
By Chris Catto
2024 review by James Loveridge
By choosing to title his recently published book ”LEE NOBLE Supercar Genius” Chris Catto, himself a highly qualified motor engineer, has made an interesting choice. Genius has several meanings, not just coming up with something new and hitherto unrealised but also doing something better than anyone else, ”instinctive and extraordinarily imaginative”. In his 312-page, detail-filled book Mr Catto has provide ample information to enable the reader to decide if the epithet is merited.
The title may also suggest that this is a biography of a very talented motor car designer and manufacturer but it is not of the conventional sort – childhood, adolescence, education, adult life, family etc.. These matters are dealt with but quite briefly and are not the central theme. This is Lee’s involvement with a range of high performance cars and the ups and downs of his efforts to offer a supercar competitive with, or even better than, those of the established makes such as Ferrari and Porsche, but at a “reasonable” price. This book shows that this is largely what he did.
Already a successful amateur racing driver in a Lotus Europa, his first design and manufacturing success was with the Ultima, which still exists, but not under Lee’s ownership. Lee then produced a replica Ferrari P4 and after that came the Noble 23 which owed something to the Lotus 23 and which was a success on the track. There followed several cars with which he was involved, the Prova, the Prosport and its evolution the Stealth B6, the Midtec and then the Ascari. All the time Lee was widening his experience and honing his skills so that at last he was ready to continue his eponymous series of Noble cars, M10 through to M600 and M15.
A good deal of the book is taken up with technical descriptions of the Noble cars and how they evolved, such as switching from a transverse mounted engine and gearbox to a longitudinal layout for the M15 (which was intended as a road car as opposed to a track car), the change giving improved torque. Evidence of the outstanding performances of these cars is comprehensively fully detailed.
Finance was always an issue for Lee and it is not easy to follow the story as dates when significant events happened are rarely given. However it seems that in the late 1990s Tony Moy of Page & Moy agreed to put in money. Lee also formed a good relationship with Jim Price of Hi-Tech Automotive in South Africa, who took care of manufacture. These relationships enabled him to carry on the business without having to cede control. Almost inevitably more finance was needed so David Jones, head of Next, agreed to invest in return for 60% of the business. When Jones quit around 2007 Lee had urgently to find more finance to continue. The book is irritatingly short of several specifics, dates and often the identities of some people with whom he dealt. In or around 2007 Lee met one such unnamed American individual who offered to invest in Lee’s company in return for 75% ownership but, on the day contracts were due to be signed, he demanded 100% ownership but with Lee becoming Managing Director. It seems that decision was mainly out of loyalty to his staff and, not properly considering the implications, Lee accepted, but clearly the relationship was acrimonious and it was not long before he resigned/was sacked in 2008. The M15 was shelved and that was the end of Lee’s direct involvement with the Noble car business. This sad end does suggest that Lee, despite his many other attributes, was not the most astute of businessmen.
Lee suffered badly both mentally and physically but happily recovered and went on to form the Fenix business which lasted until 2012 and then acted as a consultant to other manufactures such as the Arrinera company in Poland with their Hussarya car. Noble cars are still being made, the current model being the M500 with a price of £150,000, which is an interesting contrast to the price list on page 132 which, although not dated, shows £44,950 for an M12 GTO.
The book, as well as being full of technical details, also has sections on guidance for prospective M12 buyers, ownership experience of various models, sales, servicing, modifications and tuning outfits; it could almost be said to be a supplementary Owner’s Manual.
The quality of this book is excellent, with copious illustrations and diagrams, though there are a couple of printing issues. On page 53 the title of image 2 has been included in the title of image 1 and on page 227 in the list of cars Lee has owned the word “Triumph” has got itself added to the Lotus Cortina entry rather than being stand-alone with “2.5 Pi” below.
The Book is published by Veloce and priced at £60, which seems reasonable when compared with some recent motoring books, but Amazon has it at £45 and ABE Books at £47.55.
This is not the easiest book to read but is definitely worthwhile for the mass of information it gives about a very interesting man, if not one who was easy to deal with, and his cars. It seems his guiding philosophy was “my way or no way” – but weren’t Ettore Bugatti and Enzo Ferrari like that?
Publisher: Veloce (veloce.co.uk)
Price: £60 plus postage (Amazon £45 and ABE Books £47.55).
Description: 20.7cm x 25cm, 336 pages, hardback in dust jacket. 574 black & white and colour pictures.
ISBN: 978-1-787119-32-1
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