Few visionaries have bred as many supercar brands as Lee Noble. The British sportscar guru is responsible for the Noble M12 and M400, the Ascari Ecosse, the Ultima GTR, Rossion Q1 and Salica GT, to name just a few. And now he’s looking to add one more to the list with the announcement of his latest project: Fenix Automotive.
These are the first official shots of Fenix Automotive’s new supercar, which is due for sale in the UK towards the second half of this year.
While Lee Noble has given a strong hint that the car will be a ‘natural, but even more focused’ successor to his iconic M12, his new design is fresh, bold and dramatic, with a premium feel normally associated with exotica costing over £150 000.
“The M12 was hugely successful, but we needed to move the game on in terms of design,” said Lee. “The new car’s styling owes nothing to what I’ve done before and has quite literally been a ‘clean sheet’ exercise from the start. It’s edgy, with powerful lines, and aerodynamically will be in another league to any of my previous cars.”
Fenix also announced that it will be offering a choice of two engines for the new car. GM’s 353 kW LS3 V8 will be the ‘base’ unit, while the 6,2-litre supercharged LS9 V8, as seen in the recently launched Corvette ZR1, will provide customers with a 469 kW power option.
Factor in a target kerb weight of 1 200 kg’s, and performance in either car will be prodigious, but Fenix estimates that the LS9-engined car should accelerate from zero to 160 km/h in under seven seconds on its way to a top speed of around 320 km/h.
“Our first prototype is now in build and development will start in around one month’s time,” said Lee. “We’ll be hot-weather testing the first prototype on the mountain roads around Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where the car will be manufactured. But I’m itching to get the car back to the UK where I can set it up on roads I know well.”
