Exclusive: Noble returns with 550bhp, £150k M500 supercar
The M600 was a labour-intensive car to build, but Boutwood said: “We would like [the M500] to be as easy to make as possible.”
It’s less powerful than the mid-engined establishment but, with its purity, it should weigh less. Boutwood said the prototype weighs nearly 1400kg but that with production parts, most notably in the body, “I reckon we will get it to 1250kg”. Many supercar makers quote a dry weight more than that. In the M600’s 2009 road test, we weighed it fully fuelled at just 1305kg.The M500 will come with carbonfibre upgrade options, common on supercars, to keep weight to a minimum.
Either way, the M500’s performance is likely to be sparkling. Even in its current tune, the 3.5-litre Ecoboost V6 makes 506bhp at 5250rpm and 594lb ft at 4000rpm, and just as significantly, 500lb ft is available from only 2500rpm. Its outright acceleration figures will never match those of rivals that have semi-automatic transmissions and launch control systems. But even with a manual gearbox that required a shift to second gear before 60mph, the M600 sprinted in our hands from 0-60mph in a traction-limited 3.5sec. We would expect the M500 to be similarly quick, plus Boutwood said the top speed will be a little under 200mph.
The M600 still garners attention, not least as it’s one of the stars of the film Fast and Furious 9, but only a couple of dozen coupés ever hit the roads, and only two soft-topBoutwood would like to do better with the M500 to the tune of up to 50 cars per year. That would still be modest compared with mainstream rivals but “would be mass production for us”, he said.
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