[Driven]

What Is It?
Noble M400

But, WHAT is it?
British car, with the rolling chassis built in South Africa, then the drivetrain installed at its destination. Most Nobles made their way to the Europe, but 220 of the LHD models made it to the USA. No ABS, traction control, no airbags. It's basically a Porsche 914, but british.

Ok, so... what is in it?
All Nobles start life with a Ford V6 Duratec engine, with two garrett turbos added on, along with a few forged bits. The manual 6 spd transmission is sourced from the Euro-only Mondeo.
For the M400, standard power was 425hp, 390tq.

Now what?
Because it was delivered with a Ford engine, it had problems. After enough of those problems, I set about to swap out the Ford and insert a K24 into the chassis.

Power Before:
Engine: Ford Duratec V6 with twin T28 turbos
Dynoed: 435whp / 400tq, Mustang Dyno, 91
Curb Weight: 2450lbs
Effective lb/hp: 5.63lbs/hp

Power Currently:
Engine - Honda K24A2 with a single GTX35R, twin scroll, 1.06AR, T4 Mount
Dynoed - 610whp / 485tq, Mustang Dyno, E85; 450whp/409tq, Dynojet, 91
Curb Weight: 2348lbs
Effective lb/hp: 3.84lbs/hp


Current Setup:
Engine

• JDM K24A
• CP Pistons, 87MM, 10:1
• Manly Turbo Tuff i-beam Con rods
• Darton MID sleeves, rods, pistons, crank blueprinted/balanced, all installed by Darton
• Drag Cartel 2.2 Camshafts
• Supertech complete valvetrain (valves, springs, locks, keepers, guides, seals)
• Headwork built by Fuchs Cylinder Heads in Las Vegas
• Honda OEM headgasket
• L19 headbolts
• Kpro V4 ECU
• KTuned Upper Coolant Adapter
• KTuned Thermostat Housing V2
• KTuned RBC Adapter
• Engine harness custom made with milspec TXL wiring, sheathing, heatshrink, and a circular disconnect, using all new honda connectors and pins; Made by me
• Moroso Road Race oil pan
• K20A Oil Pump, balance shafts removed
• RSX VTC Gear, pinned to 45'.

Intake / Fuel

• GTX35R twin-scroll, 1.06AR turbo
• TurboSmart GenV ProGate, 50mm Wastegate
• Custom Manifold by VirtualWorks in Las Vegas (of Supra and GTR fame)
• Custom Exhaust, built by me
• Custom Downpipe, built by me
• Spoon 70mm throttle body
• RBC Intake Manifold, ported to match TB.
• 1300CC Injector Dynamics
• Karcepts Fuel Rail
• DW350il fuel pump
• Synapse BOV
• Noble factory intercooler

Transmission

• Quaife Sequential Transmission, QKE8J
• Geartronics flatshift Gearbox Control Unit, loadcell, and display
• Drive Shaft Shop custom length axles, CV joints, and hubs
• Exedy Twin-Disk Clutch and flywheel (hm032sbl)
• Clutch Master hydraulic release bearing

Misc Engine/Chassis

• Blox Oil filter relocation kit
• Dry break oil line connectors
• Dry break clutch line connector
• Dry break fuel line connector
• Dry break gearbox cooler connector
• Stainless Steel AN lines for oil, fuel, and clutch throughout
• Aluminum hardlines for turbo coolant lines, replacing the silicone lines
• Front mount Setrab Oil Cooler, removed side pod oil cooler

Wheels

• Converted from 4x108 to 5x114.3 using Mazda3 hubs
• Konig Dekagram 18x8.5 +35 Fronts, 18x9.5 +35 Rears -- Street Wheels
• Kansei KNP 17x9 +22 -- Race Wheels
• ARP extended studs on all corners
• Porsche hub nuts

Interior

• AEM CD7LG dash
• Redesign of center console, removed gauges, moved HVAC controls lower, relocated radio to center. HVAC temp gauge is now drive-by-wire vs cabled
• AIM Solo2DL
• Simpson 6 point harnesses dr/pass
• Fire suppression system, 3 port.

Exterior

• APR GTC500 wing, added LED brake light
• Difflow diffuser

[Pictures to Follow]

 

[Driven]

Day of delivery:

Day two of ownership, it saw a track day:

Then issues started to happen.

 

[Driven]

Turbo failed on me while on track... this was the last time the Ford would run in the chassis.

Yank the engine out and start working on wiring.

Get the engine in and start making some engine mounts, making sure the engine is level and centered in the chassis. Wanted to make sure I got it as close to the right side as possible, to have the axles as close to equal length. Once the engine is in, mounted, I can call up DriveShaft Shop and have them start building me some custom axles

 

[Driven]

Some wiring fun, trying to build a clean harness and ecu tray. This would be changed up at least 3 more times.

Axles received and go the rest of the engine together and did a drive around the block, without the turbo or manifold attached. This was more to make sure I got the shifter correct and to say I got it moving under it's own power:

The car was then dropped off at Virtual Works Racing in Las Vegas for the custom manifold:

Which got me to this point where I could drive it, under power, with a turbo, to the dyno to get it tuned.

Downside is, the transmission was still an OEM unit... and as such, broke:

 

[Driven]

So, I opted for a better one:

And since I was already doing fun stuff, I ended up building up a sleeved/rod/etc K24, which is the current setup and got that dynoed:

 

[Driven]

The current project is doing a 4 lug to 5 lug conversion.

The standard setup for a Noble is 4 x 108. This is the same as Ford Focus and older Mustangs. Basically useless for finding a wide range of wheels.

I spent a lot of time sourcing a hub that would fix into the wheel bearings that fit in the Noble's uprights. Eventually found a Mazda3 and have been designing custom brake hats in Fusion360 for brake rotors to fit with the new hub offset.

So, I design the part in Fusion360, have it 3D Printed at a local library, test fit... then send the finalized designs to a shop to be CNCed.

 

[Driven]

In the mean time, here are some car doing things that I'm missing out on repeating cause I'm waiting for parts.


I cone-dodge:

I drag race:

I time attack:

And some in-car of the trans in action:

 

[Jeonsa]

Love builds like this.

 

[gazoo]

Nice build!

 

[rallycorolla]

Amazing build! But man I would be pissed if I bought a track car and the engine failed on me the first day.

 

[Driven]

Amazing build! But man I would be pissed if I bought a track car and the engine failed on me the first day.

It didn't fail on the first day... there's some time jumping going on. but, the turbo failed on like, the 6th event.

 

[Driven]

Forgot to include some more recent photos.

How the engine bay currently looks.

And its currently livery:

And another shot of what I've been waiting on. This was a 3D printed hat with GiroDisc rotors. Standard Noble rotors are AP Racing discs, but are rather difficult to source.

 

[gazoo]

Did you ever consider doing a dry sump system on the engine? I was planning on doing that on my car

 

[Driven]

Did you ever consider doing a dry sump system on the engine? I was planning on doing that on my car

I had. But the oil pump usually mounts where the AC compressor sits. While this car may seem like a track-only project, it sees about 50% of it's life on the street and AC is welcomed.

Side benefit (beyond better oiling), I could lower the engine more and get a better angle on my CV axle on the left side, as that axle has a slight angle to it.

 

[Cptnslo]

What’s your background in?

 

[ArtJDM]

Is that a Taiwanese flag I spy?

 

[Driven]

Is that a Taiwanese flag I spy?

Well spotted. Other side is St Andrews cross.


Did some more fabbing, in prep for the new brake setup.

I needed a parking brake, since the new rotors don't have a drum-like setup and thus removes my parking brake. Since a parking brake is nice to have... I ordered some spot-calipers and have some brackets fabbed up to mount the calipers to the uprights.

From there, the next bit of fun is engineering the connection between the parking brake cable and the engagement lever on the caliper.

Brackets are 1/8 steel, that was plasma cut, then shaped with belt-sander, angle grinder, and rotary tools. Stand-offs were then poorly welded to the bracket. They were then tapped and heli-coiled for m10x1.25 bolts.