Lister Is Cooking Up Some Kind Of Mutant F-Type

Lister Cars is a curious brand. Founded by a chap called Brian Lister in 1954, it made various racing cars - usually put together using parts sourced from numerous other companies - in the 1950s and 60s, before disappearing for two decades.

It returned in the late 1980s to cook up a bonkers, Jaguar XJS-based concoction, before building the 7.0-litre V12-powered Storm as a racing car and road car in the 1990s. Like I said, curious, and now it’s coming back with its first “contemporary car” since the storm.

Having started building reproduction versions of its 1950s ‘Knobbly’ racing car a few years ago, Lister now has plans to launch a car called the ‘Thunder’ in January 2018. It’s…well it’s a Jaguar F-Type isn’t it, as you can see quite clearly in moody teaser image.

We can only assume the choice was at least partly inspired by the old Lister XJS. These fettled Jags had 7.0-litre V12s producing 600bhp. Yes, 600bhp, way back in the 1980s.

The new car will have a devilish 666bhp from a rebuilt version of Jaguar’s 5.0-litre supercharged V8, Autocar reported recently. 0-62mph will take just 3.2 seconds, while the top speed is going to be 208mph. Expect some outrageous exhaust noise as an accompaniment…