Noble Automotive Ltd, more commonly known simply as Noble, is a British sports car manufacturer based in Leicester. Noble Automotive Ltd. was established in 1999 by Lee Noble in Leeds, West Yorkshire, for producing high-speed sports cars with a rear mid-engine, rear-wheel drive layout. Lee Noble was the chief designer and part owner of Noble. The company was sold in August 2006. He left the company in February 2008 and shortly after announced his new venture, Fenix Automotive in 2009.

Noble is a low-production British sports car company, its past products include the M12 GTO, M12 GTO-3, M12 GTO-3R and Noble M400. The M12 GTO-3R and M400 share chassis and body, but have minor differences in engines and suspensions. The M15 has a new space frame chassis. The body and chassis of the Noble is built by Hi-Tech Automotive in Port Elizabeth, South Africa alongside Superformance cars. Once the body shell is completed, it is sent to the Noble factory where the engines, transmissions, etc. are added.

Fenix Automotive Ltd was a British sports car manufacturer founded by Lee Noble in 2009. Lee Noble created the company ten years after the founding of his previous company Noble Automotive. Noble left Noble Automotive in the spring of 2008. Fenix was dissolved on 20 November 2012, after producing only one model.

An unnamed car was under development and was revealed to the press in November 2009. The car was to have a V8 from the Corvette ZR1, lightweight, cost below £75,000 and was due for release near the end of 2010. It was to be manufactured in South Africa. The first images of the prototype car were released in January 2010. In September 2010 Lee Noble told a BBC reporter the Fenix sports car was preparing to move into production.

While Lee Noble has given a strong hint that the car will be a ‘natural, but even more focused’ successor to his iconic M12, his new design is fresh, bold and dramatic, with a premium feel normally associated with exotica costing over £150,000.

Fenix also announced that it will be offering a choice of two engines for the new car. GM’s 480bhp LS3 V8 will be the ’base’ unit, while the 6.2-litre supercharged LS9 V8, as seen in the recently launched Corvette ZR1, will provide customers with a 638bhp power option.

Fenix estimates that the LS9-engined car should accelerate from 0-160 km/h in under seven seconds on its way to a top speed of around 321 km/h.

m10

The Noble M10 is the first car designed and produced by Noble Automotive. It was a two-door, two-seater model built in convertible form only. It is powered by a naturally aspirated 2.5-litre 168 hp engine. It was introduced in 1999, but is no longer in production, having been replaced by the M12. Only 6 cars were ever made as customers moved deposits onto the M12 as soon as its credentials were announced. The M10 is similar in performance to the Lotus Elise in many respects. The Toyota MR2 Spyder is noted for having a somewhat similar appearance to the M10. The first two cars were built at Lee Noble's home garage see Fenix Automotive.

m12

Like the Noble M10, the Noble M12 is a two-door, two-seater model, originally planned both as a coupe and as a convertible. All M12s have been powered by specially tuned turbocharged Ford Duratec V6 engines.

The M12 has a full steel roll cage, steel frame, and fibre glass composite clam shell body parts. These cars are extremely lightweight and stiff. Although track derived, the M12 performs well on both road and track. The coupe evolved through four variants, with the M400 being the ultimate version of the M12, followed by the GTO-3R.

• Noble M12 GTO – 2.5L bi-turbo 310 bhp 
• Noble M12 GTO-3 – 3.0L bi-turbo 352 bhp 
• Noble M12 GTO-3R – 3.0L bi-turbo 352 bhp 

0–100 km/h in 3.7 seconds was published in the official brochure of the M12 GTO-3R, Road and Track indicated a 0–100 km/h performance of 3.3 seconds, but subsequently listed it as 3.5 seconds. Its top speed is listed as 273 km/h. Lateral Gs are reported in excess of 1.2. Noble enthusiasts often modify their cars for even greater performance. It is widely believed that just 165 M12 GTO 3-R models were made in the UK upon the owners findings on such sites as pistonheads.com and even fewer were made for the GTO-3 and GTO versions.

m400

The M400 is the track variant of the M12. Its power-to-weight ratio is over 400 bhp per ton, and is the figure from which its model name derives. It has 425 bhp and has been reported to do 0–100 km/h in as little as 2.97 seconds. Car and Driver (March 2007) achieved a 0–100km/h time of 3.3 seconds and a 0–160 km/h time of 7.52 seconds. Although often listed as 0-100 km/h in 3.5 seconds, the M400 generally comes in at 3.2 seconds according to various publications and generally listed amongst the fastest accelerating cars. Noble indicates only that the car is capable of achieving 0–100 km/h in under 4 seconds. Its top speed is listed as 300 km/h. A top speed of 325 km/h has been achieved by Noble's former press officer. Lateral Gs are reported in excess of 1.2. It has both a 3-point seatbelt and a 5-point harness.

The most notable differences from the M12 are the use of forged pistons, T28 turbos, a front anti-roll bar, stiffer springs, different shocks, Pirelli P Zero tyres, a smoother gear shifter, and a slightly narrower central tunnel as the driver now sits a bit more central than previous models.

The Rossion Q1 is an American mid-engined sports car from American car maker Rossion Automotive. Development on the Rossion Q1 began after the rights to the Noble M400 chassis were acquired in February 2007. The goal was to design a completely new car fusing the sporty strengths of the M400 with luxurious appointments. In June 2013, RP High Performance acquired Mosler Automotive (based in Riviera Beach, Florida USA) and moved the entire manufacturing facility from South Africa to the current location in the United States. Production of the Rossion Q1R, the track version of the existing Q1 model, began in July 2013. A redesign of the Mosler is underway, with the car to be released in the future with no definitive date yet planned. Current Q1 and Q1R models feature a fully carbon-kevlar body.

The 2015 Rossion Q1 has a maximum power of 508 bhp at 4700 rpm, with a torque figure of 706 N⋅m at 4700 rpm. As with the Noble M400, the Q1 uses a 3.0 L  (2,967 cc), twin-turbocharged Ford Duratec V6 engine.

m14

2004

The Noble M14 debuted at the 2004 British Motor Show and generated significant interest in the motoring press. It was planned to compete with the Porsche 911 Turbo and Ferrari F430. It was based on the chassis of the M12, with only minor modifications. It had a new body and a more up market interior. Following the debut of the car Lee Noble decided that the car was insufficiently different from the M12/M400 to justify the price increase despite having taken a number of deposits. Noble instead developed a brand new car, the M15, developing further from the M12 and M14, although the cars have few common components.

m15

Production of the M15 was planned to begin in early 2006, but has not taken place. The Noble M15 was intended to appeal to a far broader market and compete directly with the Porsche 911 Turbo and Ferrari F430. As a result, the Noble M15 was expected to have a number of features not previously found on Nobles such as satnav, traction control, electric windows and ABS. The company issued a press release about the M15, stating that the M15 will be produced after the introduction of the M600. The M15 of the future will be different than the car shown in 2006.

The car was based on a brand new platform with a longitudinally mounted engine connected to a bespoke gearbox created by Graziano. The double wishbone suspension is a development of the system mounted on the M400. Mounting the engine longitudinally allowed the designer to increase cooling flow to the engine which allows the 3.0L twin turbo V6 to produce 455 bhp. The engine was designed to meet emissions regulations and the new steel/aluminium space frame was designed with a view to passing crash test regulations around the world. The M15 was planned to be the first Noble to gain European and US Type Approval.

m600

2010-present

In 2010, Noble began sales production of the M600. It has a Volvo twin-turbocharged V8 engine, producing 650 bhp, a carbon fibre body shell, and a 6-speed Graziano gear box. It competes in the same category as the Ferrari F430. The 1,300 kg M600 can accelerate from 0–100 km/h in 3.5 seconds and requires only another 4 seconds to achieve 160 km/h. It has over 1G of grip on the skid pad. The brake discs in the Noble M600 are steel. The Noble comes with no ABS or ASM. It does have TC as standard, although this can be totally disable via a fighter jet style missile switch. The Noble M600 has a high reputation as a pure driver's car.

Noble publicly tested an M600 prototype 2 in the US, comparing its performance with a Porsche Carrera GT and Ferrari Enzo. This prototype was detuned to 500 bhp.

m500

The Noble M500 is the new supercar from the small British brand. The first customer deliveries should happen before the end of the year, according to Autocar.

The M500 will use a Ford-sourced 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 with a planned output of around 550 horsepower. The engine runs through a six-speed manual from Graziano, and the driver rows through a gated shifter in the cabin.

The car will ride on a tubular steel chassis with the mid-mounted engine behind the vehicle's occupants. As standard, the bodywork makes use of glass-reinforced composite panels, but Noble intends to offer carbon-fiber pieces as an option to reduce weight.

The M500's styling is similar to the earlier M600. Around 70 percent of the chassis design comes from the previous model. The two vehicles are also the same length, and the M500 is a few millimeters wider than the company's older machine.

Noble's low volume production status would never have supported its own engine design, with no other viable option than off-the-shelf Ford units powering every model from the M10 right up until the M400 of 2006.

The Duratec series first appeared in 1993 powering a range of cars for the Ford, none however were required to deliver the same level of performance Nobel required. Heavily revised in-house, the most obvious update is a pair of turbochargers boosting output in the 2.5-liter form to 310 hp, later cars with bigger turbos and enlarged cylinders easily copying with 400+ hp.

www.noblecars.com