Albion Ultimate 12

The **Albion Ultimate 12** is a GT2 created by JustAlex93 and first featured in *MotorStorm: Return to the Wild*.

It is reclassified as a GT1 from *MotorStorm: Transylvania Unleashed* onwards.

## Details

In the 1990s, Albion decided that it would build the fastest road-legal performance car in the world, moreso than the Cougar Mecum, as well as to start a race program for the English GT Championship with a racing version of this new vehicle.

The first result of their design studies came in the form of a concept mockup introduced at the 1996 British Motor Show, designated "Concept 712". Its striking looks attracted more crowds than any other car showcased there at the time. The "712" in its designation referred to the engine, a 48-valve 7.7L V12 that Albion claimed would produce over 800 bhp. For the racing model of the vehicle, an FIA GT1 class car in development at the time, it would be restricted to 660 bhp but with the car's weight kept at 1,000 kg. The engine, formed from two in-house Inline-6s mated onto a single crankshaft to create a V12, had a block that is made of steel, unusual for an automobile of its type. It would have a 6-speed Dillinger manual gearbox and a carbon fibre body over a tubular steel chassis.

After the Motor Show, the car returned to Blackpool for further developments, with the 1st mock-up left aside in order to build working prototypes. A second mock-up was made, featuring its own mechanical parts but with no engine.

The first working version of the car, which is to be named the Ultimate 12, is a racing vehicle built and preppeed to compete under the GT1 regulations. It also made an appearance on the British motoring TV programme *Final Drive*. Tests showed that it had a top speed of 245 miles per hour (blimey!) and goes from 0 to 60 in 2.9 seconds (double blimey!). The Ultimate 12's engine was tested on a dyno that was rated for 1,000 bhp, causing said dyno's input shaft to break down (bloody hell!).

However, the Ultimate 12 would face problem after problem, leading it to eventually be scrapped.

The original installation of the V12 engine presented some engineering challenges. The exhausts were routed down the middle of the car along the transmission tunnel, as seen with road cars. However, the transmission tunnel also acted as a load-bearing structure, forcing the driver's seat closer to the side because of its size (not ideal for racing when side impacts occur), and the exhausts generated a lot of heat, making the cockpit unbearably hot in race conditions.

Moreover, changes in regulations made it so that the Ultimate 12 would never get to go racing under the GT1 class.

Not wanting their work to go to waste, the team focused their efforts to develop the road car.

With the scrapping of the Ultimate 12 racer, Albion went back to the drawing board to develop a new version of the car using the same engine but with a few other parts, as a GT2 class racer (which would also have a road-legal homologation version), the Canberra 12.

## Gallery

White Ultimate 12Mobyl Ultimate 12Skyffel blue Ultimate 12Valodol Ultimate 12Blue Ultimate 12
## Trivia

* The Ultimate 12 is visually based on the TVR Speed 12 (predecessor to the later Cerbera Speed 12), with the taillights of the Nismo GT-R LM and the headlights of the 1990 Peugeot 905.