Lee Antony Noble is a British entrepreneur, car designer and engineer. He is the founder of the

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 ...

companies

Noble Automotive Ltd 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 ...

in 1999 and Fenix Automotive in 2009. He is also the designer of some low-volume sports cars, including the Ultima Mk1, Ultima Mk2, Ultima Mk3, Midtec Spyder and Ascari FGT. Noble's designs have also been further developed beyond Noble's involvement, resulting in successful designs such as the

Ultima GTR The Ultima GTR is a super car manufactured by Ultima Sports Ltd of Hinckley, Leicestershire, England, and described by commentators as a ''supercar''. The car was available both in kit form and as a "turnkey" (i.e. assembled by the factory) ...

, Ascari Ecosse, Noble M400,

Noble M600 The Noble M600 is a handbuilt British sports car manufactured by low volume automobile manufacturer Noble Automotive in Leicestershire. Construction of the car is of stainless steel and carbon fibre. The car uses a twin-turbocharged Volvo/ Yamah ...

, Rossion Q1 and designs such as the Salica GT, which was never made. His style for sports cars is to start with a lightweight space frame, have a big powerful engine and an aerodynamic sports-racer body. Almost all the cars Noble has designed have been mid-engined. Noble started Noble Automotive after he finished his involvement with Ascari, a manufacturer of supercars with a high price and small market. Lee Noble wanted to produce cheaper cars, so Noble Automotive set out to build a relatively affordable, fast car. To sell hundreds or thousands of cars per year, build costs need to be low and quality needs to be high. Noble does much of its basic manufacturing in South Africa. The core body/chassis assemblies are shipped from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, where Noble installs the drivetrain, for the European market, and performs final tests. Lee Noble left Noble Automotive in the spring of 2008 and created a new company Fenix Automotive in late 2009, which was subsequently dissolved in late 2012. Noble was involved in the design of the Arrinera Hussarya supercar that will be produced in Poland.

Cars developed under Noble

* (1983) Ultima Mk1 * (1984) Ultima MK 2 * (1986) Ferrari P4 replica * (1987) Lotus 23 replica * (1989) Ultima MK 3 * (1989) Prosport LM 3000 * (1991) Midtec Spyder * (1995) Prosport spyder * (1996) Ascari FGT * (1999) Noble M10 * (2000) Noble M12 GTO * (2002) Noble M12 GTO-3 * (2003) Noble M12 GTO-3R * (2005) Noble M400 * (2006)

Noble M15 The Noble M15 is a sports car designed and developed by Noble Automotive, a high-performance sports car manufacturer based in Leicestershire, England. Production of the M15 was due to begin in early 2006. The Noble M15 is intended to appeal t ...

* (2009)

* (2011) Fenix GT * (2013) Arrinera Hussarya

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Noble, Lee British founders of automobile manufacturers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people