It’s been some time since we’ve seen a new offering from Noble Automotive, but the British sports car manufacturer has recently released details on its latest offering: the M600.
Noble has long been wrenching on a successor to its storied M12 (currently sold by 1G Racing here in the U.S. as the Rossion Q1). Two different designs have been proposed over the past nine years, but the firm ultimately decided to further develop its next model.
The M600 is a bit of a departure for Noble--yes, it’s still an angular, two-seat, midengine sports car, but don’t look for a six-cylinder engine behind the firewall. The M600 makes use of Volvo’s 4.4-liter V-8 (the same engine found in the XC70), but with two turbochargers bolted on. Although this modified engine can feasibly produce as much as 750 hp, in production form, it’s limited to 650 hp and 604 lb-ft of torque. Though Noble has toyed with various manu-matic gearboxes in the past, only a six-speed manual transmission offered.
While the M12 and M400 were decidedly hardcore, track-tuned prodigies, the M600 is designed to offer more creature comforts to both the driver and passenger. The interior is awash in leather and carbon fiber, and is far more ergonomically pleasing than the M12.
These extra comforts (and extra development time) don’t come cheap. Although Noble had originally hoped to offer the car at a £75,000 ($125,000) price point, the company now expects pricing to begin at £200,000 ($330,000). We haven’t heard if the M600 will make its way stateside, but seeing as the scuttled M15 was designed for U.S. DOT compliance, there’s at least a chance the latest Noble could head our way as well.
SOURCE: rumors.automobilemag
