The thing about boutique supercar makers is that these smaller companies just don't have the resources to put whatever they want into production whenever they want, no matter how awesome it is. So while it tends to take about a year for the big names in supercars to produce roofless versions of their cars, we've been waiting longer than that for the Noble M600 Speedster, even though it has existed in prototype form for some time.

A working prototype has now been built, and new photos released (which you're seeing here), but Noble still needs to gauge the response to the car. And Noble obviously has to be much more cautious about this than, say, Ferrari would. The car is mechanically mostly the same as the hardtop M600 of 2009, although Noble will now be offering it with the option of a six-speed paddle-shifted manual in addition to the traditional three-pedal manual, which is expected to broaden the vehicle's appeal. Production could even start this year, if the feedback is positive enough. We certainly hope it will be.