- Hopped-up John Player Special Ultima -

[Asso_man!]

My very first RC grade car was a first gen Utlima my Dad offered me in 1987'ish and I had a blast with it for several years until it was replaced with a TopCat and I started racing at club level.
Since then, I have badly wanted to build one with all the nice hop-ups that I couldn't afford back then (the only one I bought BITD was a motor guard) or that were not even available here in Europe (no internet back then and very few hop-up brands available). That dream came true not so long ago when I finally gathered almost all the parts needed to start building one!

This is the pile of stuff with which I started:



As you can see there is:

- a never run on-road chassis that will be the donor
- a NIP Turbo Ultima chassis
- Trinity shock towers (I will have to adapt the front one)
- Trinity turnbuckles
- Composite Craft top deck
- Yokomo wheel adapters
- 48dp Robinson racing ball diff
- optional sway-bars

The tranny:



Trinity stuff:



This is how far I got for the moment:



Since then, I was able to also source the following:

- Trinity 64dp spur gear and counter gear
- Trinity gold front king pins
- JC Racing wheels
- Thorp CVD's
- Roll cage
- New bodyshell with decals

The search goes on while the build is stopped because of a lack of time to be dedicated in the basement...

I am hardly looking for a NIP or like new rear motor guard!

[GoMachV]

Very cool! I'm a big fan of the old hop ups. Those trinity turnbuckles may have been soft but they are sure sexy!
You probably don't want to hack a hole in that minty chassis but this build is crying for a Robinson Tracker kit

[Asso_man!]

Very cool! I'm a big fan of the old hop ups. Those trinity turnbuckles may have been soft but they are sure sexy!
You probably don't want to hack a hole in that minty chassis but this build is crying for a Robinson Tracker kit

They are soft indeed and quite hard to source, but this will never be run as long as it's mine anyway, even though I will build it as if I would run it.
The tracker kit is the one that allows you to change rear toe-in with a wrench right? I don't think I would be able to drill the chassis I'm afraid

[DennisM]

Not a bad start
Is it going sit on Option House gold shocks? It´ll look neat next to the turnbuckles.

[Asso_man!]

Not a bad start
Is it going sit on Option House gold shocks? It´ll look neat next to the turnbuckles.

Most definitely!

[Hcp22]

The Ultima was also my first car when I joined a club. So this bring back lot of memories

[Bormac]

I love your build so far. I used to race a Turbo Ultima back in the day and would love to own another some day. Not quite the standard car but a version built with some other extras.
I watch yours with interest.

[rangerg]

I like the ball diff. - great mix of hop-ups.

[RichieRich]

Very nice. You have some fantastic hop-ups there.

[Coelacanth]

Looks like the makings of a sweet car. Looking forward to the construction!

[kink]

Cool parts. This should look great!

[flipwils11]

Excellent start.

[HKS_TRD]

I'll be watching this project with great interest as I'm going to be starting an Ultima build myself in the near future

[crusaderlyf]

Great! I have these graphite shock tower set,that were released for JJ version ultima

[Asso_man!]

Great! I have these graphite shock tower set,that were released for JJ version ultima

What is a JJ version please? Anyway, this is not intended to be a period correct build, I'm mainly after a nice race look and feel. I am currently looking for a nice JPS decal sheet to do a gold/black body So this might end up being a gen1 UM-JPS

The only problem with these graphite towers is that the front one which has a raised portion in between the two posts. I'll have either to mill/trim it down until the radio plate can be flush with the front bulkhead or simply dremel a slot so that the radio plate can pass through, but then I'll have another issue with teh body as well. We'll see... I really need to start again this project as I keep on gathering more hop-ups. New pics coming soon hopefully!