Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

^ Test it and have Emily video tape please :D

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Wow! Auto fire extinguisher! Now that is true Racecar there :)

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

I took it for a spin after washing, did a few clover leafs and onramps to get a feel for the handling and throttle. Still haven't found the cornering limits with the NT01's. The throttle is still really weird feeling to me, on most cars I've driven the throttle goes back at a downward angle. The lotus went more straight back, but the travel wasn't far so you didn't notice as much (also had drive by wire vs this car is cable). This car probably has a good 5-6" of throttle travel, and the pedal goes straight back, so your heel is actually moving a long way, just like the clutch, which is totally foreign to me. I'm used to being able to leave my heel in one spot to go WOT, impossible in this car.

The steering wheel mounted shift light is pretty handy since there is no redline area on the gauge. The first yellow light turns on around 6200rpm, the second and third in the 6500-6700 area, and the light flashes red just before 7000rpm.

Still haven't done a 1st gear pull, afraid it will just spin. 2nd gear is over immediately, which is about 60mph (now I really believe this car will do 0-60 in just over 3 seconds). Third goes by just about as quick and you're at 90mph. I am really surprised at how short the gearing is on this car, similar to the Lotus and DSM top MPH per gear. You also don't feel the speed in this car like you do in the Lotus. Before I felt like I was flying at 90mph and the supercharger is so loud plus the 8000+ rpm redline you just feel a lot faster. This car with shifting before 7000rpm and just feeling bigger and more solid, going 90 feels like a normal highway speed, much like the vette did. And it's really quiet inside at 70mph, I'll have to get a decibal reading later, but it's nearly as quiet as the Escort is, so I think I'll probably end up using the bluetooth handsfree feature that my radio has.

First impressions are that it's a cross between the lightweight/handling characteristics of the Lotus, and the GT car feeling of the vette. Steering feel is great for being power steering, but not quite as good as the manual rack on the Lotus. A track day will tell me a lot more about that I'm sure. I think I may get another suede D shaped wheel instead of the stock Momo leather/carbon wheel (already a 6 bolt hub so zero work involved for any aftermarket wheel). Loving the car so far, just need to get used to that throttle. The clutch is really nice, engages pretty smooth from a stop but grabs well between gears.

OH, and I miss targa top already.

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Handling sounds great! Odd about the gas pedal travel though.





...and I think I toss my roof panel in the trunk for my commute home ;)

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Updated your avatar, needs more Noble!

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Looks good, I'm a big fan of dark blue. :D

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Looks really nice. Like all those concrete roads you have.

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Ala SpyHunter!

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Met up with the new owner of the Exige and got a few pics of the cars together. Yes, there is a car seat in the Lotus, and he removed the roof and wing. Realized how much I miss that car when I saw them together.
http://www.dsmstyle.com/photopost/da...us_noble_1.jpg
http://www.dsmstyle.com/photopost/da...us_noble_3.jpg
http://www.dsmstyle.com/photopost/da...us_noble_5.jpg
http://www.dsmstyle.com/photopost/da...us_noble_6.jpg
http://www.dsmstyle.com/photopost/da...us_noble_7.jpg

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Funny how similar they look :)

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

^ I was thinking the same thing! I didn't realize how similar in size they were.... in my head the Noble seemed bigger!

Andrew do you miss it still after driving the Noble? or do you like the Noble better?

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Pimpinnn, both look great. For some reason the Lotus sticks out to me a bit more to my liking but they are both awesome.

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Noble is more exotic looking, but the Lotus is definitely sexy.

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

It's hard to say which body style I like better, both have their highlights. It's hard to tell from pics, but the Noble is about 10" longer I believe, and wider so there is actually a center console to rest your arm on. Interior is way better on the Noble, plus the extra 1.2 liters of displacement is nice. The only thing I like better about the Lotus was the steering, it had a small wheel and a quicker steering ratio than stock, plus it was manual. Hopefully a new smaller steering wheel will help out the Noble in that department.

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

I notice the new owner took the wing off. Looks good. Btw, Indian guy?

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

That is awesome driveway pimpin' right there. I would of crashed my car driving by that.

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

The Indian guy is a friend who just got a Boxster and wants to start doing autox events with me, he wanted a ride in the new car.

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

I like the Noble better. You gotten used to the weird gas peddle travel yet?

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Did my first autox event in the car today. Beat all the SM class cars in raw time, but nobody was in XP with me. The car is crazy easy to drive. I was pretty nervous about pushing the limits since there are zero electronic assists, but since it has so much grip I rarely found the limit. I kept pushing it harder, and it kept gripping. One time I did brake way to late and the rear swung out a bit, but it was really easy to recover (unlike the Exige). Very neutral.

I think the best part was that in the slalom, I started out in the morning taking it easy, and increasing speed. The last two runs I had a lot more speed and wasn't steering fast enough, so I got behind a bit and thought I'd hit the last cone, but it still made the corner. Just wish I could have had a couple more runs to really turn quicker and trust that the car would grip. Still need to review the videos and logger data to see what sort of G's the car pulls, both in the slalom and the 180* bend at the end of the runway.

Overall, super happy with my first event, hopefully I only get quicker with each event. I beat my friend with a red Evo for the first time, so I was pretty pleased about that. Oh, and I'm slowly getting used to the throttle. The long travel does make for easy modulation though.

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Vid of my best run on Sunday. Still need to hook up the tach and actual speed sensors, the speedo here is just GPS estimation.
Pretty excited that the car sustained 1.2 g's a couple times on non-slicks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myNExlw5Twk&hd=1

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

You can drive mine if I can drive yours :)

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Yee haw! Good run! How does the car rotate through the slalom? Without seeing the steering wheel inputs its tough to know what all is happening but it looks like you could bet a bit quicker by going a little faster and then turning earlier.

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Sure! Doubt we will ever have the cars in the same spot, maybe for a cruise though, who knows. Or if you fly up for a cruise you can drive it anyway.

My thoughts exactly. My steering input is too slow so I got behind. Started out nice and got later and later. You think the cam at the rear part of the cage would work better than on the front by the windshield?

Car doesn't really rotate at all, no oversteer, maybe a tiny bit of understeer but it seems really neutral. Just goes wherever I point the wheel. After looking at the slalom g's, I could definitely go faster, I wasn't even hitting 1 G in the first one.

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

We'll either meet for a cruise, or I'll just stop by your house during a roadtrip!

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

I'll pause from drooling over the car and extinguish my jealousy just long enough to let you know there are two autocross events at Winnebago Industries in Forest City, Iowa in August if you're interested. I'll be attending both.

The first one is a SoloPro Driving School, taught by several national champions, taking place on Saturday, August 23rd.

Registration Info: http://www.mnautox.com/forums/showth...ol-August-23rd

School info: http://www.soloprodrivingschool.com/

The second event is the next day, a "normal" MOWOG/ competition event at the same site. I haven't been to this location yet but, last year, people said the surface was great and the course was also great-- it actually mimicked a course from SCCA Nationals the previous year.

Registration Info: http://www.mnautox.com/forums/conten...wa-August-24th

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Sweet, I signed up for the school, and will likely sign up for the event on Sunday as well. Thanks for the tip.

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Banned?

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Was that a question that really needed to be asked in multiple places?

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Guess not but I gets it now

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Did my second autox today at the Marshalltown gokart track. Previous best (at this track) in the Exige was a 1:20.8 or something, first run out today I did a 1:18.7, then a 1:20.0, and finally a 1:18.6. I had a few semi major mistakes on those runs, still learning the car. I think the car has a 1:16 in it with a better driver.

Really excited for the solo pro school so I can hopefully improve my skills.

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Very nice

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Holy shit, nice times for M-town! Are you classed in Non-V8 Modified or Race?

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Non V8 modified, turbos and r comps put it in that category, but I don't have any suspension mods so the points count is surprisingly low. It's weird how they do the points system, actually allows my car to dominate the class.

Reaults: http://www.nqsperformance.com/Pages/...2014.aspx.html
I got 5th best time of the day, the two mustangs were on slicks, and the gt500 beat me at the end. Will have to go back after the solo pro school and hopefully put down better times.

Edit: thinking of doing some body/aero mods like I did on the Exige. These show the diffuser, front splitter extension, higher wing mount, vortex generators, and sweet mirrors, I think it makes the car look even better:
http://www.nobleforums.com/attachmen...1&d=1282536975
http://www.nobleforums.com/attachmen...1&d=1282537421

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

That it does. Do it now

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Very nice.
Any chance to log intake temp differences?

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

I fucking hate you for being classed with me. It's good for you I suppose!

Also, those pics look boss, time to do it up!

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Front splitters make everything better! Think of all the meals you could serve on it, insta-picnic table!

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

I found a guy to make the diffuser for me. He owns the company that makes all the Lotus diffusers, I was happy with the quality. He said if I volunteer for the M12/M400 prototype, I can have it for the cost of shipping, and then get a group buy started them for them.

I'm going to see if any local shops are interested in cutting out a front splitter for me, and then I'll probably install with some 1/4 turn fasteners like the clams. Vortex generators are cheap so I'll probably get those done soon too. But the mirrors and APR wing are both pretty expensive, so they might have to wait until winter. I may just use the stock wing and get aftermarket risers that position the wing about 2" higher and a little back. That way it actually gets into the airflow stream, stock position doesn't do much for downforce.

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Sounds like you drove well! I'm excited to see this driven in anger in August.

It sounds like you're generally aware this already but I'll still mention something to consider when thinking about rear wings. The 3D airfoil you show in your most recent picture (it has the "bump up" in the middle) is most effective when placed below the rear roofline, while the 2D airfoil you currently have on the car (flat all the way across) is more effective in clean air, above the rear roofline (like you allude to when mentioning raising it 2").

From your pictures, it kind of looks like your wing is below the rear roofline so I'd say raise it to make sure it's above the roofline in clean air (like you mentioned already), or consider a 3D airfoil at about the current height.

All that said, I'm sure there's plenty of knowledge and proven setups in the Noble community already which you can just plug and play, but the definite no-no is placing a 3D airfoil too high.

This article goes into the details of 2D and 3D airfoils: http://aprperformance.com/index.php?...=176&Itemid=44

Re: 2006 Noble M400 #141
 

Did my first track event in the car this past weekend, wow what a blast. Went to MAM for an open lapping day with the Mustang Club of Central Iowa, it was my first time to that track too, so learning the track combined with still learning the car at higher speeds made for an interesting day. During my second session I went off course once into the bean field (just a few feet in), didn't hurt the car but the interior needs a major clean now, plants were everywhere. The lap right before that was my fastest time of the day, and the fastest time anyone had at the track that day. After that session I was a bit afraid to push it hard for fear of the bean field lol. On the long sweepers if I was pushing it hard, the tail would eventually start to creep out, and I caught it a few times, but it got a bit away from me once, and then it just snaps into a spin. Having the wing a bit higher would prevent this I think.

Anyway, my best time was 1:44.4. My friend with the red Evo who beat me at M-town got a 1:44.5. A 550whp STi had a few 1:45.2 laps.

I need to work on my braking, I was being a pussy and braking before the 5 sign (there are countdown signs before the corners at the end of straights). But on the main straight I was hitting 140mph, and it's a 90* turn at the end. Didn't feel like finding the brake limits right there. The good thing is the XP10 pads showed zero signs of fading. I also need an instructor next time to help me with the lines, I think I left a lot on the table, one day didn't seem like enough to really learn the track.

Temps on this car are rock solid. Coolant never got above 195, and oil never got above 240, all after a 20 minute session when it was 90 out. Very happy about that. Didn't get a chance to check IAT. Also forgot to setup my cam/logger.

Oh yea, there were 3 Ferrari 355 Challenge cars there (no interior, purpose built race cars). They weren't very good drivers though, we were passing them all day haha. Felt good.