Noble M12 GTO-3R

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StreetDragster

Original Poster:

1,523 posts

219 months

Tuesday 10th November 2015
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Hello everyone,
I haven’t posted in readers cars before, thought it was about time.
I’ve got a 2004 Noble M12 GTO-3R in Metallic Black, a Mazda RX8 Trackcar, and a Porsche 911 C2S. This one is about the Noble which is my weekend car.


I was looking for a car that was a little bit nuts to replace my rather tame E39 M5 that I had before it. I had always had more than a passing interest in Nobles and decided to look into them thoroughly as well as the competition at my price point.
On paper the Nobles made sense, I am very handy with the spanners and I like that you are encouraged to maintain them yourself by the other owners, and they are no stranger to modifications, another thing I enjoy. Some of the competition (Porsches and similar) you need a dealer stamp to change an air freshener otherwise it plummets in value. I started looking round the owners ‘club’ (here on Pistonheads) and started doing my research to understand what I wanted and I simply decided that I wanted a GTO-3 or a GTO-3R in a lairy colour. I originally planned to purchase the car some 8 months later.
If you are wondering, the designations go GTO (2500cc round headlamps etc), GTO-3 (3000cc, round headlamps etc), GTO-3R (3000cc, faired in headlamps) and M400 (3000cc faired in headlamps & side pods). Most cars by now though have hybrids of these features and parts so you have no idea what you are actually looking at unless you know what to look for.

Then one day my phone bleeped with an eBay notification that someone had posted a new Noble for sale and I checked it out like all the others and it appealed to me straight away, despite the colour being opposite of lairy and it being 8 months ‘too soon junior’. Rang the owner who was a thoroughly nice chap, drove some 4 hours down to Market Deeping to have a look at it in what has been the most relaxed car viewing I have ever experienced. Over coffee and biscuits I explained my situation and he explained his, we agreed on a price and that was that. What a nice chap, incidentally I then bumped into him about a year later at a trackday with my RX8, and we had a great discussion about how things had progressed for the both of us.
Back to the car, this was the first Noble I viewed, which once I got home haunted me.





I was working in Bristol at the time so I arranged to go and see a local owner in Bath who had a silver GTO-3 and he showed me round his car, told me all the things to look for and took me for a spin. This reinforced my view that I had bought the right car and put my mind at ease. Two weeks later I picked the car up and brought it back to Blackpool on a blooming hot and sunny Saturday (more about that later).



As I alluded to before, I love to work on cars and the Noble was no exception, and I soon started working on it. First step was a load of preventative maintenance jobs such as wax oiling (actually Bilt Hamber S50) the chassis internally and externally, service, tidying some wiring that had chaffed, fixing some rattles, fitting some failing parts etc.

I took it on a drift day at Oulton Park to learn how it handles in very slow speed (you can slide at 10mph on their tarmac), the mid-engine lightweight car was very difficult to control when on the limit of traction. Mid-engine cars typically have lots and lots and lots of grip, but then when you run out of it you get snap over steer and a very small window of opportunity to correct for it. My Noble, with its semi slick tyres is no exception. There is not a lot of steering lock either (not needed for normal high speed driving), I spent a lot of that day facing the wrong way. But once I had figured out that it will not ‘drift’ (front wheels in grip but rear wheels in slip) but it will ‘power slide’ (all four wheels in slip) it made some nice sideways movements round the track and I learned a lot about how to drive it.





At some point after this I altered the rear end a bit and did a few other tweaks. I improved the air to rear intercooler by a mesh change and number plate relocate, tinted the rear lights, smoked side repeaters, stuff like that.



Eventually I decided I wanted to remove all traces of Mondeo, why anyone uses mundane car light clusters on performance cars I have no idea, must be a certification requirement or something. First step was some bodywork, and off it went to have the rear lamp clusters removed and LED round lights frenched in. Decided on clear LED units because they can then be easily tinted/smoked/clear whenever I feel like it. I tried many combinations of clear, smoked, red & white, and red & smoked and finally settled on red & smoked.
At some point I also took it down to a Noble meet at Silverstone (where the RX8 adventure started)


Then I turned my attention to the exhaust, I didn’t like the oval tailpipes, they were the wrong shape, and they were interfering with my black on black theme. The exhaust was removed (which turned out to be a massive job) and was in poor shape once it was off the car. I commissioned BCS Powervalve to make me a variable tone bypass exhaust, the first one ever made for a Noble and then installed it. Work of art it is. Basically it’s active, full exhaust up until ~4psi, then open pipes from 4psi+. It sounds epic. Most importantly however, it could have round black tailpipes.


The exhaust being quite free flow may have affected boost pressure on the turbo’ s, not wanting any explosions I then trailered the car to Noble Motorsport in Chesterfield for a quick & cheap remap to ensure everything was fuelling ok.

At this point you can probably see the ‘but’ coming.

They attempted to remap the car ‘but’ found some anomalies with the fuel enrichment, the rear bank being 30% richer than the front bank but the car appeared to be running perfectly fine. Lots of inspection and testing showed that an exhaust valve had burnt out on one cylinder. Unfortunately the Noble has 1 lambda sensor for 3 cylinders, so to compensate for the leaner mixture caused by the leaking valve the ECU added fuel, effectively bore washing the other two cylinders causing low compression through the piston rings.
And with that, a full engine rebuild was required, great.

Still, onwards and upwards, not sure I will ever get over the wallet trauma inflicted that month. NMS rebuilt the engine for me, changing a few items on the way. Stronger valve springs for better valve control at high revs, corrected the exhaust timing (the 3R’s are deliberately retarded by the factory on the exhaust camshaft, so that there is a bigger performance increase between them and the M400 to help justify the increase in pricing), Helix/AP hybrid uprated organic clutch, new waste gate actuators, a track day sump to prevent oil surge and that was it, plus all the normal rebuild stuff inc new oil pump and stuff, no expense spared at that point.
Post running in, on the original T25 twin turbo’s, at the original boost setting of 0.85bar it made 438bhp and 415lbs/ft of torque, very impressive, they are great numbers for its modifications.
It is now a bit of a wild animal on the road with a very high power to weight ratio and it certainly wakes you up whenever you drive it. The engine just pulls in every gear with no appreciable drop off in torque, pickup is fast with minimal lag as it still has the smaller T25 turbos (M400’s have T28’s). The slippery aerodynamics help with really high speeds, and it goes up to them just as easily as it climbs through the lower speeds. Handling as well is very good and go-kart like when pressing on, but compliant when just cruising. It’s no 7-series, but it’s not a bad place to be cruising down the road, tyre noise being the most encroaching sound.

From there things just got better and better. I used Nimbus heat protection sheeting to box in the exhaust and control the air in and out of the newly created exhaust bay to reduce under clamshell temperatures. More pipe routing and cable routing improvements. I fitted HID’s into the headlight bays, fitted the original second wiper and improved the washer spraying mechanism. Painted up the splitter and grills, smaller number plate relocated for better grill airflow, mesh up the side pods to prevent ingress etc.
I also fitted a nice big carbon forward swept wing on the original wing mounts (not the huge ones the car came with), which incidentally are now all black powder coated. The pictures might be a little out of sequence now, I can’t remember what order things were done.

Then the interior, it had been an issue for me since I got it that the cabin cooling system didn’t work properly in my opinion.

StreetDragster

Original Poster:

1,523 posts

219 months

Tuesday 10th November 2015
quotequote all
Nobles have a ‘unique’ cabin heating system. There is a red hot engine at the back of the car, underneath fibreglass which is an incredible insulator, heating the rear bulkhead of the cabin nicely, the forward turbo being directly under the cabin rear ‘parcel’ shelf.
Then you have all the radiators at the front, again under an insulating clamshell warming the front bulkhead. The pipes between the radiators and the engine run down the tunnel, giving lovely under floor heating.
The heater system is the old school system where selection of heat/cool actively opens and closes a valve to allow hot water to the heater matrix, not the blend door arrangement that modern cars have. These valves are prone to leaking causing slight heating all the time, and even when they are not leaking as such, they still let fluid past heating the matrix.
This warm heater matrix prevents the air conditioning evaporator from cooling the air down fully, and the distribution valves and flaps don’t work properly and just costs efficiency in airflow from the heater fan.
But don’t worry, the final solution is to open the windows, right?
Well air comes in the nose, through the radiators, up out the top of the front clamshell, onto the windscreen, round the sides and into the cabin through the side windows.
Basically Noble built a very effective fan assisted oven, and in my specific case, a very effective black oven with a mostly black interior. Also, no centre air vents so the cooling in the car is very cool on the outside but warm and stagnant in the centre of the cabin.

This heating issue needed to be controlled, I decided to go a bit extreme and remove the entire interior including the dashboard, the front clamshell, heater box and all that sort of stuff. New air vents, new redesigned heater box, deleted un-necessary valves and flaps removed, deleted heater matrix, and valve, and attaching pipes to the engine. Stronger blower fan, re-gassed air conditioning, better pipe routing and a location for centre air vents improved things no end. Its amazingly cool now, bliss and simple to operate, you have the fan speed switch and the A/C on/off switch and that’s it, all airflow directions are controlled on the individual vents. No heater, but with all that heating there is no need for it, even in winter it’s only a few minutes until it’s comfortable in the cabin.



Whilst all the dash was off I inspected and corrected numerous errors and problems lurking within the wiring loom, nothing serious but fraying earths and other stuff that could cause reliability issues in future, and then I rewrapped the whole thing. I also corrected a few wiring anomalies on the alarm and immobiliser circuit, it didn’t work completely as expected previously with regards to turning the interior lights on when disarmed so that was one of the things rectified.
New carbon fibre centre console, Noble M400 gear selector & cables, quick shift rear selector arms, road spec brake pads (it had noisy track spec Pagid RS29’s in beforehand) & rebuilt coil overs complete the winter 2014 upgrades and back on the road running lovely.





For my birthday me, the Mrs and my friends went on a 4 day tour around Scotland, ultimately to find the Skyfall shooting locations, I’m a big Bond fan.

Went through the lakes, Coniston, Ambleside and Keswick being the main route. All avoiding motorways and on the A/B roads where possible. Found some epic roads.

Coniston


Ayr Seafront


Lovely Rocks, Pools and Waterfalls on the side of a random B-road


Also found an amusing river crossing cart thing


Low lying town on the Loch Side. Near Loch Long IIRC


Beautiful Highlands, Excellent Roads and Driving


Skyfall Scene Shot


The location with my car. Couldn't get an identical shot due to a stinking motor caravan setting up a pitch on the location. There were like 50 places on the 5 mile stretch arrrrggh. Regardless, great place.



Front splitter needed some new paint now, and the air con needs more attention as it seems I have a faulty high pressure switch, but it all went well. My Mrs was 7 months pregnant and she actually found the Noble to be completely comfortable throughout the entire trip, just getting in/out needed some effort lol. I have the genuine Noble luggage kit, which is 5 custom sized bags. You can fit a surprising amount of stuff in a Noble with these, the Mrs using the large bag which goes behind the passenger seat and me using one of the small bags which goes on the 'parcel' shelf. The other 3 bags weren't needed for a 4 day trip.


A few months later my Rota wheels have arrived and were fitted. Wheel options for the Noble were very limited, so a group buy was compiled by the owners for Rota to manufacture a batch of wheels to fit, had to jump onto it.

9" wide fronts, 10" wide rears in gloss black and 18" diameter. Wrapped in Michelin Pilot Super Sports, 275/35/18 rear and 225/40/18 front. Much easier to clean and I think better looking that the Speedlines, but I understand a lot of people love the Speedlines also.









For the future, I plan to get the mirror bases anodised black. Maybe put a white stripe down the skirt, refurbish the brake calipers and replace the carpet on the driver’s side of the tunnel which is looking a bit worn. I also think I’m going to have the rear clam under the knife again to bring the mesh mounting flange out to match the profile of the back end. Looks a bit weird being inset.

And then it’s finished, or is it.

Thanks
Matt

e21Mark

16,205 posts

174 months

Tuesday 10th November 2015
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I love that Matt. I've found myself drawn to Noble for a few years now, although I am yet to even ride in one, let alone drive one! I'm always pawing over the classifieds too, but I doubt I could afford the maintenance costs?

I much prefer your round tail lights too. A vast improvement over the Mundano units. The exhaust looks great also.

StreetDragster

Original Poster:

1,523 posts

219 months

Tuesday 10th November 2015
quotequote all
Thanks very much

Running costs, its not too bad if you do your own maintenance. Lots of little jobs i find rather than big ones (aside from the obvious engine failure in my case).

Matt

Tickle

4,924 posts

205 months

Tuesday 10th November 2015
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Very nice, love these... and any Noble to be fair thumbup

mwstewart

7,618 posts

189 months

Tuesday 10th November 2015
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I thought I recognised the name. 'Excursion' here.

Looks great - love the GTO!

StreetDragster

Original Poster:

1,523 posts

219 months

Tuesday 10th November 2015
quotequote all
Blast from the past!

thanks very much smile

Matt

S10GTA

12,686 posts

168 months

Tuesday 10th November 2015
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Stunning. Really like these.

Carlos24

534 posts

174 months

Tuesday 10th November 2015
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Amazing looking car now and supercar fast I expect! I also really like the new wheels... It looks
A bit like batmans track day car haha... Awesome.

C.A.R.

3,967 posts

189 months

Wednesday 11th November 2015
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Great read smile

Love the car, but can't help but feel the all black look is doing those new wheels zero justice. In silver or any other contrasting colour they would look fantastic. Particularly noticeable in your second to last photo, where the only contrast is that your tyres are a lighter shade of grey against the sea of black...

StreetDragster

Original Poster:

1,523 posts

219 months

Wednesday 11th November 2015
quotequote all
I know exactly what you mean, the side needs some sort of definition. My current thinking was something like a white stripe down the 'skirt' or maybe thin white rim tape on the wheels. Dunno, will mull it over.

Wheels we only avaliable in black or grey due to the numbers needed for the group buy, not sure grey would have looked right.

Matt

Edited by StreetDragster on Wednesday 11th November 08:02

dxbtiger

4,390 posts

174 months

Wednesday 11th November 2015
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That looks like (and I am sure is) an absolute weapon!

Agree on the wheel colour comment, they are lovely looking but a bit lost in the sea of black.

The idea of some light accents on the bodywork with the wheels to match is worth looking at I reckon, someone who is handy with Photoshop should be able to offer some options in that respect.

e21Mark

16,205 posts

174 months

Wednesday 11th November 2015
quotequote all
I think red accents would be better than white.

Overall though, it still looks badass. smile

Is it me, or have values crept up? I was looking at the classifieds again last night (thanks to this thread!) and the few cars available seem pricier?

StreetDragster

Original Poster:

1,523 posts

219 months

Wednesday 11th November 2015
quotequote all
Yep prices seem to be steadily creeping up year on year.

A nice time to be an owner

Matt

james_gt3rs

4,816 posts

192 months

Wednesday 11th November 2015
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That is a very cool car. Only improvement I can think of is a respray in a lairy colour (I've seen a bright green one that was good!)

C7 JFW

1,205 posts

220 months

Wednesday 11th November 2015
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I really like that - particularly that you've fixed the wiring faults and that you have functioning air conditioning.

That things like a total weapon and glad to see it covering some miles.

StreetDragster

Original Poster:

1,523 posts

219 months

Wednesday 11th November 2015
quotequote all
Thanks very much everybody

Matt

outnumbered

4,090 posts

235 months

Wednesday 11th November 2015
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Very nice. I've always thought Nobles are ultra-cool cars...

Fonzey

2,062 posts

128 months

Wednesday 11th November 2015
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Great thread/car.

Have these appreciated a lot in the past 24months or so? I was looking at them a while ago for a weekend/track toy, and had it in memory that they were somewhat achievable for me (mid/low 20's). Checked recently (after the Wheeler Dealer episode) and couldn't believe that all the ones for sale were 30+

Particularly love the rear lights.

StreetDragster

Original Poster:

1,523 posts

219 months

Wednesday 11th November 2015
quotequote all
Yep they have come up alot the past few years

Thanks for your comments, the lights seem a bit 'marmite'

Matt