Lister Knobbly | PH Review
The Knobbly is one of the most exclusive new cars on sale in the UK. Dan went along to see what £375k buys you
You have a choice to make when driving the Lister Knobbly continuation. With a chunky chassis rail passing directly underneath the pedal box, pivoting your right foot from the throttle pedal to the brake isn't entirely straightforward. Ideally, you'd position your heel exactly where that hefty steel tube sits. So if you right foot brake, you find yourself lifting that leg up and dragging it over the chassis rail to jump between the two pedals. It works, but the half-second it takes to do so can feel like an eternity when you have to stop the car in a hurry.
The alternative is to brake with your left foot, which dances unobstructed between the brake and clutch pedals while your right foot hovers merrily over the throttle. And all of a sudden you're left-foot braking in a 1950s sports racing car on the public highway, fingers wrapped around the narrow wooden rim of the steering wheel, beginning to believe you might be Stirling Moss.
See the full Lister Knobbly ad here
The Knobbly continuation - in reality a brand new car, but built to the original designs using the original jigs in the original factory, and even by some of the original workers, amazingly, so perhaps closer to a classic machine than a new one - has the same power-to-weight ratio as the McLaren 570GT. Over a cresting, sinewy stretch of B-road, though, I would back myself to be faster in something like a Mercedes-AMG A45 S than the Lister. I'm just far more accustomed to a modern super-hatch than I am an old-style racer.
But for sense of occasion? The Knobbly makes the Mercedes-AMG look like a child's tricycle in that respect. And the 570GT, for that matter. Pedalling the Lister is as rewarding as driving on the road can ever get. You're unlikely to see another coming your way, too. Only a couple of dozen road-going continuations have been built, and only two are listed for sale in the classifieds. Both for £375,000. Yes, that buys a lot of modern supercar, but as attitudes towards cars and driving change in the coming years, it might actually be the case that there's more opportunity to enjoy a slower 1950s performance car on the road than a faster modern one. Because engagement trumps outright speed every single time. Thanks for watching.
See all Lister Classics stock here
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