Lee Noble is a British entrepreneur, car designer and engineer. He is the founder of the sports car companies Noble Automotive Ltd in 1999 and Fenix Automotive in 2009.[1] He is also the designer of some low-volume sports cars, including the Ultima Mk1, Ultima Mk2, Ultima Mk3, Midtec Spyder, and Ascari FGT. His designs have also been further developed beyond Noble's involvement, resulting in successful designs such as the Ultima GTR, Ascari Ecosse,[2]Rossion Q1,[3], and designs such as the Salica GT.[4] which has never made production. Noble’s basic theme for designing sports cars is to start with a lightweight space frame, have a big powerful engine and an aerodynamic sports-racer body. Almost all the cars Noble has designed have been mid-engined which makes his cars notable for good handling.
Noble started Noble Automotive after he finished his involvement with Ascari, a manufacturer of supercars with a commensurately high price and small market. Lee Noble’s passion is to achieve something closer to everyman price levels, so Noble Automotive set out to build a relatively affordable but still really fast car. To sell cars in the hundreds or thousands per year, build costs need to be low, and quality needs to be high. As a result, Noble does much of its basic manufacturing in South Africa. The core body/chassis assemblies are shipped from South Africa to England, where Noble installs the drivetrain (for the European market) and does final tests. Noble left Noble Automotive in the spring of 2008 and created his new current company, Fenix Automotive in late 2009.
