Noble M600 prototype (2009) CAR review

Don't forget the background to our new Noble M600 car review. Noble first appeared on the scene with the odd-but-good M10, and then captured the automotive world’s attention with the amazing M12 and M400. Now there’s a new car, the M600, with a 650bhp twin-turbo V8 and a £200k price tag. Ambitious? Certainly.

CAR has just driven the M600, and come back very impressed. We visited the company’s Leicestershire HQ for a quick go in the P2 prototype – which looks gloriously edgy with its matt-black bodywork – and for a thorough poke around the mechanically identical and production-ready P3 prototype. The latter is the light blue car you’ll see to the left in our related articles and in a couple of weeks' time we’ll be back in it for a proper road test. Meantime, here are our early driving impressions of the Noble M600…

What has Noble been up to over the last few years?

Quite a lot. Company founder Lee Noble has left, the rights to the M12 and M400 have been sold to American company 1G Racing – which now sells it Stateside as the Rossion Q1 – and the M15 that was to replace the pair has been thoroughly redeveloped.

Power now comes from a Volvo V8 rather than a Ford V6, the redesigned body is carbonfibre rather than GRP, and the interior is bespoke rather than fitted with budget Blue Oval bits and pieces. The name has changed too – to M600 – and the price has risen from a proposed £75k to £200,000.

£200k? Wow – so what’s the Noble M600's interior like?

Very nice, though a little awkward for a tall chap like me to clamber in and out of. But once you’re over the wide sill (covered in carbonfibre) and sat snug within the comfortable Sparco seat everything seems special. The steering wheel is a tiny, tactile, leather-covered item, and there’s a little button hidden behind it that lets you switch between a track day-friendly exhaust note and one that’s (ahem) a little bit louder.

Ahead of the driver are the rev counter and 240mph speedo, while unique-to-Noble toggle switches and dials look after the air-con and other interior systems. They – along with the aftermarket hi-fi – are set within an immaculately finished carbonfibre centre console. The only off-the-shelf parts that you’re able to spot are the air vents, the Audi-sourced interior lights and the same Ford group stalks that you’ll find in an Aston Martin.

And there are other nice touches too, like the fuel and oil filler caps hidden beneath the intakes that sit just behind the side windows. It’s a huge step beyond Nobles of old (the M15 prototype had the steering wheel from a Mk1 Focus), and it only lacks the ultimate sense of occasion that other supercars carry off because there’s isn’t a Prancing Horse on the steering wheel boss or 50 years of racing history.

>> Click 'Next' for the rest of CAR's Noble M600 first drive review