Really good dampeners, Hmmmm with the upgraded, made by Intrax dampeners, the car was capable of setting all these world records yet you think a set of Moton's or Penske shocks would be better.... IMHO Moton and Penske quality pales in comparison to a set of Ohlins TTX shocks. I did talk to the Ultima Guru's and they said sure use a set of Ohlins; but do you want to start the tuning game over again. That last fact is true, a new set up could come together quickly or not so quickly. I do believe with a set of Ohlins shocks the car could be made even better than it already is but at what cost! So what suspension changes would you make?

The LSA engines are nice platforms but I would use a LS RSR block, this aluminum block is much stronger than the conventional aluminum block and also a fair bit lighter.

As per the power level.... My thoughts about that come from one of my favorite race car drivers from the past; bonus points if anyone here can name him.
The said driver said to an engineer “You give me all the power you can and then I will decide how I modulate it”.

 

Consider a Cobra replica first, by Superformance or maybe Backdraft! These cars are seriously R-A-W and tons of fun, drove one while in Naples, FL. Can't beat the sound either

 

LSX block is cast iron; that would add a lot of weight to the car. You can build almost 440+ cubic inch LS2 or LS3 motor which would make a ton of power and still be light. A blower maybe??

 

Here is one more to look at if you have not seen them
https://www.factoryfive.com/kits/gtm-supercar/
Had a Cobra before with my father, not a faithful reproduction but an all out racer that we used to stop on the competition in the class we drove it in. Did that for a year then drove it for a year. I am not an out in nature kind of person when it comes to my cars. I want enclosed and I want Air Con. Plus there is no Cobra built that comes close to the performance of an ultimate GTR

A LS7 RSR block is Aluminum and it is way stronger then your conventional blocks. You can go up to 474ci / 7.77 liters.

 

Get it! The NRE 427TT engine would be unreal.

 

I'd say do it, I love the power of my 434ci ls2 on the track it's not quite what your talking about, but I was just trying to build a competitive ST1 car for NASA. I even went with compression to run 91 and it still makes 510 at the wheels NA and could not be easier to put down. I think it would make a awesome track car or street depending on how you finished it.

 

look into superlitecars.com the slc... awesome looking.

 

I have the original VHS video and brochure for this car. I was close to buying one back in the early 1990s. This car is the reason I built my little Datsun V8 Track monster. Raw is what I prefer. In a true track day monster, I trailer to the track anyway. Hell my Datsun Zcar doesn't even have door windows or interior of any kind, so it doesn't get any more "raw"... LOVE the Ultima...

 

I have seen a ton of those factory 5 cars but they don't come close to the Ultima. I would definitely go with the Ultima over the F5! No contest. ****pit is a lot better, better fit and finish, visibility is ridiculous… Looks so much better in my opinion too.

I remember a documentary about the old BMW F1 engines where the driver asks the engineer how much power they are making that day and the engineer says
"I am not sure. The dyno only goes up to 1200 horsepower"… might have been 1250; can't remember.
That had to have been scary as it will get. Talk about light weight and insane amount of power!

My money is on GT2 power train for the the Ultima. Rods, pistons, at least, built 4.0 would be even better with better boost response, a couple of ball bearing turbos, 18-20G wheel upgrades would be fine too, air to air intercoolers in the belly, flip the throttle body to face towards the front to shorten piping from the intercoolers, short exhaust and come out of the top like the 918, triple disk CF clutch, sequential shifter for the RWD GT2 trans… 800-1000 HP
Enough Said Light weight too; even with the turbos the boxer 6 will be lighter than the LS7 by quite a bit; both dry sump oil systems which is crucial for track use. Boxer engine would have a lower to ground weight placement to improve center of gravity. Use of ALS, anti lag system, you would eliminate lag, boost recovery coming out the turns. Not to mention the ***** of flame coming out and the pops. There is a crowd pleaser for ya
Just thinking about all this, I wish I had the time and extra coin to built one of these myself.

 

for me it would be teh factory five GTM hands down!

story time for me. I wanted one of these for 6 years or so. In fact my lust started with teh cobra coupe kit they do. I really wanted one of those ten years ago. at that time they were just developing the GTM. I loved it! but i had time and space but no money. so i started my current business and built a shop to build my dream car in with my kids while they were still young. I set some business goals. The reward for one of the goals was ordering my GTM and building it. two years ago i met that goal. but now business was going so well i had plenty of money but no space or time to enjoy the build... I waited another year to see if things changed. nothing, I had to do something to treat myself for the hard work. constellation prize last year, my 996 Turbo. To hold me over until i had time in another year or so i figured. well that year is past and things are even busier and doing even better. sales are soaring. i still have way more money then time and space. constellation prize this year. Lotus Evora S and Alpha 28 turbo kit with supporting mods for the Porsche. But that GTM is still high on the list.

 

Yeah I would not even consider a Porsche engine in such a car, an aluminum blocked LS7 type engine is miniscule amounts more weight; but its ability to make reliable power is way greater than the flat 6. A built NRE RSR turbo block can make 1200HP on pump gas all day long and almost 2000hp on race gas if you want to get silly. A normally aspirated FI RSR makes a very very reliable 800hp, totally linear power and relatively cheap too; less then 30g buys a fully built ready to run NRE long block. It is just so hard to compete with that kind of bang for the buck.

 

How much does a DOHC flat six plus two turbos and intercoolers weigh? I find it hard to believe it is less than an LS7. The advantage it would have is keeping the weight down low.

 

Meh, gotta take what I say with a grain of salt sometimes. I start typing shorthand just to keep up with the mind and stuff can easily get taken out of context.

Just coming from my experience with the chassis that's all. The intrax dampers are great for street use and mild track duty but IMO are not consistent when they start to heat up. They also always seem to wear out fast to me(leaking) but then the ones that come with the kits(if ordered) are setup as road dampers with mild track use. Ohlins TTX four ways would certainly top the list of dampers but even those are like you said, over the top and at what cost. A decent set of consistent dampers, which I've always found Motons or Penske's to be just that, would just much better suit the chassis. Everyone has their opinions

Chassis has a very nice balance, and is, errr, ~ stable ~ under braking but IMO(there it is again) the car is a bit uneasy under hard decel from high speed, and is slightly tail happy above 140-150mph. Reminds me alot of how early NSX's drive just with more power and less weight. Awhile back I met a guy from the GTR forums who had made some pretty impressive off the hip suspension geom changes to the front of the car, mainly reducing the scrub radius and changing the location of the upper ball joint(control arm/upright changes of course) which increased the castor angle slightly as well as the front trail. Car became a totally different animal, no tail happy wag and quite a bit more stable under braking. turn in didn't seem to change too much but these cars were fairly balanced if not slightly towards oversteer out of the box(factory settings) He also had some jaguar V12 in it but that's another story lol...

I have the geometry setup in solidworks here. Been a couple years since I have built one of these kits for a customer and brought this info up from the depths so I'd have to fire up the file and get the actual numbers for you.

I'm not that adept in the deep tech stuff of the LSx series motors other than knowing most of the core/crate stuff that GM offers. I know that one can build a serious LSx motor for pennies on the dollar in comparison to the M96/97 motors we have in the p-cars. Just great motors for this type of car. The LSA motor is a perfect motor for someone looking for great out of the box punch(~550hp) for such a small price and now even available as such with a factory warranty from GM with a PCM and harness. Love it!


Lol, I have no idea who that comment comes from. Sounds like something Steve McQueen would say

Cheers!

 

Turncoat... tar and feather.. Oh wait your Canadian...

 

My words in red inside your quote...