Are we witnessing the not-so-green shoots of a British sports-car recovery? While mainstream car manufacturers buckle under the economic strain and smaller performance-car makers such as TVR pass into the history books, two supercharged thoroughbreds are preparing to re-establish Britain's car-making credentials.
The McLaren P11 project is edging closer to reality, with the first images and designs detailed elsewhere. But if you can't wait until 2011, when it goes on sale, you can content yourself with this: the Noble M600. It is, without a doubt, the most exciting British sports car for a generation and proof that, despite its recent travails, British engineering is far from dead.
The M600 will hit 62mph in 3sec flat, and reach 100mph in 3sec more. Its power-to-weight ratio is superior to that of the Bugatti Veyron and it will accelerate from rest to 200mph in about the same time it has taken you to read this sentence.
Not bad when you consider that it has been two years since Noble Automotive last built a car, during which time Lee Noble, its founder, left the business, and many presumed the company had gone to the same great racetrack in the sky as the likes of Marcos and Jensen. But Noble has been reborn and as long as you have a spare £200,000 to spend you can drive a car that makes the average supercar feel like a heavily laden milk float. The acceleration doesn't just pin you to your seat; it feels as if it could pull you out of the back of the car.
This monumental performance comes courtesy of a 4.4-litre V8 engine built by Yamaha in Japan for use in, of all things, the Volvo XC90. By the time Noble finished bolting on two turbos, its power output had more than doubled to 650bhp - more, then, than that of the McLaren F1. Even so, this is still a long way shy of the 987bhp Veyron. Then again, as Peter Boutwood, Noble's managing director, says: "A Veyron weighs at least two tons, the M600 just 1,250kg."
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On the main runway of the Bruntingthorpe proving ground in Leicestershire, I easily drove it beyond 200mph before I ran out of runway, so I don't doubt for a moment its claimed 225mph top speed. That's slower than the Veyron's 253mph, but probably adequate for everyday use.
Boutwood insists the M600 is not a rival to the Veyron or any other ultra-high-performance car on sale today. "If you want a car to be seen in, buy something else," he says. "The M600 is all and only about driving. We didn't want a car with huge power and huge weight: if a car is to handle and drive properly it has also to be light, and its lack of mass is as important a factor in how it drives as the power of its engine. If you want to compare it to something, the Ferrari F40 is closest, albeit with a rather lower level of performance."
Mentioning the M600 in the same sentence as Ferrari's greatest road car may sound a trifle optimistic. Noble is run from a unit on a Leicestershire trading estate and has only 15 employees. But when you drive the M600, you realise that its focus on back-to-basics driving pleasure is the same. Here you'll find no airbags, no Formula One-style paddle-shift transmission or stability control - the M600 doesn't even have antilock braking. For better or worse, it is a car over which the driver has total control.
When it goes on sale in November, the M600 will come with a switch that varies the engine power between the 450bhp needed to humiliate Porsche 911 Turbo owners; the 550bhp required to ensure absolutely nobody at the track day is coming past you; and the full-fat 650bhp. The prototype I drove lacked this refinement so could be driven only in 650bhp mode. When you kick the throttle to the floor there's a small pause while the turbos spool up to speed as you prepare for what happens next. And what happens is that you move from one place to the next faster than anything this side of an interstellar teleporter.
Happily, the M600 has the grip and brakes to match this performance. For all its power, this is not a car that appears to have a death wish - at least in the dry. It's quite usable too. You can see out of it, which is not always a given with such cars; it rides Britain's broken roads well, has air-conditioning and a surprisingly big boot in the nose. I'm not saying it would be your first choice for a two-week holiday or a trip to the supermarket, but at least you could use it for that if you needed to.
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The M600's biggest problem is the badge. Its £200,000 price may seem small next to an £880,000 Veyron, but who's going to spend that on a Noble when it could go on a Ferrari 599 GTB or Lamborghini Murciélago? Boutwood acknowledges this, but claims to be looking for only a few dozen customers a year. "If we make 50 cars in a good year, that will be just fine."
I don't know whether that's a possibility in the current climate. What I do know is that the M600 is one of the most extraordinary supercars built and it deserves to succeed.
The M600 will be on show in the Earls Court motor show area at the Goodwood Revival on September 18-20
NOBLE M600
Engine 4439cc, eight cylinders
Power/Torque 650bhp @ 6800rpm / 604 lb ft @ 3800rpm
Transmission Six-speed manual
Fuel Not available
CO2 Not available
Acceleration 0-62mph: 3sec
Top speed 225mph
Price £200,000 approx
Tax band M (£405 for a year)
On sale November
Verdict It will blow you off your feet