The Noble M12 is a two-door, two-seat

sports car A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

manufactured by

Noble Automotive Noble Automotive Ltd, more commonly known simply as Noble, is a British sports car manufacturer based in Leicester. Noble Automotive Ltd. was established in 1999 by Lee Noble in Leeds, West Yorkshire, for producing high-speed sports cars with ...

Variants

The coupe evolved through four versions of Noble cars, with the M400 as the ultimate version of the M12, and is followed by the M12 GTO-3R. Only 220 Noble GTO-3Rs and M400s were imported to the U.S. The U.S. production rights to the M12s and M400s were sold in February 2007 to 1G Racing from Ohio. Due to high demand of these cars, 1G Racing (now Rossion Automotive) released its own improved car based on the M400, named

Rossion Q1 The Rossion Q1 is an American mid-engined sports car from American car maker Rossion Automotive. Development on the Rossion Q1 began after the rights to the Noble M400 chassis were acquired in February 2007. The goal was to design a completel ...

. Another company which is also producing a model developed from the M12 is Salica Cars 1 with their Salica GT and Salica GTR. Noble M12 GTO 2

Performance

Like the Noble M10, the Noble M12 is a two-door, two-seat model, originally planned both as a coupé and as a

convertible A convertible or cabriolet () is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers. A convertible car's design allows an open-air driving expe ...

. All M12s have been powered by modified bi-turbocharged

Ford Duratec V6 engine Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

s. The M12 has a full steel

roll cage A roll cage is a specially engineered and constructed frame built in (or sometimes around, in which case it is known as an exo cage) the passenger compartment of a vehicle to protect its occupants from being injured or killed in an accident, pa ...

steel frame Steel frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The developm ...

, and G.R.P. (

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

) composite clam shell body parts. Although looking to be track derived, the M12 is a

street-legal vehicle Street-legal, road-legal, or road-going, refers to a vehicle such as a car, motorcycle, or light truck that is equipped and licensed for use on public roads, being therefore Roadworthiness, roadworthy. This will require specific configurations of ...

, ready for both road and track. The M12 has no

anti-roll bar An anti-roll bar (roll bar, anti-sway bar, sway bar, stabilizer bar) is a part of many automobile suspensions that helps reduce the body roll of a vehicle during fast cornering or over road irregularities. It connects opposite (left/right) whee ...

s, allowing for a comfortable feel. The Noble M12 GTO-3R is equipped with Garrett T25 twin turbos. Weight is .

Acceleration In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by t ...

from 0- in 3.7 seconds was published in the official brochure of the M12 GTO-3R, Road & Track indicated a 0- performance of 3.3 seconds, but subsequently listed it as 3.5 seconds. Top speed is listed as and lateral Gs are reported in excess of 1.2. The Noble M400 is equipped with Garrett T28 Twin-turbos. Weight is . The

has a weight of and can accelerate from 0- in 3.4 seconds (company spec). The Salica GT has a weight of and the Salica GTC has a weight of The only convertible variant (the M12 GTC) was shown at motor shows but was canceled, and was never produced by Noble. In 2008, Salica Cars proposed the Salica GTC, offered both as a complete car and a conversion kit to transform an M12/400 coupe into a convertible.

References

External links

* {{commons category M12 Sports cars Cars introduced in 2000 Cars discontinued in 2008 Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles