I'm reading this guy's build diary who imported an ultima to America. Apparently he is new to driving peformance cars. Here he describes his first drive.

Site is www.craig-ultima.com


Today was the day. Today I planned to drive the car for the first time. Remember that I really have a very limited experience at driving manual shift cars.

I gently backed the car out of the garage and promptly stalled the engine. The amazing thing is that the engine rumbles so closely behind you that at a low idle, the car is vibrating slightly. The seat bumps gently from side to side, even when the car is still. Wow. The noise is amazing.

I restarted the engine, put the car into first and got the car out of the driveway and onto our local street. With the car rolling forward, I was able to easily shift from first to second then to third. I drove along at about 40 mph in third, at about 1800 rpm. The best way to describe driving the car is that it is incredibly raw. I've never driven anything like it. I felt like I was a part of the car. My adrenaline was pumping, heart thumping. Noise all around, but I could just tell that I was simply limping the car along. The steering is heavy (compared to what I usually drive), but very precise and very deliberate. The view out the front of the car is awesome. The huge curved windshield gives incredible visibility.

There was a short clear stretch of road, so I blipped the throttle. I was still in third gear, and the engine jumped from 1800 rpm to maybe 3500 rpm in an instant. When I say instant, I mean, literally instantaneously. I was thrown back in my seat, which is a good thing, since it lifted my foot off the accelerator. The car was immediately doing 50 mph, but I quickly jumped on the clutch and hit the brakes to slow it down. Wow. What a rush. It was all over in a second, but I got an introductory sense of how powerful this car is. It is completely ridiculous.

I pulled into our driveway and bunny-hopped a bit up to the garage door, still not quite getting the clutch right. I got out of the car and was literally bouncing out of my skin. For the very fist time ever I had put a car together, put an engine in a car, put a transmission in a car, assembled a clutch, installed all the requisite controls, assembled brakes and steering and a fuel system and all the other stuff that makes a car work. And, incredibly, it looks like everything actually worked.

Oh Oh ... anyone else fear that there may be another rebuild story coming soon?
Cheers
Richard

To be fair, it's always a special moment driving it for the first time!

Good luck to him I say, he's built a car and that takes some doing and I guess an Ultima is harder than most!

Sounds like he didn't go silly and started slowly, I'm sure he'll be fine.

Rich.

True. Although actually, the Ultimas are so well engineered they go together really well. A friend of a friend built one, and was amazed at the engineering that had gone into it. There was none of this "fettle this, fettle that" experience that we all go through ... it all just bolted together.

One day all kits will be that easy

Cheers
Richard

Wouldn't that take some of the fun out of building a kit though...if it just went together like lego?

Those ultima's are awesome machines. I was standing next to one at a show last week when he was parking it. Only on tickover and the floor was vibrating. He was having a job steering it on the grass too.

Id love one. If everythings easy it takes some of the experience away. I like fiddling with things to get them right. More fun.

I'd still like an Ultima though....

He'd have had to have taken a manual car test over here before being allowed to drive!!

ATB

Simon

Imagine turning up for the test in an Ultima tho .............

The examiner would probably poo himself!

then again, with british roads you could probably spend the entire test in first gear

with the GTR 640, definitely!!!!!!!!

70mph first gear!!!!!!!