Noble M500 debuts at Goodwood with Ford GT engine and Corvette headlights
Compared with its big brother, the M600, the new Noble is expected to be down on price, and up on comfort.
The Southern California native briefly lived in Sydney, and is proud to have developed a barely passable Aussie accent. He also serves on the board of directors of the Motor Press Guild. When not reviewing cars or nerding out on OEM premium audio, you can find manual-labor-averse Manuel doing his best to convince his closest friends to fix the very Porsche that delivered him home.
The new Noble M500 was just unveiled at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. And while it's positioned to be, according Noble's Twitter, the "friendlier little brother to the mighty M600," there's a good chance this could be a better all-rounder.
The British sports car company introduced the bonkers M600 back in 2009, and while that machine was met with praise, it still lacked basic amenities like an anti-lock braking system.
However, what the M500 lacks is it's big brother's masterpiece V8 engine. Instead, a 550-horsepower, twin-turbo Ford EcoBoost V6 will be sitting amidships routing power to the rear wheels via a dual-clutch gearbox, according to Autocar. Hopefully that V6 is not the new Noble's Achilles heel. When on duty inside the current Ford GT , the boosted Ford motor is arguably one of the worst-sounding engines in production today. Hopefully the engineering wizards at Noble can fix this issue, but if they can't, then maybe future owners will just have to rely on the M500's sound insulation to quell that V6's wretchedness.
We can definitely see the Ford GT and Chevy Corvette influence here. There's even a bit of Bugatti Chiron in that design.
Being the small car company that is, Noble had to rummage around the parts bins of some other manufacturers, too. If those headlights look familiar, it's because they're from the Chevrolet Corvette . With its C-shaped air intakes along the flanks, it appears Noble also derived some inspiration from the Bugatti Chiron.
Though this car's look is aggregated, it's one of the most attractive examples of parts-bin design we've seen. The Noble M500 would look at home in the next Bond film. Maybe the color is to blame, but the new supercar also seems to pay tribute to the Bruno Sacco-designed Mercedes-Benz C111-II -- one of the coolest concept cars to come out of the 1970s.
But if the dynamics of the M600 are any indicator, the M500 is poised to offer one of the present day's greatest thrill rides. Details are still scarce as the car is early in its development -- the vehicle on display at Goodwood lacks an interior -- but according to Autocar, citing an interview with Noble's managing director Peter Boutwood, the M500 with its fiberglass body is targeted to be priced much lower than the $450,000 carbon-bodied M600.
Good news for GT lovers is that the new Noble is aimed at everyday comfort, which is in contrast to the M600's hair-on-fire ethos, so while the M500 is down 110 horsepower to its older counterpart, its added amenities should make up for the power deficit.