Thursday 14th December 2017

Lister teases 675hp Thunder

New SVR-beater will be unveiled in January

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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.

[Turbobanana]

Could do a small hatch called the Drizzle.

Or a convertible called TurnedOutNiceAgain.

[Jex]

Nimbus

[Fury1630]

I'm guessing "drizzle" isn't being considered?

[FourWheelDrift]

What's with the dark photography? We know it's an F-Type.

[Jex]

Dreich for the NC500 limited edition

[robsprocket]

Why the tease?

https://www.tuningblog.eu/en/kategorien/autos-von-...

[V8 FOU]

Scorchio?

[Fetchez la vache]

robsprocket said:

Why the tease?

https://www.tuningblog.eu/en/kategorien/autos-von-...

Rather like that.
I therefore give you...
The Lister - Peter Kay "Fine Rain" edition.

[lukeharding]

Fetchez la vache said:

Rather like that.
I therefore give you...
The Lister - Peter Kay "Fine Rain" edition.

Different wheels on that dark teaser shot though, unless I'm missing something?

[dunnoreally]

No chance of it getting the full XJ-S Le Mans treatment and coming with a manual conversion, I suppose? Probably be a bit much, even for them.

Still, first TVR, now this... What next, Marcos? Bristol? Austin Healey?

[lukeharding]

dunnoreally said:

No chance of it getting the full XJ-S Le Mans treatment and coming with a manual conversion, I suppose? Probably be a bit much, even for them.

Still, first TVR, now this... What next, Marcos? Bristol? Austin Healey?

The Lister XJ-S is an absolute monster of a car and I love it, can't quite see the same thing happening (or working) with the F-Type sadly - just imagine how wide it would be for starters!

[ZX10R NIN]

I like the look of the car in the photo, if I was Lister I'd be trying to make company run along the lines of Brabus or Alpina & now Jaguar has a SUV I can imagine they'll be able to build a decent revenue stream especially when the same engines are in RR.

[Fetchez la vache]

dunnoreally said:

What next, Marcos? Bristol? Austin Healey?

Wonder what happened to Austin Healey?
Last thing I remember was that BMW owned the name and were thinking of recreating the brand, but obviously that never came to fruition... and that must be a good 10 or more years ago.

[peter450]

If it drops to anywhere near the prices the Lister XJS did a while back it could be an epic bargain in the future, I came close to getting a Lister but never found the right car (either to much or to shoddy)

[cat with a hat]

looks very nice, although rather expensive.

[soad]

That's a beast!