Lee Noble to launch 515bhp per tonne Exile track car

The Exile is kitted with a twin-turbo 3.5-litre V6 Ford engine and ‘McLaren territory’ pace; due by the end of the year
Jimi Beckwith
8 May 2017

Lee Noble, the founder of Noble Automotive, is launching his own line-up of cars under the Specialised Sporting Vehicles banner, starting with a 515bhp per tonne track car called the Exile.

Currently being tested in prototype form - which was revealed at the National Kit Car motor show on 30 April - the Exile uses a twin-turbo 3.5-litre V6 Ford engine and will be launched by the end of this year.

Packing 515bhp per tonne — just 10bhp less than the BAC Mono — the Exile is, in Noble’s words, “bloody quick” and has a top speed of 180-190mph.

Acceleration hasn’t been measured yet, but Noble is aiming for a 0-60mph time of between 2.4sec and 2.9sec, which would make it one of the fastest-accelerating cars available. “McLaren territory,” said Noble. Further down the line, there could be plans to set a lap time at the Nürburgring.

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Noble pegs the Exile as a road-friendly track car. Its bodywork is made of mostly carbonfibre, but with GRP body panels in places to keep costs down. A price of less than £90,000 is the target.

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Although the car’s design has been finalised, the Exile is still in the development stage. It was originally fitted with a 3.6-litre General Motors engine but it is now being tested with the same twin-turbo V6 used in the Ford F-150 Raptor. 

Noble wouldn’t elaborate on the engine troubles that have delayed the car’s progress by two years, but he said he is on track to complete the car by the end of the year.

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One bodystyle is planned at present, although the roof comes off and can be stowed under the bonnet. “That makes us a little different to normal track-focused cars,” said Noble. The plan is to produce the car with a “sensible and manufacturable” chassis, with “a body to get it going, and changeable bodies, like those on a Noble”, he said.

A follow-up model, which will use this car’s mid-engined set-up and architecture, will either be more road-friendly or even more track-focused, depending on the market. “We won’t do anything for two to three years,” said Noble.

A tube and aluminium tub with front and rear spaceframes makes up the car’s architecture. The engine is in-line mounted, which required the car being re-engineered from its original GM-sourced unit. It will be offered with a manual gearbox only. Noble said: “In the sector we’re aiming at, everyone wants manuals, especially on a track car.”

Noble’s operation is smaller-scale than Noble Automotive, the company he left in 2009. Production estimates for the Exile are 15-20 cars per year. Noble has no wish to ramp up production beyond this.

The Exile will be the first in a number of cars, said Noble. The Exile, a mononymous, stand-alone car, will mainly rival the Radical RXC upon launch, although Noble claims it’ll be in a market of its own. Sales will be direct to keep the price down. Selling through dealers would add heavily to the car’s price, said Noble.

This also gives Noble a close relationship with his customers — something that he’s keen to maintain and that will also give the cars some degree of customisation potential

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Comments
14

stinhambo

8 May 2017
How high is that bonnet?! I do like it but I wonder what colour coded wheel arches would look like?

Spanner

8 May 2017
Really cool. Want one,
Spanner

voyager12

8 May 2017
on the tracks. Love the Noble's smiley face. Keep it, Lee, when you finalize the Exile. Appropriate name for the post-Brexit years btw.

jmd67

8 May 2017
Almost too ugly for words. It looks like a badly made photofit from various failed low budget cars.
We know Mr Noble knows his way around a car but for goodness sake hire a stylist. There's something wrong in car design these days. Never in automotive history have we had better tools to help designers and never have we had so many incredibly ugly cars.
I blame searching for that extra couple of percent of aero efficiency. This thing is so ugly it's almost bringing a tear to my eye looking at it. Why not use something like the 917 or 962 as a starting off point and make something incredible? Classic design with pretty good aero that looks like a million dollars yet with the amazing Lee Noble engineered mechanicals.
Surely that's got to be better than this monstrosity? Not so original I suppose but I'll bet you would sell more than the 3 or 4 this will before never being heard of again.

Peter Cavellini

8 May 2017
jmd67 wrote:

Almost too ugly for words. It looks like a badly made photofit from various failed low budget cars.
We know Mr Noble knows his way around a car but for goodness sake hire a stylist. There's something wrong in car design these days. Never in automotive history have we had better tools to help designers and never have we had so many incredibly ugly cars.
I blame searching for that extra couple of percent of aero efficiency. This thing is so ugly it's almost bringing a tear to my eye looking at it. Why not use something like the 917 or 962 as a starting off point and make something incredible? Classic design with pretty good aero that looks like a million dollars yet with the amazing Lee Noble engineered mechanicals.
Surely that's got to be better than this monstrosity? Not so original I suppose but I'll bet you would sell more than the 3 or 4 this will before never being heard of again.

Who said it had to be good looking to be really fast?, not many of the current crop of really fast Cars are great to look at,drop down to say Ferrari 488 level then you see nice reasonably good looking Cars,but,in the Million plus bracket their performance demands compromises such as good Aero package,heat disapation for the Engine cooling,brakes and so on,personally,the meaner they look the better the compromise.

Peter Cavellini.

jmd67

8 May 2017
But THIS ugly? The people who buy this are unlikely to be involved in actual competition so the odd tenth here and there hardly justifies something as catastrophically painful looking as this.
I'm not saying style should be completely above performance to the point where the thing wants to take off at high speed but those wheel arches look like a the camouflage bits you see on pre-production scoop shots. And the proportions are very strange too.

jmd67

8 May 2017
But THIS ugly? The people who buy this are unlikely to be involved in actual competition so the odd tenth here and there hardly justifies something as catastrophically painful looking as this.
I'm not saying style should be completely above performance to the point where the thing wants to take off at high speed but those wheel arches look like a the camouflage bits you see on pre-production scoop shots. And the proportions are very strange too.

Lanehogger

8 May 2017
It looks like the lovechild of a Noble and Gumpert Apollo. But then in the pursuit of aerodynamics, especially being a track car, this is the result.

Highline2.0

8 May 2017
Hire a stylist.

carrera phwoar

8 May 2017
How refreshing to actually be shown the shed that this pipe dream monstrosity has been knocked up in for a change. I take it reception, where you present your gold card for the "less than £90k", is in one of the wheel less caravans to ensure your comfort!
I hear that, inspired by the earthy British honesty of Lee Noble, the next new McLaren concept will now be presented at Ron Dennis's allotment with tea and buns in the potting shed.....

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