Noble or Ultima?
Discussion
Lecher24 said:
Didn't mean to start a scrap here (but I know you all love one anyway!) but my best guess is that the Noble (speaking as an owner..) is more about the whole driving experience and Ultima more about absolute performance?
Nope! The Noble is about being able to get in and out of the thing, Adrian W said:
Nope! The Noble is about being able to get in and out of the thing,
Hard to argue with that.To the O.P.
I loved my M400 but was always looking for more power, I was stopped short of building a high output motor, (something I would have enjoyed doing). but was denied by my insurance company.
The Ultima is so much easier to work on and avenues for better drive trains are myriad.
Bottom line, The Noble is easier to live with day to day and will no doubt be a better bet for a week end away.
Ultima is more theatre (as if you needed more than a Noble)
As far as outright performance is concerned I'd say the Ultima is good as the driver can handle.
I think it still holds the outright Top gear/Dunsfold fastest lap of ANY car at circa 1:12 odd on "road tyres".
To put it into perspective a standard M400 1:26 (though I think this must have been a wet lap) a Noble M600 1:17. Ariel Atom V8 1:15 ( I threw that in as a palate cleanser).
F.C. said:
Hard to argue with that.
To the O.P.
I loved my M400 but was always looking for more power, I was stopped short of building a high output motor, (something I would have enjoyed doing). but was denied by my insurance company.
The Ultima is so much easier to work on and avenues for better drive trains are myriad.
Bottom line, The Noble is easier to live with day to day and will no doubt be a better bet for a week end away.
Ultima is more theatre (as if you needed more than a Noble)
As far as outright performance is concerned I'd say the Ultima is good as the driver can handle.
I think it still holds the outright Top gear/Dunsfold fastest lap of ANY car at circa 1:12 odd on "road tyres".
To put it into perspective a standard M400 1:26 (though I think this must have been a wet lap) a Noble M600 1:17. Ariel Atom V8 1:15 ( I threw that in as a palate cleanser).
F.C what is the 0-60 time for your ultima? is it outright power or handling that makes it so much better?To the O.P.
I loved my M400 but was always looking for more power, I was stopped short of building a high output motor, (something I would have enjoyed doing). but was denied by my insurance company.
The Ultima is so much easier to work on and avenues for better drive trains are myriad.
Bottom line, The Noble is easier to live with day to day and will no doubt be a better bet for a week end away.
Ultima is more theatre (as if you needed more than a Noble)
As far as outright performance is concerned I'd say the Ultima is good as the driver can handle.
I think it still holds the outright Top gear/Dunsfold fastest lap of ANY car at circa 1:12 odd on "road tyres".
To put it into perspective a standard M400 1:26 (though I think this must have been a wet lap) a Noble M600 1:17. Ariel Atom V8 1:15 ( I threw that in as a palate cleanser).
i'm going to have to get a ride in one of these ultima's one day to see what they are like!
Ultima isn't as friendly as noble on track and is more on a knife edge... I loved my ultima, it was fast ( got featured by autocar)... The noble is better on road and track in my view. As for performance, that's all down to power, I have 700bhp in my noble and it puts the power down as well as my 500bhp ultima did.
They ultima does out show the noble and is more of an event, sounds much better as well :-)
If I could have afforded to then I would still have the ultima as I loved it, but I'd never swop the noble for an ultima.
They ultima does out show the noble and is more of an event, sounds much better as well :-)
If I could have afforded to then I would still have the ultima as I loved it, but I'd never swop the noble for an ultima.
One thing to remember is the Ultima factory car is nothing like the std car !! I loved my Ultima , spent close on 65k over 4 years trying to sort it out in the end I just could not live with the chassis . Sorry but the performance of the 600bhp Nobles is better then a 600bhp Ultima , Unfortunately we hardly ever see any on track so the chance to give chase never appears , perhaps next year that will change .
Tux
Tux
TuxMan said:
One thing to remember is the Ultima factory car is nothing like the std car !!
Tux
The factory car has slightly different wishbone length IIRC, (all available to the customer if requested), this with the factory Geo set up makes it a little more track biased than the std build manual set up it runs same ride height as the std build car.Tux
So actually a lot closer to a std model than most of the track biased Nobles out there.
Different wishbone, rose jointed , different dampers . different offset on the wheels , modified roll bars . as I said quite a bit different to a std car .
unfair to compare lap times to a bog std M400 , perhaps better to compare to a highly modified Noble to get a better comparison .
unfair to compare lap times to a bog std M400 , perhaps better to compare to a highly modified Noble to get a better comparison .
TuxMan said:
One thing to remember is the Ultima factory car is nothing like the std car !! I loved my Ultima , spent close on 65k over 4 years trying to sort it out in the end I just could not live with the chassis . Sorry but the performance of the 600bhp Nobles is better then a 600bhp Ultima , Unfortunately we hardly ever see any on track so the chance to give chase never appears , perhaps next year that will change .
Tux
Hopefully...Tux
Sadly on reflection, never seen an Ultima on any of the several track days I've been on over the years going 'all out', is there a reason for that?
Besides, then too the clutch of em at recent Silverstone International day were going around like Hoke Colburn!
TuxMan said:
Different wishbone, rose jointed , different dampers . different offset on the wheels , modified roll bars . as I said quite a bit different to a std car .
unfair to compare lap times to a bog std M400 , perhaps better to compare to a highly modified Noble to get a better comparison .
All of which are available options (though the anti-roll bars are not recommended for road)to the OP (or anyone else for that matter) from the factory.unfair to compare lap times to a bog std M400 , perhaps better to compare to a highly modified Noble to get a better comparison .
2.5bluenob said:
F.C what is the 0-60 time for your ultima? is it outright power or handling that makes it so much better?
i'm going to have to get a ride in one of these ultima's one day to see what they are like!
I don't think they are better, faster perhaps, but in the real world the Noble is a better drive. i'm going to have to get a ride in one of these ultima's one day to see what they are like!
Personally I find the Ultima a bit of a handful and a pig to manoeuvre at low speed (though I now have power steering)
0-60 really depends on rubber.
The factory car produced some impressive results:
0-60mph 2.6secs World Record
0-100mph 5.3secs World Record
30-70mph 1.8secs World Record
0-100mph-0 9.4secs World Record
100mph-0 3.6secs World Record
Standing ¼ mile 9.9secs @143mph
Top Speed 231mph (gearing limited)
Skidpad (200ft) 1.176g World Record
There are more powerful Ultimas around but try using that power.
I have mine dialled in at 525ish RWHP and it's enough on the road, my engine has produced over 800BHP on an engine dyno, but putting that down through a transaxle is a lot harder than with a conventional four link suspension set up.
I was thinking of changing from supercharger to turbos or even compounding but I fear I would not enjoy the results, let alone the cost of a new transaxle to take the extra torque.
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