Ultimate starts off exiting the station using two drive chains underneath the train, it then turns a corner just outside of the station to reach the first lift hill. The first lift leads to the first big drop of the ride. When the train has got to the bottom of the drop it then bounces over two large bunny hills before travelling at speed along the track towards the second lift. On approach to the second lift, the train goes over several small bunny hills and then climbs onto the lift. At the top of the lift, the train goes round a left hand corner pointing it in the direction of the woods. The train then drops into a heavily wooded section and rattles its way through the woods. After at least five banked turns, the train travels down an offroad track and through a double helix tunnel. The last section of the ride can often stall the train on cold days and most mornings. The train often has to get pulled along with a JCB digger to make it onto the return lift hill and back into the station.
Building Ultimate
Ultimate represented an investment of £5.2 million and was the concept of the park's original owner, Robert Staveley. Construction work began in early 1990 and took eighteen months to complete before the opening to the public on 17 July 1991. While Ultimate was designed by Big Country Motioneering, they were not involved with the completion of the project. Lightwater Valley's owner got engineers from British Rail to oversee the construction. A few sections of track on the second half of the ride were redesigned to change their banking. The track was made by "Tubular Engineering". Set within of woodland, Ultimate takes passengers on a 7 minute 34 second ride along of tubular steel track, with two lift hills of respectively which rest on Canadian redwood trestles. It currently runs two trains on a normal day, each of which can hold a maximum of 38 passengers. It originally had over the shoulder restraints but after complaints of uncomfort, these were changed to a giant lap bar.
Incidents
In June 1994, a deer from a nearby forest strayed onto the track and was hit by the train. A 12-year-old boy was taken to the hospital as a result of the accident. In September 2014, another collision with a deer on the track occurred. No riders were injured, but the deer was killed instantly. Park officials stated that although the perimeter is fenced off, animals such as deer occasionally get in.
Ultimate was recreated as "The Storm" in the "Katie's Dreamland" scenario in the original RollerCoaster Tycoon PC game.
Trains
Ultimate has two trains: both are dark blue. The trains consist of ten cars with two rows of two seats. The front car has one row so the train can carry a maximum of 38 riders. The front car has a small locomotive modelled on the front car instead of two extra seats. Due to the ride duration of over 7 minutes, taking into account the ride's two trains and their respective riders per train, the Ultimate has an estimated maximum capacity of roughly 400 riders per hour.
