The V6-engined Noble M500 is nearly here

Hurrah! We have Brit supercar news to bring you. Noble has released new images and info of its M500 – the ‘junior’ supercar it first unveiled at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2018. 

Headlines include the presence of Ford’s twin-turbocharged 3.5-litre EcoBoost V6 (yep, the very same one used in the Ford GT) and a total power output around the 550bhp mark. Back in 2018 Noble told TG that the M500 would get a 3.0-litre Ford heart, so we’re delighted that the GT’s engine will now be slotted into the centre of that steel chassis. Power is sent to the rear wheels alone and the body is made from glassfibre composite – a cheaper alternative to the M600’s carbon body. 

Get a look at the pictures of Noble’s working prototype above. It’s a stunning but subtle-looking thing, isn’t it? Plans are for the M500 to cost around the £150,000 mark with rivals including the Maserati MC20, the Audi R8 and the Porsche 911 Turbo S.

There’s one more big piece of news that those pictures convey too. At the initial unveil a few years ago, Noble MD Peter Boutwood told us that the M500 would use a seven-speed twin-clutch auto gearbox. “It’s a bit sad to me, but a car at this level needs a paddleshift gearbox to sell. Hopefully we’ll do a manual, too,” Boutwood said at the time. Well, just look inside that Alcantara-filled cabin now.

Yep, that’s a six-speed open-gate manual gearbox – and apparently it’ll be that or nothing for the M500. We can’t wait to drive it. 

There’s a proper manual handbrake in there too, plus a large central infotainment screen and a digital display for the dials. The plan is for the M500 to be slightly more ‘user friendly’ than the big-brother M600, but things like anti-lock brakes may still be left on the shelf. 

Click these blue words to refresh your memory of the M600. 

Images: James Arbuckle