SPECIFICATIONS

Manufacturer: York Noble Industries Ltd.

Origin: London, England

Production: 1,000

Motor: Fichtel & Sachs 1-cyl, 2-stroke

Displacement: 191 cc

Power: 9.5 hp

Length: 10 ft. 6 in.

Identification No. 200908

To replace the discontinued Heinkel in 1958, UK distributors Noble Motors asked an associated company, York Noble Industries, to find a suitable car. This took the form of the German Fuldamobil S-7, for which a license was obtained. Flamboyant Company Director York Noble (often misspelled as the same as the car) assembled a group of sub-contractors to build it, including the Bristol Aeroplane Company, Rubery Owen, Sachs, and local suppliers for the smaller parts, with assembly performed by aircraft and shipbuilders Short Brothers and Harland of Belfast. Noble appointed the newspaper-worthy ex-Princess of Iran, Soraya, as co-director. Even the Fuldamobil directors were astonished at the amount of publicity “their” car generated.

German Fuldas were imported while production got underway, with the launch taking place in February 1959. Shorts were now building the bodies. UK cars differed from the German in the use of two-tone paint finishes that were divided by a large Z molding, a solid roof, and they were mostly in right-hand drive form. A pickup truck, open roadster, and a kit were also produced in small numbers, but Shorts sold the molds in late-1959. This unrestored RHD example is a three-wheeler that retains the earlier roof-mounted blinkers.