UltimaMk1

01

Origins

The Ultima began in 1983 as Lee Noble's design for a Group C-lookalike kit car: a spaceframe with mid-mounted power — commonly Renault V6 initially — under dramatic glassfibre, sold for home assembly at prices ordinary enthusiasts could reach. It was startlingly effective from the first, its racing-derived geometry humbling far costlier machinery on track days and in kit-car racing. Noble sold the design and moved on to his own marques, while Ultima Sports of Hinckley developed the concept relentlessly toward the later Sport and GTR. The Mk1's descendants would set production-car benchmarks; the original established the DNA — big power, minimal mass, no concessions — and the improbable truth that one of Britain's fastest bloodlines started as a self-build project in a garage.