Noble goes Racing
Rollcentre to race GTO3 in 2004 British GTs
It's the news many of us have been waiting for. The Noble M12 has proved a hit on the road and on track days, leaving many of us wondering what it could achieve in on the race track.
This morning Martin Short, boss of Rollcentre Racing confirmed that his team would be entering a car in the Cup Class of the 2004 British GT Championship.
The connections with Noble are long established. Rollcentre has been sponsored by Mole Valley Motor Group for many years. Mole Valley are now Noble dealers so much of the product knowledge is already on hand.
Short has also known Lee Noble for some years. "I used to race against Lee back in 87 . Lee has been there and done everything, including Daytona and Le Mans and he wanted to do this with someone he could trust would do a half decent job, and where he could pop in and see what was happening and have some input without getting too involved. "
For Rollcentre is represents a similar sort of challenge to that faced when they took a road going Cerbera and turned it into a race car. Short believes this job to be more straightforward though: "The handling of the Noble is of such a high standard that we really dont forsee having to do much other than fit racing shocks, cage , tank and slicks to it. We are making a nice cage and fitting a 100 litre tank, and the engine will be nigh on stock. "
The M12 is likely to need handicapping under current rules though. With 350 bhp powering 1000kg it is likely to require ballast.
Short is excited about taking the battle to the Porsches though. "It was obvious last season that whenever the Cup class were at a twisty circuit the Porsches started to struggle, and the nimble cars shone through. With the Noble we will not only have a nimble car, but one with a serious amount of reliable grunt."
There's the potential for significant changes to be made in the British GT rules now that the new promoter Stephane Ratel has taken over. Short is confident that Cup Class will remain unaffected though.
Rollcentre will continue to race the Mosler and Short looks like spending an increasing amount of time racing in Le Mans prototypes too. 2004 looks like a very busy year for the Cambridgeshire based team.
Link : www.rollcentre.com , Noble Links, Noble Owners
And presumably someone will be developing a dry sump system for the car as well....
james said:
We'll expect to be seeing the car at the front as usual mate
Hmm, I don't think it will be easy for Nobel to lead the field. They are great car, damn good cars to be honest!! ( price/value is unbeaten! And the handling, wow! )
But with the Ford engine they do have a hard start. I doubt that they will be able to sqeez much more power out of it, without affecting the reliability.
We will see ... I hope and wish them the best!
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