Can you run an Ultima with no mechanical knowledge
Discussion
I currently have a Porsche 996 as a weekend car but am getting to the stage where its lost its appeal as its such an easy jump in and go car.
The ultima seems to be the extreme 'driving' experience I was looking for.
However, I have no mechanical knowledge or ability. Is it a service every three thousand mile car or is it a stick your head under the bonnet and twiddle with it every time you've driven it car?
How useable are these cars on the road?
Your helps appreciated
The ultima seems to be the extreme 'driving' experience I was looking for.
However, I have no mechanical knowledge or ability. Is it a service every three thousand mile car or is it a stick your head under the bonnet and twiddle with it every time you've driven it car?
How useable are these cars on the road?
Your helps appreciated
Hi mrbastard,ultimas are pretty simple machines most have chevy v8 in running on a carb so need a servise once a year and just a general checkover every now and then ,i change the oil in the can-am every 2000 miles (easy job) put a new set of plugs in it once a year and thats about it ,i also have a trickle charger to keep the battery charged up the biggest problem at the moment is getting enough sunshine to use it !!! simon
I had only negative experience of cars' mechanical workings before I bought my 2nd-hand Ultima Sport. It almost put me off, but I soon worked-out that an Ultima is a perfect 'starter' vehichle. Sounds odd. But when you think about it, there's lots of access, the mechanicals and electrics are dead-simple, and in the main it is nuts and bolts and basic problem-solving. I've really enjoyed it and am only 2 away from completing the cosmetic and mechanical fine-tuning to perfect the car (in my eyes). Ok this has taken me a lot of hours. But then I was buying a 6 year old Sport which never had the mileage by previous owners to thoroughly test and debug it.
Buy a more expensive, sorted, recent one and you should cut this right-out - or get the Factory to do a full check and rectify whatever they find. This is highly unlikely to be more than the 5-10% for repairs you should allow on an exotic 2nd-hand car whatever it is. If I'd done this it would have cost about the same as the gearbox rebuild on the mid-80s 911 I share.
Mind you, any hand-built car is never going to be as robust as a million-development miles Porsche.
Rog.
Buy a more expensive, sorted, recent one and you should cut this right-out - or get the Factory to do a full check and rectify whatever they find. This is highly unlikely to be more than the 5-10% for repairs you should allow on an exotic 2nd-hand car whatever it is. If I'd done this it would have cost about the same as the gearbox rebuild on the mid-80s 911 I share.
Mind you, any hand-built car is never going to be as robust as a million-development miles Porsche.
Rog.
Craig-Ultima on here built his first car and learned to drive manual transmission with his Ultima. You can read all about it on his build site. Very informative and I love reading his impressions as he learns more about the car.
www.craig-ultima.com/
www.craig-ultima.com/
mrbastard said:
I currently have a Porsche 996 as a weekend car but am getting to the stage where its lost its appeal as its such an easy jump in and go car.
The ultima seems to be the extreme 'driving' experience I was looking for.
However, I have no mechanical knowledge or ability. Is it a service every three thousand mile car or is it a stick your head under the bonnet and twiddle with it every time you've driven it car?
How useable are these cars on the road?
Your helps appreciated
Mark - there are a couple of owners near (me being one of them) you and if you have any problems, they're easy to sort out.
It will be WAY cheaper to service than the 996 that's for sure.
mrbastard said:
I currently have a Porsche 996 as a weekend car but am getting to the stage where its lost its appeal as its such an easy jump in and go car.
The ultima seems to be the extreme 'driving' experience I was looking for.
However, I have no mechanical knowledge or ability. Is it a service every three thousand mile car or is it a stick your head under the bonnet and twiddle with it every time you've driven it car?
How useable are these cars on the road?
Your helps appreciated
Mark:
The Ultima would certainly be the extreme driving experience you've been missing with the Porsche. If you have no mechanical knowledge or ability then you still have more than me! I had my GTR built by one of the guys in my shop(we do airplanes). I learned a lot about the mechanical side of things during the build. I do look under the front and rear bodywork regularly just to make sure everything looks just right, tight and no leaking as you wouldn't want a problem at the speed an Ultima is capable of. The difference is, unlike the Porsche you can actually SEE what you've got going on. Nearly everything is exposed as you would expect on a car with a racing background. Having said that, my car has been trouble free through 4000 or so road miles. Regarding the useability of the car, my miles are all on the road. I live 40 miles west of Chicago which is the western front of populated civilization. Two miles west of my house I can give it a 100+mph blast pretty easily. I like to get up early on Sunday morning and head west for a couple of hours exploring the back roads and finding new places to have some fun in the car. In town the car is quite driveable but it's not exactly a "grocery getter". The crowds that will surround you will add hours to any errands you have to run but you'll return home with a smile on your face. All in all, I had some of the same concerns that you have but am happy to say the GTR fits my needs perfectly. As has been said above by others, if you have any problems.....help is available on this forum.
Good Luck,
Brad Z
www.bradzeman.com
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