Revealed: the story behind the 'lost' McLaren V12-engined Ultima prototype

Admittedly, there’s “not much refinement” in the chassis. Fair bit of lift. And dive. Almost like “jelly on a plate”. A feeling that this car wasn’t really designed to handle this much… engine.

But chassis wizardry isn’t the point of this car. It’s all engine. Welcome, one and all, to ‘Edward’: a one-off kit car bearing a monster V12 from a lightly famous Nineties supercar, and one heck of a story behind it.

Back in 1990, the McLaren F1 – you may have heard of it – was being developed, and its carbon chassis was still two years away from being finalised. Its engineers needed a capable base into which they could bolt some brakes, a clutch, a gearbox, some cooling, a driving seat and a monster engine.

Hilariously, an original Ferrari Testarossa was apparently considered – briefly – before being dismissed as too extravagant by Gordon Murray. You may have heard of him. So instead, the team plumped for an Ultima kit car.

To this, McLaren initially strapped in a massive 7.5-litre Chevy V8 – not the most refined, but enough to test the componentry needed on the eventual F1 road car. This first mule was called ‘Albert’, named after the road outside the workshop it was built in. How very British.

Fast-forward two years, and McLaren finally got the parcel it was waiting for: the 6.1-litre V12 engine from BMW. The team strapped this V12 into a second Ultima chassis and called it ‘Edward’.

Both mules were worked hard right up until the McLaren F1 went into production, and the reward for the fine service they did? They were completely stripped and crushed inside a breaker’s yard closed off to Joe Public. McLaren didn’t want any of its F1 tech leaking out.

So, welcome back to ‘Edward’: a one-off Ultima kit car with a ‘spare’ McLaren F1 V12, rebuilt from the ground up to mirror the original Nineties ‘Edward’, by Mouse Motors.

You might want to turn this one up loud…