Why Lee Noble switched from making super cars to super-fun cars

“I’ve learnt a lot from the M12 years,” says Noble. “I’m convinced we’re better off importing the cars fully built, and Jimmy can make ’em better than anyone.”

So far, there’s only one prototype, but the design is so simple, so strong, and depends so much on Ford-sourced components designed for a vehicle twice as heavy, that it has worked perfectly out of the box. Noble, famously capable in the workshop, has fabricated every Bug:R prototype piece himself, right down to the strikingly well-finished hand-laid glassfibre panels. He has already tested it within an inch of its life. “I’ve thrashed this car long and hard at Bruntingthorpe,” he says, “over gravel and big bumps, and flat out around the handling circuit. I can honestly say it’s the first car I’ve had when nothing – absolutely nothing – has gone wrong. And it goes amazingly well.”

In Noble’s backyard, I have a little play myself, feeling the dependable base torque of the engine, marvelling at the lightly loaded, non-power steering and the ease with which a car with zero overhangs and a centralised mass can turn, despite having spring rates quite a lot softer than most sports cars. In another life, says Noble, he’d have wanted to fabricate every single suspension component, including uprights. But the 850kg Bug:R layout, front and rear, is based on Ford Mondeo strut front suspension parts, massively strong for the duty they’re being put to, and just about perfect after being set up with unique Noble geometry.

Lee gestures at the bog-standard Mondeo strut, which sports a smaller-than-standard spring because of the car’s low weight. “Over the years, I’ve used every big-name shock absorber in the business on my cars,” he says, “but I honestly think these are the best. And they cost £35 a throw…”

Like many of us, Noble discovered cars before he was old enough to have a driver’s licence. His dad bought him a £100 Hillman Imp. But he departed rapidly from the norm by learning so voraciously about car innards and design practices that within a decade he had set up a successful Triumph TR6 restoration business, had designed and built the still-famous Ultima roadrace car, and had won several GT championships driving his own cars.

A succession of ever better replicas and race cars followed, from faux Ferrari 330 P4 to ersatz Lotus 23b, and he also worked on successful, well-engineered, unique, fast car projects for companies like Ascari. But for us at Autocar – and for the wider fast car world – Noble really came to notice in 1999 when he pitched up at our offices with a mid-engined drop-top car of his own design, the Ford V6-powered Noble M10.

It was a magic moment, although we didn’t immediately realise it. The car looked like many a hopeful’s oneoff, a breed particularly prevalent in the UK, and the thoroughness of its engineering was not immediately apparent. But as soon as we drove it, the car astonished us all by outhandling the Lotus Elise we were running at the time, while proving considerably more comfortable and practical. Other critics subsequently said the same. The M10 was soon put into production as the remarkably successful M12 coupé, the car that built the Noble reputation.