This V12 Was The Fastest ’90s 4-Seater GT - And Only Four Were Made

The ’90s was the era of the analog supercar. Most of them were naturally aspirated, most had manual transmissions, they were mostly rear-wheel drive, and no such thing as a double-clutch auto even existed in a road car. Manual V12 supercars like the Lamborghini Diablo and McLaren F1 were fairly commonplace. Even four-seat GT supercars like the Ferrari 456 and Jaguar XJ220 were sold with a manual. Today, of course, every Jaguar - and most supercars except for exceptions like Pagani Utopia and GMA T.50 - are automatic.

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But when it comes to sheer speed and outrageous looks, one GT trumped them all. Primarily built for racing, only four road-going examples were made, so it's vanishingly rare today. It had a 7.0L V12 engine based on that of a road car, with single overhead cams, just two valves per cylinder, and not a turbocharger in sight, but it still managed to top 208 mph back in 1993. This is the story of one of the rarest and fastest ’90s super-GTs.

Lister Was A Racing Outfit, First and Foremost

1954 Founding to 1986

1958 Archie Lister MVE303 BW Front Angled View

Lister Motor Company was founded in Cambridge, UK, by Brian Lister in 1954. It built racing cars from the outset, using tubular ladder chassis and tuned MG engines for a short while, soon switching over to Bristol engines. Several Lister-Bristols were built, and engines from Maserati and Convertry-Climax also found their way into the early Lister cars. Lister’s long association with Jaguar started in 1957 when it replaced the Maserati engine in its own race car with the 3.4L inline six-cylinder Jaguar XK engine conceived for the D-Type racer - and this Lister-Jaguar duly won the 1957 British Empire Trophy. Lister then designed its famous “Lister Knobbly” racers - so called because of their curvaceous styling. Lister still supplies new 1958-spec Knobbly race cars to customers (see above gallery).

The Knobbly cars were especially designed for the Race of Two Worlds in Monza. Lister would subsequently build a front-engined racer with a Corvette V8, but this Lister-Chevrolet proved an unsuccessful race car. The outfit would continue to build customer cars to help finance the business. Lister was commissioned by the Rootes Group to prepare the 1963 Sunbeam Tiger for the prototype category of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. The engine was a 4.3L Ford V8 massaged by Carroll Shelby, but the engine was unreliable and the project died when

Rootes went out of business, cutting off Lister’s tuning work.

1986 Pearce Ownership and the Jaguar Era

The Lister name was revived in 1986 under engineer Laurence Pearce, who kept it ticking over tuning the Jaguar XJS, enlarging the 5.3L Jaguar V12 and with two superchargers added in the most extreme models, good for about 600 hp and 200 mph. After initially dabbling with the Jaguar XK engine in its early years, tuning Jaguars now became Lister’s main business.

Calm Before the Storm

The Wildest Lister Arrives

1994 Lister Storm Green Front Angled View

Business was brisk, so Lister started to develop its own car, which would be called the Storm. In the late ’80s, Jaguar fielded its XJR-9 prototype racer in FIA Group C and IMSA Camel GTP races, and the car was successful, winning the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans. Lister derived the engine it used for the Storm from the largest 7.0L evolution of the Jaguar V12 used for the World Sports Prototype Championship (WSPC). Despite being naturally aspirated and featuring single overhead cams and two valves per cylinder, the race engine developed 750 hp at 7,200 rpm. For the road car, it would have about 200 hp less. Power was sent to the rear wheels via a six-speed Getrag manual gearbox.

Given the relatively low weight and surfeit of power, performance was eye-widening for the ’90s, and the Storm instantly became one of the fastest cars on the planet - and definitely the fastest GT of them all, seeing as it had a second row of seating, even if it was only really suitable for kids. The Storm made use of the most expensive engineering solutions to ensure that it was an extreme supercar, and featured a chassis made from lightweight aluminum honeycomb and a body made from a mix of Kevlar and aluminum panels.

1995 Lister Storm Blue Front Angled View 01

All-independent suspension and Brembo brakes complete the mechanical package. It borrowed expensive-to-develop parts from other manufacturers as much as it could, so most of the greenhouse came from the Volkswagen Corrado, as did the doors, but recreated in aluminum instead of steel. The taillights were poached off the Audi 80 sedan. In the end, only four examples of the Storm road car were built. Due to its extremely high price at the time of 220,000 British pounds - $330,000 at the time, or $725,000 adjusted for inflation in today’s money - there were never going to be many takers with the wherewithal to afford it.

The Storm Went Racing, Naturally

1995-1996 LIster Storm GTS Front Angled View Racing 02

Storm GT, GTS, and GTL racers were built between 1995 and 2005, and the race cars debuted at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans, where it failed to finish due to transmission failure. It was also entered in the 1997 BPR Global GT Series against the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR, Ferrari F40 LM, Porsche 911 GT1, and McLaren F1 GTR, but mechanical problems prevented it from winning any more than a handful of races. Success finally came in 2000, when won the driver’s and constructor’s titles in the FIA GT Championship. It would continue to win the British GT championship before the Storm race cars were eventually retired in 2005.

Lister Continues

Lister Stealth

Lister Stealth Silver Front Angled View

LIster continues to tune Jaguars today, and the Lister Stealth sees Lister bow to the pressure of modern SUV-loving buyers. The Stealth is a hot version of the Jaguar F-Pace SVR. With 666 hp and 650 lb-ft of torque courtesy of a tuned 5.0L supercharged V8, the Stealth makes it to 60 mph in only 3.4 seconds, on to a top speed of 195 mph. Only 100 are being built.

Lister Knobbly

Lister Knobbly Road Car Black Front Angled View

The inimitable Knobbly lives on today, and Lister supplies brand-new 1958-spec Knobbly cars according to FIA Appendix K race regulations to this day to paying customers (see the Knobbly gallery at the top of this story). A Knobby road car - shown above - is also offered with a hand-beaten aluminum body and 3.8L Jaguar XK inline six-cylinder engine rebuilt from original engine blocks and all-new remanufactured parts. It’s good for 330 hp and, thanks to a curb weight of only 1,731 pounds, it accelerates to 60 mph in only 4.3 seconds. It has a tubular chassis made using the original jigs and aluminum body panels. Only ten of the road cars will be built, ensuring that this Lister will be almost as rare as its bonkers Storm cousin from the ’90s.