The Noble M12 GTO-3R was clocked by Car and Driver magazine at 3.3 seconds from 0-60 mph. The car is shipped as a "roller," meaning everything but the engine is shipped from the factory.

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL/ Steve Szydlowski

Gallery: $100,000, nicely equipped

Two moments stand out from a short drive of the Noble M12 GTO-3R, one of the quickest and nimblest road cars in the world. The first was when driver Roy McCluskey, who represents Noble Automotive in the Northeast, said mildly, “We’ll just go up here and I’ll show you what it can do.”

We turned onto a small back road, straight with a couple of long bends. We were doing about 30 m.p.h. in third when he floored it and quickly threw the car through 4th and into 5th gear as it surged with a growly whoosh toward the 100 m.p.h. mark, forcing me back into the racing shell of a passenger seat. This is a car, after all, that Car and Driver officially clocked at 3.3 seconds from 0-to-60 m.p.h! (McCluskey noted the factory more conservatively estimates the time at 3.7 seconds.)

McCluskey immediately braked it back and we resumed our drive, but it was not as though nothing had happened. The experience of a very high-performance sports car showing its stuff is intoxicating and indelible.

Then it was my turn at the wheel. I removed my clunky shoes to get a better feel for the pedals and cautiously edged out onto the road. No whooshing acceleration for me; this is a car that can easily get away from you. Instead I was content to drive it at moderate speeds, to enjoy the leonine burble of the engine, the hiss of released turbo gas every time I changed gear and to marvel at the velvet smoothness of the car’s steering and cornering.

The Noble is not well known beyond the world of high-performance autos and only about 100 are sold here each year. But British auto designer Lee Noble may one day be up there with such brand name car designers as the late Enzo Ferrari and Ferruccio Lamborghini who are synonymous with the ultimate in high performance cars.

The M12, which gets 360 brake horsepower from a 3-liter, 6-cylinder Ford engine boosted by twin turbochargers, is the heavier – 2,380 pounds – and less powerful of the two models currently available from Noble, which is based in Leicestershire, England. The lighter M400 – 2,335 pounds – was introduced in 2005 and, with 425 bhp, is rated by the factory to go 0-to-60 mph in 3.3 seconds. However, McCluskey expects Car and Driver, which he says has the best record for timing cars, to find it gets a few tenths of a second less than that.

Next year, he said Noble will introduce the M15, which is larger and heavier but still goes 0-to-60 m.p.h. in under 3.5 seconds, to the European market. The M15 will also be armed with an in-line engine as opposed to a transverse one, a top-of-the-line Graziano gearbox and trunk space, which is absent from both the M12 and the M400. It will also be priced higher, at about $140,000. “[Noble is] looking at a different market for the car … for luxury and touring in addition to performance,” McCluskey said.

For the M12 and M400 are not luxury cars. They share the same shell, with the engine directly behind the two-seats, the nose low to the ground and the tail dominated by a large, adjustable spoiler. The interior of the M12 is smart and edgy with surfaces a mixture of leather and Alcantara, a high-quality faux suede, in a variety of colors while everything in the more sporty M400 is wrapped in the Alcantara. Both come with a Sony CD/tuner.

But luxury is not the Noble’s primary mission. This is a road car that offers a combined performance of acceleration and handling – particularly cornering – that is perhaps the best in the world.

What other current supercars compare? Only the Bugatti Veyron 16.4, Ferrari F430, Koenigsegg CC, Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, 2007 Porsche 911, Saleen S7 and TVR Sagaris match it for acceleration (the Ford GT and Porsche Carrera GT were recently discontinued and the Aston Martin DB9 and Lamborghini Gallardo are both slower off the mark). However, all but one are way more expensive – the Bugatti costs about $1.7 million, the Ferrari F430 $180,000, the Koenigsegg $725,000, the Mercedes-Benz $450,000, the Porsche 911 $123,000 and the Saleen $440,000, the Noble M12 is priced at a relatively modest $90,000 to $100,000. Only the Russian-owned but British-made TVR matches it for price at about $100,000.

But when it comes to handling, its ability to “inhale corners,” as one auto critic put it, places it in a league of its own. “The balance of the car from day one was set to be a priority,” said McCluskey.

Part of the secret is its low weight, but it is also armed with “sensible suspension geometry,” according to designer and chief engineer Lee Noble. “Generally speaking, the car is not trying to do too many things,” he said from his office in England, adding that while most cars are designed to do many things, such as hauling heavy loads over long distances, the suspension of the Noble is designed “to do only one thing and that is to provide a fun drive.”

“Lee Noble has come up with a lightweight, minimalist car where everything has a function to it,” said McCluskey. “This is not a heavy GT vehicle that needs 800 horsepower, 700 horsepower to be a supercar. It has 400 horsepower but is very focused, lightweight and beautifully balanced. It can run with the big dogs, but for $100,000.”

“It’s not all things to all people,” he added. “It’s a very focused driver’s car that provides a driving experience that will rival McLaren F1 territory.” The McLaren F1, which was produced between 1994 and 1998, remains one of the most popular of the modern supercars. Only 107 were made, but for a while it held the title as the world’s fastest road car until overtaken by the Koenigsegg and then the Bugatti Veyron.

Noble introduced the M12 in 2000 and is currently producing some 300 cars a year at a state-of-the-art factory in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Taking the production out of Europe allows the company to keep costs down, McCluskey said.

The car is shipped out as a “roller,” meaning everything but the engine is shipped from the factory and the drive train is dropped in later. In the United States, the complete chassis is imported by 1G Racing in Hamilton, Ohio, and then shipped on to a network of shops for completion. Shipping it out as a kit car allows it to circumnavigate certain U.S. road standards. In New England, the chassis are shipped to KRT European Motorsports in Ayer, Mass., which specializes in servicing and restoring vintage and contemporary high performance cars.

Noble said he is not sure whether the M15 will be shipped to the U.S. as a full production car, or as a kit car like the M12 and M400. “We’re still looking at that,” he said, noting that the company’s “fundamental market is the U.K. and Europe.” He added that that the earliest the M15 would be shipped to the U.S. would be 2008.

Noble, who used to race Lotus cars, started designing and producing cars in 1982. His first car was the Ultima and he produced 200 before selling the company. McCluskey said McLaren used three of the Ultima chassis as “development mules” while designing the famed F1. Noble followed that with Lotus and Ferrari reproductions as well as other race cars before producing the Ascari, which at one point was Britain’s fastest accelerating car. He has focused on the eponymous Nobles for seven years now.

As for being ranked with such legends as Enzo Ferrari and Ferruccio Lamborghini, Noble said he was not comfortable with such comparisons. “That’s a difficult question,” he said. “If you go back, we are in a similar league, but I have no interest in designing engines. I like to design cars and chassis. I don’t like to compare myself.”

“Time will tell,” said McCluskey.