Interview: Lee Noble / Fenix Automotive
PH talks to Lee Noble about his new £70k sports car with Enzo performance
Lee Noble is back in the car business
But as of today, Lee Noble is officially back in business with a brand new car company known as Fenix Automotive, a brand new business partner and, most important of all, a brand new super sportscar that will go on sale next year.
Which is why PistonHeads took the opportunity to catch up with the man himself for a first-hand insight into his latest car, his old business, and what he intends to achieve over the coming years.
PistonHeads: So Mr Lee Noble, how's life? And what have you been up to for the last two years?
Lee Noble: "It's been hard work getting myself back on my feet again, I'll admit that, and I've had a tough couple of years what with one thing and another. But I've been quite busy behind the scenes for a while now, and you'll see why in the very near future.
PH: Let's get this out of the way before we start talking about the new car and company. What went wrong at Noble? Why did you walk away?
LN: "For me personally it all got a bit too big, a bit too quickly. We started doing things that I wasn't entirely happy with, and unfortunately when that happens, well, I just decided it was time to move on.
"One of the main things I wasn't happy about - and this is something I'm not going to forget about this time round - was that it all got so big that I started to lose contact with the customer.
"I remember one event we did at Rockingham and there were hundreds of cars there, it was amazing, yet for some stupid reason I thought I had something else to be doing that was more important in the afternoon, so I left half way through the day. I remember thinking how wrong this was a little while afterwards. I'd allowed my priorities to get so mixed up, and that was an important realisation. It's something I've learned from, and I'm just never going to allow it to happen again. It's what you're there for in the first place, after all.
PH: So creatively you agreed to disagree with Noble Automotive's new owners, and then you moved on, or was it a more volatile split than that?
LN: "It wasn't one of the easiest periods in my life, put it that way. There were some nasty allegations made in the local press about my family that were absolute rubbish, and I'd rather not go back into that now. But it's something I've moved on from. I know now that the worst thing you can do is rush into anything when it involves corporate investment.
Noble M14 was a stillborn concept...
LN: "It's a real car, the first prototype is already out in South Africa being built, in fact. It's a mid-engined two seater with my own chassis, my own styling and a nice big V8 engine in the back."
PH: What sort of price, power and performance are we talking about?
LN: "It'll cost approximately £70k for the basic model, and ideally less than £100k even for the full version. It'll have anything between 400-650bhp, depending on how much the customer wants to spend.
...which disappointed many
"And it'll have a proper gearbox, too, not one with paddles, and there won't be ABS either. It's just too expensive to put anti-lock on a car that's going to sell in such small volumes. And I'm not going to lose control of the production numbers this time.
"I want to be involved with every car on a personal level because, in a way, that's what the customer will be buying in to. They'll get a part of me, as well as a car.
PH: What sort of restriction on numbers do you think you will need to place in order to remain in contact with each customer?
LN: "It's got to be less than 100 per year. Anything more than that and it's too easy to let things happen that you don't want to happen. I'm not going to let any one get involved who I don't want to be involved on the corporate side, either. I'm not making that mistake again.
PH: Would it be fair to suggest that your new car will be something similar to the still-born M14 and/or M15?
Proposed M15 also fell by the wayside
PH: (At this point Mr Noble tells us what the power source is, where it comes from and why it will be so, shall we say, reliable. But he'd rather we keep you guessing about its exact source for the time being, which means it's answers on a post card please...).
PH: Finally, when do you expect to start selling the new car, and does it have a name just yet?
LN: "Sometime next year but, as I say, I'm not going to rush anything. When the first cars get driven I don't want there to be any excuses. Everything will have been tested, nothing will change, nothing will go wrong; they will be perfect.
"It's down to me to make sure it'll happen when we say it will. And it will because I'll have full control this time round.
"We've got a few names that we're thinking about but nothing is finalised just yet."
PH: Thanks for talking to us Lee, it's great to see you back in action again - and good luck with the new project!
(Portrait - Autocar)
Pity he didn't buy the TVR name but then I suppose that might affect his desire for a small management team. There'd be too much interest from people wanting to get on the band waggon.
I too think he would have been the ideal man to get TVR back, if he did TVR on a small scale I think it would be superb.
Anyway, this new car....one must assume LS power.
In which case, perfect.
Again, something TVR should have done.
Mr Noble, chase that ruskie and buy the TVR name pronto!
Brit tuned and tweaked LS Power:
PERFECT!Where's he going to get himself a cheap and reliable manual transaxle? Needs to be good or the torque of an LS will rip it to bits.
A £70k road car with no anti-lock (and presumably no traction control or chassis control) is unlikely to appeal to many customers. Lack of ABS will also rule out sale in North America which kills a big market for him. Putting an American compliant engine in a car which can't be sold in America sounds questionable.
Even if it all works out he's going to be competing head-to-head with another LS powered South African sports car, the Perana z-one
http://www.perana.com/Z-one.aspx
My TVR never felt lacking for not having ABS and the only time I locked an inside wheel for a second (once in 6months) I just re-adjusted my pedal pressure and carried on, there was a slight shimmy and a puff of smoke for my troubles and thats it. If you trigger ABS you have to come right off the pedal and re-apply to stop it interfering and in those circumstances you don't have the time or space to do it. Its actually more dangerous!
In my oppinion ABS in a mass produced big luxury sallon with no feeling is ok but if your in a lightweight sports car and you've got good feedback through the controls ABS is of no benefit at all. I'd be less inclined to buy it if it did have ABS.
My only problem with the car (and its a big one) is the stupid price tag! You can't charge the customer for the development of the car otherwise a Golf would cost £100,000. You have to fit a price to the product.
I don't think anyone (who doesn't own one or can't drive one without getting out their cheque book like magazine testers) is going to look at the home built Brit garage look Noble with its utilitarian interior and simple design and think Wow what a beautifully sculptured supercar! I'll have that instead of the Lamborghini, Ferrari, Mclaren, Porsche, Aston Martin. It's a weekend toy / trackday car for petrolheads. Sure a great one but even Porsche would dare charge over £100,000 for that and look at their product! Can't argure the value of a GT3.
If Lee Noble really does manage to build a similar product to replace the gaping hole left by TVR in the world market as a disproporionately fast British sports car for his desired £70k THAT to me would be everything the N600 isn't, and I don't care in the slightest if it can't trump the spec list.
From the little I know of Dyson, he seems to have a large business interests elsewhere so presume he is pretty secure in the medium term to shore up some of the large initial costs of development/building.
What would you say the life cycle on a car like the M600 is? Four/five years?
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