RE: Lister-Jaguar XJS Le Mans: Spotted

RE: Lister-Jaguar XJS Le Mans: Spotted

Author
Discussion

Podie

46,630 posts

274 months

Wednesday 21st February 2018
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lick

LeighW

4,362 posts

187 months

Wednesday 21st February 2018
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darronwall said:
Sure I remember road rests at the time stating it would light up its tyres beyond 100mph!
I thing that’s a cheap car,cheap for a reason no doubt tho
I wouldn't fancy doing 100mph in the one in the ad. Pretty sure I can see a 2001 date code on the tyre in the pic. eek

dunnoreally

952 posts

107 months

Wednesday 21st February 2018
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Yes, I certainly do want to! If you offered me literally any car in the world, no test drives allowed, I might well pick one of these.

Krikkit

26,500 posts

180 months

Wednesday 21st February 2018
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DonkeyApple said:
darronwall said:
Sure I remember road rests at the time stating it would light up its tyres beyond 100mph!
I thing that’s a cheap car,cheap for a reason no doubt tho
They’re nearly all completely rotten underneath and a proper resto is tens of thousands. And the engines usually need rebuilding and so does everything between the rotted chassis and the engine. You can lose £50-100k in getting one working properly.
Yep, but what a fabulous way to blow £150k. I bet you could supercharge an NA one with modern electronics for even more ridiculous power.

Gandahar

9,600 posts

127 months

Thursday 22nd February 2018
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Fantastically mad. They pretend it is just one centre bolt for the wheel rather than 4 and then add 78.3 small ones around the outside ....



that wheel probably weighs more than a Caterham.

I just love gigabehemoths though.....


DeejRC

5,712 posts

81 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
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DonkeyApple said:
darronwall said:
Sure I remember road rests at the time stating it would light up its tyres beyond 100mph!
I thing that’s a cheap car,cheap for a reason no doubt tho
They’re nearly all completely rotten underneath and a proper resto is tens of thousands. And the engines usually need rebuilding and so does everything between the rotted chassis and the engine. You can lose £50-100k in getting one working properly.
I think Bolton was looking at something like that to get his sorted!!! If I recall correctly the situation may have involved lawyers getting involved at some point...

andrewis

31 posts

211 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
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DeejRC said:
I think Bolton was looking at something like that to get his sorted!!! If I recall correctly the situation may have involved lawyers getting involved at some point...
As an aside, I often wonder what happened to Bolton. How this place could do with him back. I've still got his old Alpina B5.

corozin

2,680 posts

270 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
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Parked next to one at Gurston Down Hillclimb with an even bigger wing a few years ago...



DeejRC

5,712 posts

81 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
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andrewis said:
DeejRC said:
I think Bolton was looking at something like that to get his sorted!!! If I recall correctly the situation may have involved lawyers getting involved at some point...
As an aside, I often wonder what happened to Bolton. How this place could do with him back. I've still got his old Alpina B5.
I think business and personal life issues came up that required serious attention, rather than on here!

cramorra

1,664 posts

234 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
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Hairymonster said:
Looks like a Turkish brothel on the inside!
How do you know???? rofl

anonymous-user

53 months

Saturday 24th February 2018
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Considering the heat related issues the standard car had I am quite sure that this "developed in a shed" monster would be spectacularly bad if you actually tried to use it in anger for more than a quick blast. I seem to recall reading contemporary reviews where it never matched the quoted performance and was well behind cars with lower stats.

Still, absolutely mental and I'm glad it exists. I bet it's absolutely terrifying in the 30 seconds between giving it the beans and it breaking.

Phillipmwalker

3 posts

73 months

Sunday 25th February 2018
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The Lister Le Mans was my car between 1995 and 2007. It was normally aspirated with no superchargers and produced 550BHP Because of the registration I christened the car Doctor Lister I still have the original log book in my name.
These cars were NOT conversations. Lister built a car to enter the 1989 Le Mans 24hr race. They produced about 25 cars to sell (15 fixed heads and 10 convertibles I think.The rear window I recall was from an Aston Martin (I stand to be corrected on that one).
The car was built before catalytic converters with a straight through exhaust that used to set car alarms off.
The car has a bonnet ramp just in front of the windscreen. The paint split and I had to get the complete bonnet re-painted. Rust in the nearside rear wing also had to be repaired. The car did about 14 mpg. The car was very under-geared with the 5 speed Getrag box. Later cars had the 6 speed ZF. I had a Dodge Viper that at 2000rpm in top was doing 106mph. The car was about £142,000 new (I bought it second hand from a dealer in Halifax with 4000 miles on the clock for £45,000 so it probably cost the previous owner about £30.00 per mile to run!

Phillipmwalker

3 posts

73 months

Sunday 25th February 2018
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Oh by the way this was the car one of your contributors saw in Chester. The car did not have any overheating issues. it had more than one prolonged motorway bash in my ownership. I also have photo's of it with the registration G801PHD if anyone doubts this.
Edited by Phillipmwalker on Sunday 25th February 21:12


Edited by Phillipmwalker on Sunday 25th February 21:22

astrsxi77

302 posts

220 months

Monday 26th February 2018
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Nice to hear from an ex-owner. As an enthusiastic bystander, I've always found the Lister cars intriguing.

Do you know much about the difference in specs? Based on the couple that I've seen in the metal and information online, no two cars are exactly the same. Is the Le Mans a specific specification, i.e. are they the cars with the sloped front, full bodykit, angled rear screen and raised rear lights? What is the so-called Lister Mk3? Is that similar, but retaining the conventional front end? What determined s/c or NA breathing (or was that purely customer choice?), and what about wheels? Did all early cars feature some variation of the split-rim disc style alloy, but later cars feature the deep five-spoke design that eventually went on to the Storm? Also, have you any idea what Lister did to aspects like brakes and suspension? Practically everything I've ever read just mentions "upgrades", but with no detail.

Love to know, so any light that you can shed would be gratefully received!

Phillipmwalker

3 posts

73 months

Monday 26th February 2018
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Lister did a series of cars based on the XJS and this did include modifying owners standard vehicles. The Le Mans was just their adventure into entering the Le Mans 24 hour race. All I've seen had the split rim alloys as per my car. The brakes were uprated and were outboard unlike the XJS's inboard rear brakes. The car was extended 6" to give greater cabin room. I don't know the split in numbers between the N/A and SC.
The sloped rear window and exaggerated body kit was I believe restricted to the Le Mans. Another car you should view is the Paul Bailey "Monaco" one of which I have needing restoration. Realy beautiful compared to the Le Mans but only with standard engines.

Edited by Phillipmwalker on Monday 26th February 19:34

Loyly

17,990 posts

158 months

Monday 26th February 2018
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An absolute monster of a machine. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

astrsxi77

302 posts

220 months

Monday 26th February 2018
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Top info! Thanks.

s m

23,164 posts

202 months

Wednesday 28th February 2018
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