Ultima Racecars

[ultimichael]

Hi,

found an interesting Belgain site, [url]www.qvickmotors.com[/url]
They race two GTRs with BMW engines.
Lots of pics of the chassis and suspension with massive
reinforcements. Would be interesting if they are really all
necessary.

Michael

[steve_D]

The chassis looked normal to me.
I assume that is the full FIA roll cage (which I have not seen before).
The changes I see relate to the custom suspension and the removeable cross member to get engine and box in in one piece.
Am I missing something?
Steve

[OutOn]

Nice, really nice

[davefiddes]

If you look closely there's quite a bit of extra bracing particularly in the engine bay. The suspension seems to have been modified quite a bit as well with different pickup points as well as adding stuff like anti-roll bars.

[ultimichael]

... and all the gusset plates (hope it´s the correct word) in the corners,
the additional braces on top and in front of the roll cage ,in the dashboard area and in the footwell. Even the sidepods have extra braces.
It seems the factory also improves the chassis. For example my chassis does not have the diagonal bracing in front of the steering rack which now is standard I assume. The pics on Steve´s build site at least show it.

Michael

[Stig]

Remember it's far easier to add additional bracing to a race car when you don't have things like a 'pretty' dash to worry about.

[d3vine]

That GTR weighs 952Kg. That's pretty light in comparison to other GTRs. How could it be lighter if they have added so much reinforcement to the chassis?

[davefiddes]

They're missing out the pretty dash, luggage boxes, aircon and other unnecessary junk.

They also seem to run just a single fuel tank which must cut down a lot on the plumbing. A BMW straight 6 going to be pretty light compared with an iron block SBC V8. I think Hewland boxes are a bit quite a bit lighter than a Porsche G50. It all adds up.

Wonder if they are going to run in the 24Hr race round Zolder in it. Could be quite fun.

[davejw]

Looks great - I was surprised to see no centrelock wheels or longer wishbones however. I always thought the adjustment on the Ultima too course for fine tuning a race car and that longer wishbones (like Masters) would aid the handling with the resultant subtle tyre contact angle changes. Not an expert but something that always struck me when comparing the Ultima to a Seven for example.

Big anti-roll bar at the rear!

Dave.

[davefiddes]

davejw said:

Big anti-roll bar at the rear!

Yeah. You'd never guess that a lot of the circuits they race on are really flat would you

I agree with your point about the wishbones though I too am not an expert. Interesting to note that both the Stealth and ProSport 3000 have very long wishbones at the back...their roll centre must be incredibly low. It's tough to do on an Ultima though whilst keeping the ability to use non structural gearboxes. Not sure about the front.

[propricer]

Another Ultima ( pure ) racecar running Porsche engine and 930 gearbox at www.millerteamracing.com.