New Porsche alternative???

what do you guys think of this http://www.noblecars.com/m15/index.html just saw it in the latest top gear eposide andi have to say very impressive.

Never seen one in person but its precurser, the M12, is one of my favorite cars in Project Gotham Racing III. (and I also LOVE the M14 in PGR3) Yeah, it's definitely a looker - and apparently US legal. And the specs on it are unreal. "The vehicle uses a 455-hp, three-liter, twin-turbo engine and can accelerate from zero to 60 mph in under 3.5 seconds. Its top speed approaches 200 mph." Nice.

I just watched TopGear testing this car,I think it kinda looks like a Ferrari (360,430)from the front..how much do you guys think it'll cost here?

Nice cars. Fast. Reliable? I saw one at a Laguna Seca DE and it was running, but not at it's promised specification. The owner said that the engine was not developing enough boost and had to be looked at. The bottom line is that they are kit cars and there will be teething problems.

They are sweet and I want one. I think they are good for the hardcore enthusiast. The wife/girlfriend will have a tough time with it, if you have to choose just one. I am speaking about the earlier models. The M15 is great, but I don't t beleive that model is coming to the USA.

It's a kit car...and it shows. On top of that, it's British. Enough said.

Sweet car!

Where does it say that it's a kit car? As for being British let me point out that Aston Martin, Lotus, Bentley, Rolls Royce, etc... British. Just in case you had forgotten. I'm not sure that many of us would turn down a gift of one of those cars.

Yves, you sound like a decent guy, so why are you making statements like an idiot! 1) The Nobel is NOT a kit car - the US importer buys the chassis, and then teams them to a US block. Quote from 1G Racing : 2) It's not built in the UK, it's built in South Africa 3) Apart from the world famous brands already mentioned, 75% of F1, Indy, Cart etc cars are designed in the UK - yes even the Ferraris. The UK is the world leader in advanced automotive design for supercars and track cars. Seventy-five per cent of the world's single-seater racing cars are designed and built in Britain. FACT Ferrari, BMW, Williams, McLaren, BAR, Honda, MB, Toyota - to name just a few You need to get you're head out of your rear, go do your research online, then come back a better informed and less racist and insulting individual IMHO. Check out this review by ROAD & TRACK for the M400 - They end with the following statement: More reviews online HERE They have all had great reviews on Top Gear over the last few years, and looking at them at motorshows, they look very well put together. Chris.

There's no disagreement that they have a great level of raw performance at a reasonable price. I've read numerous magazine comparisons of various Noble models versus other sports cars and the Noble has alway faired well. The cars have had their problems during these max performance tests however. I suspect that such low volume, semi custom cars can be expected to have teething problems. Most Noble owners that I have met at the race track have kept things in perspective and have worked through them. Whether or not this represents a Porsche alternative is purely a personal decision. I'm sticking with my Porsches. I have enough problems with my 78SC race car that I don't need to be fiddling with my street car. My kit car comment comes from me being casually informed that the car will need to be registered as a kit car. This of course says littel about the quality of the car since every manufacturer has their own standards. The Shelby Cobra kit cars are a perfect example. There are some very nice ones out there. My friend has one with a Jaguar suspension and 427 under the hood.

I've been eyeing them for a while now, they look clean/exotic and with a manageable price tag too.

cdodkin, I've got firsthand experience with one at Thunderhill. I wasn't driving, but went for a number of laps in it. The quality was complete crap, no comparison to a P-car or even a Vette. You may not think of it as a kit car, but I've seen homebuilts that were screwed together better. And the performance was good, but not mindboggling like the rags would have you believe (is there any performance car they don't love?). There's a lot of hype around these cars, but the reality is a big let down (and I'm not the GT type, my daily driver is a GT3 with muffler bypass pipes, MPSC's, GT3 seats, etc).

Never driven one - have seen them first hand only at motor shows - looked very niocely put together. Trust the guys at TG to review the car well, and find it strange that all the magazines would in some way over state the car's appeal/performance/quality The M400 get's rated above the Ford GT, Ferrari F430, Porsche 911 Carrera S It can't all be BS - there has to be something to make all of these independant reviewers rave about these cars. As for the over generalisations and blatently biased opinions - yep I have them Chris.

TOP GEAR TEST

You believe what you read, I'll stick with firsthand experience. Noble quality is crap...and I'm not the first one to think that. Even some of the car rags have pointed that out too.

I stand by what you said. Noble is a kit car quality. I own a Beck's 550 Spyder, they make far more than Noble did, but it is still a kit car. Low volume means (by a small company) it is still a kit car. Kit car quality sucks, they might be fast for a while, but they never last long, and never as reliable as factory cars. also don't forget that being a kit car, means it doesn't have to pass federal crash test, emission test, and bunch of other regulations. oh, have you tried registering a kit car lately. It is very difficult if you want it done "LEGALLY" Look at Lotus, they make tens of thousands, they are great cars, but quality is still not there even with Elise (other than the Toyota engine), even though it is one of the best track car there is. performance, yes. quality, reliability and durability, no !!

The other thing to keep in mind is that the cars that get reviewed by the mags aren't plucked from a dealer lot. Noble (and the other small guys) go over them very carefully to make sure they're as close to perfect as they can get (they have to since their whole reputation relies on the free publicity). It's apples and oranges to what you or I would get buying a car from them.

I think we'd already decided it was a kit car, and a pile of cr@p because it was British.

I instructed a student driving a Noble last summer. For whatever it's worth, the car is fast for sure, but the air circulation within the cab was non-existant. Now, maybe this was a "one off" example, but couldn't see driving this at all in the summer--whew!