The
Noble M400 doesn’t just look as if it would be at home on a race track – it is. But it’s also a super road car. Ideal for being driven fast on the road and for track days. The performance figures are sensational enough - 175 mph top speed, 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds and 0-100 in around 8.0 seconds. The Porsche 911 Turbo can’t get near those acceleration figures, and you’ll need something like a Ford GT or a Pagani Zonda to do better. Twice to four times the price!
But those performance figures tell only half the story. The Noble M400 also handles and brakes superbly, and has surprisingly supple suspension.
Classic British sporty coupe
A classic British sporty coupe, the M400 has a low nose, faired in headlamps and a low coachroof with fastback buttresses that run into the body each side of the mid-mounted engine. You get smart multi-spoke alloy wheels, and at the back, there is a large fixed wing above the spoiler built-in to the tail. Also, as on sports racers, both the front and rear ends hinge up to give good access.
Derived from the successful Noble M12 GTO-3R, itself a prodigious performer, the M400 gets an extra 75 bhp from the turbocharged engine, a larger front air intake and scoop side intakes for the engine and oil cooler. The specification is different in many ways to make the car suitable for track days as well as road use, including different tires, seats and the addition of a front anti-roll bar. Inside, the car is simple and certainly not opulent, but efficient.
Track and road test
I drove this sensational rocket both on a simple rectangular track with long straight and long corners, and also on the road. I started on the track. You need to duck down pretty low to get in, but access is not bad, and there is a simple bucket seat. I adjusted it to suit me, noted that the pedals are offset slightly, and got comfortable. The seats are thin, but quite pleasantly trimmed in a black fabric, the rest of the interior being trimmed in black Alcantara. Surprisingly, that big wing doesn’t get in the way of the rear view much at all.
The straights on this simple track are very wide, so you don’t get much of an impression of speed. The short ends are also wide, so you take them as 180-degree curves, turning the rectangle into an oval. We were using this short track as the main track was closed that day.
You can adjust the steering column for reach, and the speedo and rev-counter are right there in front of you. Black numbers on a white background - exactly what you want. As with most supercars these days, you start the engine by pressing a button – in this case on the center console beneath the minor instruments. The Noble-Ford V-6 springs to life instantly, and after finding out how the car goes, I try a standing start from the bottom end of the track.
0-100 mph in about 9 seconds – from a fairly slow start
A standing start at about 3,000 rpm saw the car leap ahead so quickly that I had a job to grab the gear lever and change up before the limited cut in at 7,200 rpm – and the same thing as I shifted up to third. Then, and later I found that the speedo and rev counter were easily seen whatever you were doing – it was just the speed with which the engine rushed from 6,000 to 7,200 rpm that had me on the limiter, which of course wasted tenths of seconds.
When you first drive the Noble M400 fast you find you’re knocking on the door of the rev limiter a lot, the ratios in the Getrag six-speed gearbox being pretty close together. After a while you get the hang of it, and keep the revs between about 3,000 to 6,000 rpm, using the torque provided by the twin turbochargers.
On the track, you shift up at 6,500-6,800 rpm – peak power of 425 bhp is produced at 6,500 rpm. Maximum torque of 390 lb ft (528 Nm) comes at 5,000 rpm, but there’s bags of torque low down.
Terrific engine, with 143 bhp per liter
This is a terrific engine, heavily modified by Noble. It starts life as Ford’s modular V-6 which has an alloy block and heads. Nearly all the internal parts are replaced by Noble. The engine has forged pistons, high-lift camshafts, turbos – these are larger than on the M12 - a remapped engine controller, a large-capacity baffled sump, suitable for track days and an oil cooler as standard.
I didn’t have time to think about that as the M400 hurtled off up the slope piling on the speed. About 9 seconds after starting off, I was doing 100 mph, and still accelerating hard uphill, the engine roaring behind me. Sound insulation isn’t in the vocabulary at Noble, the V-6 engine starting with a rumble, and rising to a throaty roar, which although noisy is a pleasant sound, and without the banshee howl you get with higher revving naturally aspirated engines. (I think sound insulation is entering their realm now they're working on a more refined road car, but that'll be another story.)
Lusty acceleration to 130 mph on a short straight
But…and this is the point: uphill it might be, but this lusty V-6 just piles on the power thrusting the M400 forward at an astonishing rate, pushing the speed up to 130mph in almost no time, before we reach the crest of the hill.
Still accelerating, I can see a row of bollards blocking off the track. But the turn to the right is well before them, and all I can see where there should be a corner is grass! I ease off a bit and eventually, the tarmac gap in the grass shows up so I brake smartly to about 80 mph while shifting down to third, and turn in heading for the corner of the grass. I discovered later that owing to the massive torque of the engine, fourth is the best gear for these curves.
Sharp turn in where you point it
Immediately, I can see how well the car turns in. The steering is highly geared, and the front end just responds immediately, turning in quickly but without any drama.
The steering has the same gearing as on the M12 but it has a bit more lock – ideal when you need to put some opposite lock on. The M400 just goes where you point it, no hesitation, like the thoroughbred it is.
Race-developed wishbone suspension
Noble uses double wishbone suspension, designed to keep the wheels vertical front and rear, the rear wishbones having a very wide base to maintain good geometry when the engine is delivering full power. This is the result of years of designing high-performance cars by Lee Noble, the head of Noble Automotive. Unlike the M12, the M400 has a tubular anti-roll bar at the front, designed to give some understeer on faster corners.
So here I am at a fast corner, turning the sharp right-angle corners into a long sweeping bend. First time round, and I ease the throttle gently forward, hold the lock steady and feel the g force pushing me against the side of the seat. The M400 follows its line to where someone has thoughtfully placed a small bollard just where the apex of the imaginary 180-degree bend would be.
Understeer on the long curve -
The Noble skirts around it holding the line, but now with more power on, the understeer comes in, and I add more lock and come out of the corner nice and wide, using the width of the track. Mind, you don’t want to go onto the grass here as there isn’t much room before you’d be in the trees, but that would have to be in something else, I’m thinking, as I pile on the power down the straight.
Shifting up through the gears, I hit 140 mph before I start wondering about braking. This side most of the track is very rough so you hug the inside before peeling off and braking to enter the corner from the outside of the track. I enter the corner faster this end as it is easier to see where you’re going, and straight away the understeer gets me.
- increased by ridged track
There’s a reason for this: there are ridged joints dividing the track into sections, and also down the middle. There’s just a little understeer early on, which I can feel easily though the superb Pirelli P-Zero Corsa Motorsport tires, and turn the wheel a little further. With the power on, the understeer increases as the front tires hit each ridged joint in the track. Throughout the curve the M400 feels enormously stable as if you could do this all day! Mind you, with the power on, a lot of weight is transferred to the back end.
Hands-off at over 100 mph – no problem!
Noble say that the combination of the suspension set-up on the M400 with the new 225/40 x 18 front and 265/35 x 18 rear tires gives the car greater stability than the M12, with hands-off capability at 170 mph. Well, I didn’t try it flat out, but I can vouch for the fact that you can drive at well over 100 mph with hands off, and on a bumpy surface at that! I wouldn’t recommend that on most cars.
After quite a few laps enjoying the stunning acceleration – and this in the 90-140 mph range – it was clear that the M400 has superb brakes, a quick and positive gearshift, but with quite a quite wide gate. You need to be very positive when you shift from fourth to fifth – the sort of thing you get used to once you’re driving the car regularly.
Excellent steering feel
There’s excellent feel through the steering, particularly when the car starts to understeer, which it does in a very stable way. You never feel you’re likely to just drift off into the weeds, and if you need to reduce the amount of understeer, you can lift off slightly.
If you’ve got full power on you need to lift off gently though, as a sharp lift off would throw the weight back onto the front end increasing grip, which would then turn in sharply, giving the potential of a spin!
Normally, I would say that a little less understeer would be a good thing, but the conditions of the track made it difficult to give a firm judgement on that point.
Great fun on the road
After that bit of excitement, I drove the car on the road, knowing that the M400 was a car with pedigree. Immediately you find a straight and press the accelerator, you’re at the next corner before you know where you are, and of course, you get that sense of speed as the hedges rush by.
Now I’m in unknown territory on some country roads in the middle of England. I soon feel very at home in this car, powering round then bends, and letting the engine rip on the straights, and just needing the occasional dab at the brakes – no more, thanks to the high cornering power of the chassis. On strange roads, it is mostly a case of driving within my limit which is miles below that of the car.
Overtaking is just amazing; find the shortest straight you can imagine, get the engine at 4,000 rpm upward, and you’ll blast past anything in no time, despite that fact that when some people see the Noble M400 behind them, they go faster!
Place it just where you want
The steering is so precise on these narrow roads, and the car that compact that you can place it exactly where you want to. More surprising is that the suspension is amazingly supple yet keeps everything in control. The combination of AP calipers and 13-inch discs all round brings you back to any speed you want with plenty of feel. Incidentally, these brakes are optimised for the road so if you want to some serious trackdays, you’d be better to fit the optional harder pads when you get to the track.
Good damping for all conditions
Some of these roads are switchbacks, and on one you go down a steep hill which turns up sharply at the bottom – the sort of place where many a supercar would bottom out. Not the M400, thanks to the slightly stiffer suspension than the M12, and the new Multimatic Dynamic Suspensions dampers, designed specially to suit the car.
Multimatic supplied the coil spring/damper units, and the car was tested on their four-post rig and on the Nurburgring to optimise settings. The suspension is just fabulous, ironing out the bumps, yet holding the car from rolling during cornering.
Also contributing to the smoothness of the performance, especially on slower corners is an important mechanism working quietly away in the background: the Quaife torque-sensing limited slip differential. You don’t know it is there on dry roads.
Fine on motorways, main roads and in town, too
Despite the stiffer suspension, which is hard at low speed, and the thin semi-racing seats, I found it a good deal more comfortable than I expected. After three hours I was still sitting comfortably, having driven on the track, on quiet country roads, which were twisty and hilly, and then cruised along the motorway.
Clearly the M400 is an everyday car with trackday potential – in fact, most owners do track days now and again, and the Pirelli tires are designed to take this in their stride. If you’re not into track days, and want better wet road performance, Noble recommend the M12 GTO-3R, which has Bridgestone SO-3s.
With the stunning performance the M400 offers, you would expect it to be made from exotic materials and be expensive. Not so. The car is based on a space frame made up of square section steel tubes, except for the built in roll cage which is large, round tube. With the frame it forms a very strong passenger compartment, offering the driver and passenger good protection in the event of an accident, the front end of the car absorbing the energy as the tubes bend.
Even so, the Noble M400 is very light at 2,321 lb (1,060 kg), or 2,378 lb with air conditioning. That is the first reason why it is so amazingly quick – like a fit athlete, carrying not a pound of excess weight, which I rarely find in supercars these days. The power/weight ratio of 400 bhp/tonne is beaten only by a few cars on the planet – like the very exotic and expensive Pagani Zonda.
When I first wrote about the M400 I said it was “staggering”. It is, but more than that, this is a user-friendly car you can drive everyday, and then take it to track for a real workout. It is easy to drive fast.
On the debit side, there is very limited luggage space around the cockpit for a weekend away, so the M400 is no grand tourer. For that you’ll need to wait for the M14, coming soon. For absolute useable performance at a sensible price the Noble M400 is without equal. It is available in quite a few countries outside the UK, including Australia and the USA. Do I recommend the Noble M400? You bet!
