When Top Gear refused to feature the Ultima GTR because they thought it couldn’t clear a speed bump, the guys at Ultima took matters into their own hands. They acquired private access to the track, then went on to shatter the Michael Schumacher-piloted Ferrari FXX’s time by nearly a second.
And to drive home the fact that the Ultima GTR is a road-worthy supercar slayer, Ultima drove the GTR to and from the Top Gear track in Surrey, a feat the track-only Ferrari FXX is unable to match.
The Ultima GTR holds the Guinness world record for 0-160-0 km/h, the acceleration and braking run is completed in just 9.4 seconds. The GTR is powered by a 720hp Chevy small block engine and weighs in at just 98-kg. For comparison, the FXX makes 860hp and weighs 1155kg. Follow the jump to read Ultima’s side of the story and their take on the record shattering lap.
British supercar manufacturers and multiple world speed record holders Ultima Sports Ltd have this week smashed Michael Schumacher’s £1million Ferrari FXX track car lap record on the circuit as used by Top Gear TV with their Ultima GTR720 road car.
The Ultima GTR720 recorded a blistering 1min 9.9secs lap time, which demolishes the previous record of 1min10.7secs set by seven-time world Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher in his Ferrari FXX track car. To put things into perspective the Ultima is almost 10 seconds per lap faster than the fastest road car that Ferrari produces which is the renowned £450,000 Enzo.
The successful lap record attempt was independently timed, verified and recorded by Plans Motorsport using their GPS DL-1 data logging equipment. It wasn’t a test conducted by Top Gear TV themselves as the producers have seemingly ignored repeated requests to feature the British Ultima GTR to date.
“We are all absolutely thrilled with this lap record. I could see that the Formula 1 inspired Ferrari FXX looked supremely quick in the hands of Michael Schumacher, but I had every belief that it wasn’t a match for our legendary Ultima GTR720 road car. I wanted to prove a point from the minute I witnessed the Schuey lap time on TV but the top gear track was fully booked for several months. At the first available opportunity we took our Ultima GTR720 road car that has previously recorded a lap time of 1min12.8secs (see www.ultimasports.co.uk/Content.aspx?f=record8) and adjusted it to more of a track biased set up rather than road car settings in the same manner as Michael Schumacher’s track only non road legal Ferrari FXX. Our Ultima GTR720 road car stormed around the track at the kind of pace that would have placed it at the front of the grids in international GT racing, it was for sure a spectacle to behold. To better the lap time of the greatest driver of our generation in arguably the worlds most developed and expensive modern day track car is a perfect illustration of the sheer brilliance and mind blowing pace of our British Ultima GTR. Of course unlike the Ferrari FXX, which is not road legal, we were able to drive our road car back home afterwards. I would also like to clarify to everybody that our GTR720 will clear all speed humps and anybody whom doubts this fact is welcome to visit our factory so that we can demonstrate this to them first hand.”
Ted Marlow, Managing Director of Ultima Sports Ltd commented:
“Well what can I say? I have been driving Ultima’s now for over 25 years in hundreds of different Ultima cars with a huge range of different configurations and so I was pretty confident that the GTR720 would do the business.
The Enzo FXX is no ordinary Ferrari having been developed using Formula 1 technology and extensively tested by the 7 times Formula 1 world champion so to beat this lap time certainly proves the magnitude of our achievement.
The Ultima is a perfect illustration of the effectiveness of the KISS principle and enables us to offer an affordable supercar that can outrun the likes of Michael Schumacher in his own £1million Ferrari FXX track car. Simply put we have created automotive history by producing the worlds fastest all round road legal supercar and this new record together with our extensive catalogue of existing world speed records is unequivocal proof of the Ultima GTR’s engineering excellence. Ultima fans can rest assured in the knowledge that we still have significant room for lap time improvement in the future as there is always our 800hp variant to put through its paces yet, and of course the keys to our Ultima GTR720 are always available here for a certain Mr. Schumacher should he like a shot at improving our new lap time record further still………”
The Ultima GTR720 is a fully road going production car with standard features such as air conditioning, stereo system and sealed luggage compartments etc and is often used as a daily driver. The car is equipped with a standard production 720bhp Chevrolet V8 engine option built specifically for Ultima by our OE engine suppliers American Speed.
What’s next? Well we are all very content and absolutely delighted here at the factory. Over the past several years we have set a catalogue of world beating times including several world speed records which remain unbeaten. We have superb worldwide demand for our product with full order books and this is where we will focus our time and effort by continuing to provide our existing loyal customers and new customers with a first class service. Previous testing has shown that we can also take the Nurburgring lap record with a road legal lap time somewhere in the region of 6mins30secs which sure is tempting to prove someday although there are no plans set as yet……
