Fenix supercar revealed

Any supercar follower worth his or her salt will be familiar with the name Lee Noble, the man who founded the Noble supercar company in 1999.

Having since left the company and set up a new opertion, Fenix Automotive, Noble's latest creation is on the cusp of reality, these latest renderings showing the exterior design of the new model.

"The M12 was hugely successful, but we needed to move the game on in terms of design," said Lee Noble, referring to his previous design, which was powered by a twin turbo Ford V6.

"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."

The front end design is an evolution of Noble's previous projects and has a subtle similarity to Zenvo's insane supercar, the ST1.

Though the official name hasn't been divulged, Lee Noble has revealed that the new supercar will use small block eight cylinder engines supplied by the General, both naturally aspirated and forced fed.

Due to go on sale in the UK mid-way through 2010, the Fenix supercar is claimed to tip the scales at around 1200kg and will powered by GM's LS3 6.2-litre all-alloy V8 engine, outputting around 353kW of power.

Customers who want to turn up the volume can opt for the LS9 V8, which takes the 6.2-litre block, fettles it right royally then adds a supercharger for good measure, boosting power to an earth-shaking 470kW.

A media statement released by Fenix Automotive boasts that "performance in either car will be prodigious" and predicts acceleration times of under 7.0secs for the zero to 160km/h sprint, which could translate to around 4.0secs for the zero to 100km/h dash.

Maximum velocity is expected to be slightly more than 320km/h.

The Fenix supercar will be built in South Africa and is claimed to rival "exotica costing over £150,000 (260,000)". This suggests Fenix will offer the vehicle for substantially less than its rivals, which are likely to include the Porsche 911 Turbo and Ferrari 458 Italia.

"Our first prototype is now in build and development will start in around one month's time," added Noble. "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," added Noble.

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