Today I was lucky enough to have a demo in the Noble M600 at SVR Ltd as part of their open day and just wanted to share my experience as I feel it's worth talking about. Sorry to waffle but this really put a new spin on what a f. fast car was in my mind, a truly fantastic experience and great to spend 20 minutes in the car on fast roads and motorways in the hands of a very capable driver!
So this was the beast in question:
For the record, I was notified prior to this that Noble understate the power output of this car for the spec sheet, so that they have a safety buffer if the car is dyno'd by an owner. This is something to do with not being liable to be sued by owners I believe. Due to this, despite the spec sheet stating 650hp, in standard form the car is rumoured to be putting out around 685hp at the flywheel in race mode. But this car wasn't standard...
An exhaust modification of removing nearly all restrictions so that it could attract as much attention as possible at the British GP, along with a factory remap to make the biggest gain out of this more free flowing exhaust left this car with somewhere in the region of 720hp being chucked out of its twin-turbo Yamaha V8... which is a lot!
So- to get to the meat of this post I thought I'd itemise a few things:
What did it ride like?
Well surprisingly the ride was very comfortable. Firm but the comfy seats made me feel like I could sit there for hours. Due to being light it doesn't have to be overly stiff-sprung and seemed to ride the bumps surprisingly well with no rattling or funky noises in the cabin (apart from the sound of those two turbos snuffling away when off boost!). It didn't feel big on the road and in-fact had a very similar feel to the VX220's poise about it, even from the passenger seat.
What did it sound like?
Due to the exhaust modifications, the sound of the car was always going to be monumental. It's a really aggressive V8 sound, savage in fact and accented by those wonderful turbo noises. The sound envelops you all around and on full throttle you could swear the gates to hell had just been flung wide open as the visceral rasp of the V8 reverberates off everything within a miles radius and assaults your ears. Perhaps not the best setup for a long cruise, but for the experience, it was perfect!
What did it go like?
The all important question. Well, it's hard to comprehend unless you've been in something that will do 0-120 in 8 seconds- a machine that in that trim was making c.600hp tonne. First gear is long and swallowed whole almost instantly. 2nd gear is dealt with swiftly by which time you have usually been fired down the road to the first thing in your way! It's not until 3rd gear that the M600 really comes into it's own, laying down its full serving of power to the tarmac in tremendous fashion. No car, or even rollercoaster I have been in or on to date rearranges your organs like this!
Initial acceleration in the top flight race mode is pure brutality and instantaneous at any legal speed. Hitting the power band launches the car into warp drive. Savage- it pushes your whole body back into the seat harder than it already had been through the initial stages of acceleration as you feel the car start to rotate the earth underneath it.
Quite simply, it's hard to believe it's legal to drive a car that accelerates in this fashion. Traffic is simply that- traffic. Overtakes which seem silly suddenly become accessible as the driver who you thought wouldn't go for 1 has taken all 3 half way along the short straight to the next corner. It's frighteningly quick but so poised in doing it- with no lurching or rearing it's head as the driver plants his right foot. It doesn't run out of puff in terms of slamming you into your seat until your far into silly speeds and speeds you'd normally expect to back off at are just as it starts getting into its stride.
I was completely blown away by the car and the fit and finish totally justify the price tag when you consider it is absolutely a match for a Veyron in real world terms. A pure drivers car, I only wish it was cheaper as then it'd be something us VXers could aspire to own as a follow on!
I do have a video which I am not sure I'm allowed to show but I'll just leave you with this- if you ever get a chance to passenger in one of these cars, bite their hand off! And if you get an opportunity to drive one, cancel holidays, weddings, birthdays. I can imagine it's worth it!
It'd be interesting to hear other peoples opinions and experiences.
