Thursday, January 27, 2011

Hold On to Your Spleen!

2012 Noble M600
Now, normally I write posts on cars that are or may be available on our shores. This car, however, won't be available on our turf, but I really have to tell you about it. This car was initially built by 4 guys in some shed in the UK, but the outcome is certainly stunning. They call it the Noble M600 and despite being a supercar and costing well over $200,000, it's not what you call "noble".

Side View
This is by far the craziest supercar you will ever drive, that is if you live in the UK. It takes the 4.2-liter V8 engine from an old Volvo XC90 and adds two turbochargers to it. The output is a stratospheric 650 horsepower engine connected to a traditional Recaro 6-speed manual gearbox. Unlike most lightweight supercars that have bodies built with carbon fiber, the Noble's body was built with stainless steel, but the 4 guys in a shed managed to build it as light as possible. Therefore, this car weighs just 2,750 lb. Because of this weight, 0 to 60 MPH is done in 3 seconds flat on its way to a top speed of 225 MPH making it one very fast British supercar.

It Will Bite Your Foot Off
 Achieving this speed and maintaing it in the corners is very hard work since Noble put no ABS in the brakes of this car. So, the wheels will easily lock up if you slam on the brakes. Also, in the corners, it is very precise. One tiny error, and you'll be spinning out or having a terrible crash. But, what makes this car better than most supercars is that it is both very hard and very easy to drive. There are three modes that you can have the car in when you're driving: Road, Track, and Race. In Road mode, the horsepower is decreased from 650 to 450, all the traction aids are on, and the suspension has been softened. When you're in Road mode, you'll feel so comfortable, it's like sitting on a fat cat. If you want to take it up a notch, you can push it up to Track mode where horsepower is increased to 550, traction aids are set to half, and the suspension gets much tighter. Then, if you want to go insane, there's Race mode, where you'll have the maximum amount of horsepower and the suspension is at its stiffest. This is truly an amazing car. It's a shame that it's only available in Britain. 

Interior View
But, if you do live in Britain and have £200,000 in your pocket, you'll be able to drive one of these when it comes out in March. Before these pics were released though, Top Gear's car boar Jeremy Clarkson tested a prototype of this car on the Top Gear test track. The STIG got in it as well and set a lap time of 1:17.7 making it faster than a Pagani Zonda F. Check out the epic-ness below.


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