Thursday 14th December 2017
Lister teases 675hp Thunder
New SVR-beater will be unveiled in January
You'll recall the Lister Storm. Of all the many homologated nineties oddities, it ranks up there with the most memorable; not least for its preposterously large 7.0-litre V12. The engine was liberated from Jaguar's XJR race programme, made larger (because of course) and with 546hp and 583lb ft of torque, made the road car a genuine 200mph+ prospect.
It also helped to make it fantastically expensive, and Lister only produced four before winding up production. The company has changed hands since then, but its capacity for doing outrageous things with Gaydon merchandise is apparently undiminished. Having returned to making a continuation of the 'Knobbly' D-Type race car in 2014, the firm is currently building up a head of steam on social media as it coasts towards an unveil of the new Lister Thunder next month.
No prizes for guessing that the car will be based on the current Jaguar F-Type, although the bespoke tuning job done on the 5.0-litre V8 ought to be interesting; Lister having extracted an additional 100hp from the supercharged engine. The power increase should make the Thunder good for 3.2 seconds to 62mph and 208mph (according to its maker) - meaning that Lister's interpretation of the coupe will be comfortably quicker than Jaguar's own SVR.
Only 99 examples of the Thunder will be built and, having recently sold road-going versions of the Knobbly for £225,000 apiece, you can expect it to be unashamedly expensive. Needless to say Lister has applied its own settings to the F-Type's chassis and also endeavoured to make the interior more luxurious than Gaydon's version. The preview snaps suggest that it has been busy with the Lister green, too.
Which is all well and good - but it doesn't quite rank with the out-there outrageousness of the erstwhile Storm. Lister knows this, and has already suggested that the Thunder is merely a first step in its plan to become a fully-fledged carmaker again; one capable of turning out the kind of ultra low volume hypercar it has been internally mulling over since 2014. Postulate weather-based names below.
