Ultima has been punching above its weight since the 1980s

Lee Noble was still living at his parents’ house when he built the first Ultima in 1983 purely as a passion project. When other racers asked whether they could buy one, it turned into a cottage industry business. The first cars were powered by Renault V6 engines, but customers soon wanted to up the ante with Chevrolet V8 power.

One of those customers was Ted Marlowe who, in the early 1990s, bought the rights and tooling to continue manufacture of these self-build supercars. By then, the Mk1 had become the Mk2 and eventually the more roundly-styled Sports. From the Sports, Ted Marlowe’s operation developed the open-top Spyder, and it’s one of those cars that came to the recent Taxed and Tasty Goodwood Breakfast Club.

In 1999, the Sports was replaced with the sharper-styled GTR and the Sports gave way to the Can-Am, which have since been developed onto the Evolution and RS models. Along the way, Ultima has chalked up numerous performance records for road-going cars, including an off-screen record time around the Top Gear track in Surrey. 

Ultima has come a long way from that first car built in a domestic garage, but the Ultima is still using the simple ingredients of a tubular steel chassis, a composite body and a Chevrolet V8 engine and put together in a humble Leicestershire industrial unit. We love a car that can punch above its weight.

Famously, Gordon Murray used two Ultimas as development mules for the McLaren F1, and he has returned to them for the development of the GMA T.50.

Any Ultima model provides just about the rawest form of supercar performance available. In a world of connectivity and automation, Ultima is still building 200mph cars that are free from driver aids for a truly analogue driving experience. And you can still build your own in the garage at home.

The Sports is relatively rare compared to its GTR and Can-Am successors, and it was a joy to see one at the Breakfast Club. It’s just the sort of rarefied machine that makes these free-to-enter events such a draw.

To find out more about registering your car for display at Breakfast Club, click here. Car registration closes six weeks before each event. All attendees require a pre-booked entry ticket, which is free of charge. You can sign up for ticket alerts here.