2007 Ultima GTR beats Top Gear Lap Record

(from Ultima Press Release)  British supercar manufacturers Ultima Sports Ltd have this week celebrated their 15th year anniversary in style by obliterating the Top Gear TV Lap Record by over four and a half seconds in their standard production Ultima GTR720 road car, which was a record previously held by the Swedish Koenigsegg CXX.

Driven by Ultimas own Stig, the standard production 200 + mph Ultima GTR720 equipped with fully e-marked road tyres which was driven to the test venue, recorded a blistering fully verified lap time of 1min12.8secs, demolishing the previous record held by the 415,000 Koenigsegg CXX of 1min17.6secs. The record attempt was organized by Ultima Sports Ltd themselves in conjunction with Plans Motorsport after apparently being overlooked by the producers at Top Gear TV over the last couple of years despite repeated approaches.

Richard Marlow, Director of Ultima Sports Ltd commented,
"It came as no surprise to any of us here at the factory that on our very first hot lap in the Ultima GTR the Top Gear TV Lap Record was well and truly beaten leaving all other supercars in its wake which accurately demonstrates the all round performance envelope of the Ultima GTR. I always knew that the GTR could take the crown with ease by a simply huge margin, the fully verified lap time data shows that in a head to head race with the 450,000 Ferrari Enzo the Ultima GTR would lap it every 12 laps! What we have achieved over the last few years with this and all of our previous officially verified world record runs is a clean sweep of the majority of recognized performance parameters in existence all held at the same time. We have collated more independently verified evidence demonstrating the world leading performance statistics of our standard road car than any other car manufacturer in history. Its truly a fantastic feeling which we are all extremely proud of here at Ultima Sports, and whats more these were achieved with just our GTR720 model, we have recently announced a more powerful and faster GTR800 variant for those whom want even more.

It is typical of our company tradition to have set the fastest lap time in history with a relatively affordable supercar which retails in stock form for around one tenth the price of the majority of the supercar competition, and is yet another accomplishment for the automotive history books which perfectly conveys our company philosophy of producing useable, exciting Le Mans inspired GT road cars with unbeatable road presence and giant killing performance. This aptly illustrates the rationale behind the global success of Ultima Sports Ltd since the company was formed in 1992"

Ted Marlow, Managing Director of Ultima Sports Ltd commented,
"We were forced into having to achieve this Top Gear TV track record independently as despite repeated approaches by ourselves, customers and worldwide Ultima fans to Top Gear TV with a view to having the Ultima GTR720 timed around the Top Gear track and road test, no invites were forthcoming.

This was a superb opportunity for us to validate the superb road holding, aerodynamic ability and handling finesse of our British product, as this is one of the few tracks in existence that have verified lap times publicly available for most of the major worldwide supercars in production today, and we are delighted to have an Ultima currently leading such a prestigious performance league table. I was frankly exasperated from watching on the TV all types of supercars from around the world setting hot laps with the Stig at the wheel, and decided that the time had come for a British built supercar to have a crack at the record as I was always confident that our standard product could comfortably take the crown. We have frankly destroyed the existing lap record which proves yet again that the Ultima GTR is in a league of its own"

The event was conducted in conjunction with Plans Motorsport whom were present at the test to oversee and witness the successful road car lap record attempt, their own GPS Race Technology DL1 data logging equipment was fitted to the car for a full set of independently verified lap time data.
The Ultima GTR720 tested is a full road going car with compliant suspension and often used as a daily driver. All the vehicles produced by Ultima Sports Ltd have the usual road luxuries such as air conditioning, ICE, leather trim, sealed luggage carrying compartments and of course road car levels of ground clearance suitable for speed humps and other road obstacles. The Ultima GTR720 is equipped with a standard 5 speed Porsche G50-03 transmission and a standard production option 720bhp engine from the OE engine suppliers American Speed (www.amerspeed.com).

TOP GEAR TV LAP RECORD TIMES TOP TEN

1.  Ultima GTR  - 1 min 12.8 secs

2.  Koenigsegg CXX (with Top Gear spoiler) - 1 min 17.6 secs

3.  Pagani Zonda F - 1 min 18.4 secs

4.  Maserati MC12 - 1 min 18.9 secs

5.  Ferrari Enzo - 1 min 19.0 secs

6.  Ariel Atom - 1 min 19.5 secs

7.  Porsche Carrera GT - 1 min 19.8 secs

8.  Koenigsegg CXX (without Top Gear spoiler)  - 1 min 20.4 secs

9.  Ascari KZ1 - 1 min 20.7 secs

10.  Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren - 1 min 20.9 secs

PERFORMANCE FIGURES FOR ULTIMA GTR720

0-60mph - 2.6secs

0-100mph - 5.3secs

30-70mph - 1.8secs

0-100mph-0 - 9.4secs

100mph-0 - 3.6secs

Standing quarter mile - 9.9secs @143mph

Top Speed - 231mph (gearing limited)

Skidpad (200ft) - 1.176g


NOTE: Performance figures independently verified by official Guinness book of world records timekeepers Datron Technology using GPS timing gear during successful official road car world record runs on road tyres.