NOBLE M500

Twelve years since launching the M600, the niche British supercar firm presents a cheaper, V6-powered successor

- MATT PRIOR

Noble is back- only it never really went away. I'm inclined to think of Leicestershire's supercar maker as the antithesis of TVR. With that, there's plenty of noise, loads of bluster, lots of promises, a huge (unopened) facility and loads of customer demand... but no car. And Noble? It has a small unit in which it has been making M600s since 2010. No fuss, no bother. It's there if you want it. It's just that not so many people do.

That's a shame, because the M600 is a belting car to drive. At launch, the 650bhp from its twin-turbocharged YamahaVolvo-Judd 4.4-litre V8 was a heady amount for a supercar (most of them wouldn't get out of bed for a number starting with a six these days), while the six-speed manual gearbox and the absence of anti-lock brakes have become bigger anachronisms over time - but not necessarily unappealing ones.

A new Ferrari, wonderful though it is, has an automated hybrid engine, an automated gearbox, an automated limitedslip differential, an automated slip control... You can see where I'm going. For a certain kind of buyer, the kind who mourns the demise of the Lotus Exige, maybe there's still a niche in that market. Lotus is fast selling out of its relatively straightforward Emira, after all. Anyway, Noble's new car, the M500, aims to sit in that niche. It's more attainable than the M600 that it replaces, less powerful and cheaper to make, so out goes the 4.4-litre V8 that arrived in Leicester in a crate and took a heap of work before it made its way into the car. (Noble has a few left; you can pick one up on eBay.) In comes Ford's Ecoboost 3.5-litre V6, which is rather easier to turn up to the 506bhp it gets.

Mid-mounted, it drives through a six-speed manual gearbox, which is supplied by Graziano and used to be offered in the Audi R8.

Rear-driven, this prototype has an open differential, but customer cars will get a mechanical limited-slip one.