON!
very very much heat here under clam.I have heard back from the chap that I sold the car to in Switzerland back in 2009, and he actually sold the car on a few years later to a gentleman from Austria, BUT he shared his details with me, so I have forwarded these on the the OP - lets see if we can find the car!
Here are a few pics of the UK track friendly exhaust system ( a work of art by Pipwerx near Wigan) that I had custom made for the car - just to keep you lot interested.
The system was absolutely mega for noise supression (well under 90db) and didn't rob too much power (we lost about 15bhp at the top end, but low down grunt was much improved)!
You can see the Reiger remote shock adjusters and MOTEC bump and rebound sensors in the pics - this car had more technology than most race cars back then, absolute WEAPON!
ultima already has overheating probs in traffic and with gelcoat of clam
845ste
Remember that when I owned this car, it was NOT road legal so it never sat if traffic.
The rear clam was vented and we never exerienced any over heating issues with either exhaust installed.
If the car was a road car, I would have fully ceremic coated the whhole system to keep the temp inside, but as the car spent most of its time flying around race tracks - it wasn't an issue.
Remember that when I owned this car, it was NOT road legal so it never sat if traffic.
The rear clam was vented and we never exerienced any over heating issues with either exhaust installed.
If the car was a road car, I would have fully ceremic coated the whhole system to keep the temp inside, but as the car spent most of its time flying around race tracks - it wasn't an issue.
I don't recall the last time I saw an Ultima on the road, it's always great to see one.
I did a trackday at RAF Marham many years ago and there was a yellow road registered Ultima putting in some laps, it appeared in my rear view mirror quite a few times...
Good luck to the OP.
Great cars.
I did a trackday at RAF Marham many years ago and there was a yellow road registered Ultima putting in some laps, it appeared in my rear view mirror quite a few times...
Good luck to the OP.
Great cars.
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