By Dean Larson

The Ultima GTR and Can Am still strike me as modern and great looking cars despite being decade old designs and having been superseded by the new Ultima Evolution. These cars often boast huge power figures from mid-mounted GM LS engines and don’t seem to sacrifice looks for lightweight, all-out performance like some others do. If you’re shopping for a completed Ultima, chances are you’re spending six figures, or close to it. So why then is this Can Am up for auction on Bring a Trailer.com sitting at just $42,000 with less than a day remaining? Is this Can Am the ultimate deal, or does it fall short of other examples?

This Ultima Can Am has a lot of things going for it. To reiterate, this is a fantastic looking car, and the Can Am configuration (lacking a roof) is sure to get looks anywhere with its radical wrap-around windshield. The 18-inch OZ wheels look great on the Ultima and the Toyo R888 rubber has only seen 2,000 miles. The Can Am is registered under California SB 100 and is smog-exempt. 

To get the negatives (if you want to call them that) out of the way, this Can Am is an older example having been purchased in 2004 and completed in 2007. The seller reports that there is some superficial cracking on a front wheel arch, we’d assume a rock was thrown up from the tire. It also doesn’t have quite as much horsepower as some of the ridiculous 700+ hp cars have. The Can Am sports a nice looking 525 hp 383 cubic-inch small-block Chevrolet built by Schwarts Performance of Illinois with a Hilborn ITB EFI system and stainless exhaust. The Can Am has been enjoyed for 8,500 miles since completion.

Other than these minuscule factors, I’m not seeing why this Can Am hasn’t reached twice this amount. Sure, the bidding on BAT has been known to heat up within the last few hours of an auction, but if the price on this machine is going to double, there’s certainly a whole load of bidders that haven’t shown up yet. Also, the last 10 bids in the auction have been in small increments, only increasing the price by $10,000, usually indicative of an auction approaching sale price. We’ve seen some wild things happen in BaT auctions (like a ’94 Ford truck selling for $17,250) so it’s possible that the Can Am will reach a more realistic number in the next 21 hours, but we’ll definitely be tuned it to watch where this auction goes. Check it out here at BringaTrailer.com.