My Noble M400
Despite being a car guy for many decades, I was completely unaware of the Noble brand. Then I went to a local shop to pick up a silicone hose elbow for my supercharged Corvette. The guy who runs the place asked if I would like a quicky shop tour. There were several Nobles in various states of disassembly, and I got hooked when I looked at the chassis design and running gear.
It turned out there was a Noble for sale just an hour away, so I made arrangements for a test drive. That test drive reeled me in. I expected Lotus nimble, and that’s what I found. I expected incredible grip, and that’s what I found. But I did not expect supercharged Corvette acceleration! This thing was a
like 500 hp Lotus Elise with big brakes!
The owner and I could not agree on a price, but I found my M400 in Kentucky after several months of looking. It had just 2000 miles on the clock and was completely factory stock. That might be a desirable thing for a garage queen Ferrari, but I quickly learned that the Noble needs help to be a comfortable, enticing daily driver. I’m quite picky, and it makes me crazy when my car does something annoying. I have to track down the cause of the annoyance, and fix it.
Many of my changes, such as the Audi dash vents, are strictly for looks. Others, such as the AeroCatches, are intended to make the car more pleasurable to work on as well as more attractive (IMHO). But most of the changes (insulation, single turbo conversion,
air/water intercooler) have made the car more fun to drive and easier to live with.
I hope you enjoy this site, and that you come to realize that the Noble is really an incognito supercar. It doesn’t have 3000 pounds of software like the more well known brands, but in the hands of a skilled driver (not mine!), it will run with them. It’s especially fun to embarrass big hp musclecars who expect me to
leave me in the dust like a Miata, but instead find that I can pull
ahead of them.
My intent with this site is to document everything I’ve done with the Noble, even if it didn't work out so well. You'll find pages for each major upgrade category in the navigation bar. All the pictures are thumbnails that you can click to see larger versions. Many of the larger pics are cropped differently to give you a bigger view of the subject. If it’s been a while since your last visit, you may have to refresh the page to see the latest additions. I’m always tinkering!
Bloggish stuff
I've never been interested in blogs, but it may be a good way to put new content on this site before I have enough time to properly organize it.
If you want to easily check for new content, the blog page is the first page to look. Maybe it will be fun for both of us.
And maybe I can tempt you with the pic to the right. This site is all about significant mods to make the Noble faster, more
comfortable, and more reliable. There will be no tips on paint polishes or glass cleaners. I enjoy fabrication more than detailing.
