Building and assembling your own vehicle is immensely satisfying, hard work. Adding personalized and custom touches makes it all yours, unlike anyone else’s. It also requires great patience with trial and error, potential mistakes, backtracking and repeating steps. Four years of painstaking, creative and very rewarding work. Nearly a year ago I profiled this “Street Legal Race Car”. Well now, it’s built!
Chris Julian finally has completed his Ultima GTR, registered and street legal for maximum fun. Imagine legally driving a car – at least legally from a technical standpoint, if not technique, that would be at home running against true race cars. Running with meaning; just as low, just as quick and almost as light. The Ultima GTR looks similar to the Daytona Prototypes, and it weighs roughly the same, 2300lbs but in this case with a significantly larger motor making more horsepower.
Climbing over the wide sill into the tight, cramped passenger seat takes technique. The fire suppression system interferes with legroom. Don’t disable it accidentally! The 4 point racing harness feels comforting considering how low you sit. The view forward is spectacular, the road looks like it's just in front and right under you with wide bulging front fenders on either side.
Starting up the Corvette Z-06 sourced 427 cubic inch V-8 (LS7) with the headers right behind the passenger compartment announces the fun is going to begin. Even owners of exotics who haven’t assembled anything on their cars all look to see this impossibility roll by. It’s loud, visceral, a little smelly and it’s begging to be run fast. Surprisingly, sitting just 2.75” off the ground at the lowest point still makes for a decent ride on decent roads. The acceleration is fierce, making one laugh out loud and start thinking about only a handful of cars that could accelerate harder on the street. Cornering is flat, period. The limits are far, far too high to explore on the street.
Think about the legendary Cobra. Now lower it, enclose it, add air conditioning, modern brakes, mid-engine layout, fuel injection, modern suspension, minimal weight gain. This is the ultimate modern kit car. It isn’t perfect. It has a minor rattle here, a slight rubbing/clearance problem and a minor tune to optimize the intake and exhaust work the engine has. It was a warm day and despite sitting in traffic and the small cockpit, stayed comfortable inside. It’s well sorted and fantastically fun for home assembly.
Getting it to street legal status takes a few steps. First an application to the DMV, a brake and light inspection by CHP as well as a VIN number assigned and smog for paperwork only. There is no actual smog test nor sound test required. Awesome! The California SPCN/SB100 Street Legal process, although limited to 500 vehicles a year is a process that allows your dream to be licensed for everyday use.
A thorough appraisal was recently done on the car and thanks to the Chris’s talent and innovation; the appraisal by the established Pacific Automobile Appraisers compared the end result to world class one-off concepts from automotive manufacturers and national show winners. I have to concur; it’s nearly a masterpiece thanks to his resources and ability to create special parts.
Many enthusiasts like to assemble and install their own performance parts. Imagine the pride and joy assembling your own car, then improving it like none other of the same model. And then once complete, instead of computer control or interference with the engine power, transmission, suspension, brakes, steering and rear differential, this is a driver’s car, not a car with driver’s “enhancements “ also known as handicaps.
