Ultima

History
The Ultima Sports is the brainchild of Lee Noble, who previously built fine Lotus 23 replicas. The car was born in the late '80s and almost captured the kit car Group K racing championship in the hands of Mr. Noble himself.
Ted Marlow took over the Ultima part of Noble's business back in 1992, because he felt that the car wasn't getting the development it needed and thought he'd manage to make a fine car out of it.
Ted Marlow was an engineer back then, who raced a Dutton and then switched to the Ultima.
From official relaunch in the middle of 1993, Sports sales have been promising, but the potential for opening up a whole new market with an open-top version was there for taking.

Ultima Spyder
This car which debuted in 1994 uses the same chassis as the Sports, just without the full roll-over cage. As such the Spyder is more a body change than a completely new model. And even here the alterations to the old coupe have been relatively straightforward. Only the rear body section needed serious redesigning.
The door opens up not out. Swing it up and forward and, apart from the seats, it's not immediately obvious where this car has been trimmed, but a closer look at the dash shows this to be covered in leather along with the inner panels of the doors and one or two other little areas.
The Spyder has been built with a mixture of high cost and lower budget parts to give a car that is probably at the middle to upper bracket in terms of cost and ability. The multi-tube spaceframe chassis has been Tig welded rather than the more familiar Mig welded finish seen on most kit cars. The result is a much neater and smaller weld that is also stronger than its Mig alternative.
MOre details: www.ultimasports.co.uk

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Paul Negyesi

I have no commercial relations with any of the companies mentioned above. Therefore I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the details distributed by them.