In the final episode of the series, Tim and Fuzz take on a zero-mile Ultima that had only been dry-assembled. Turned out to be harder than it sounded…
Restoring a car is one thing but taking on a supercar that has never been fully built is another. Enter plumber Keith’s Ultima MkIII, which he had owned for three decades without it ever turning a wheel on the road. Indeed, we discovered some amazing facts about the car when we started unpicking its trial-assembled parts at Ric Wood Motorsport.
A chance glance at the odometer revealed that it had recorded a grand total of two miles. This could easily have been the result of a new speedometer being fitted but, with drive to the unit connected and undisturbed, the likelihood was that this reading was correct.
Opening the fuel filler cap, we were greeted with the aroma of, well… nothing. The rubber race-type fuel tank bladder clearly had never contained a drop of petrol.
Removal of the oil cooler pipes, oil filter and both cam covers confirmed that it was a completely unrun car. Although the Peugeot-Renault-Volvo 2.9-litre V6 engine had obviously been lifted from a donor vehicle, it appeared rebuilt and unfired in its current state. With no traces of fluids anywhere it became clear that Keith had likely recorded the two miles while pushing it in and out of its garage over three decades.
Yet, other things we found included an offside front wishbone that showed signs of impact damage – very odd for a car that has never run.
Ric and his crack team decided the only way to deal with the project was to treat it as a fresh build. So, the car was completely stripped, including the
