autoevolution
 

Lister Knobbly Coming Back With 21st Century Makeover

A classic among British sports cars, the Lister Knobbly is half Jaguar and half awesome. Following the Browns Lane fire in Coventry, the Leaping Cat turned to Lister Motor Company in order to continue racing.
New Lister Knobbly 16 photos
Photo: Lister
Lister Knobbly Stirling Moss LightweightLister Jaguar Stirling MossLister Jaguar Stirling MossLister Jaguar Stirling MossLister Jaguar Stirling MossLister Jaguar Stirling MossLister Jaguar Stirling MossLister Jaguar Stirling MossLister Jaguar Stirling MossLister Jaguar Stirling MossLister Jaguar Stirling MossLister Jaguar Stirling MossLister Jaguar Stirling MossLister Jaguar Stirling MossLister Jaguar Stirling Moss
This is the beginning of the Knobbly, featuring curvaceous proportions and an oval intake. Thanks to the lightweight aluminum panels, the Lister made the most out of the XK6 engine supplied by Jaguar.

Pricing for the Knobbly Continuation starts at £249,000 excluding tax, and if you’re interested in the Stirling Moss Edition, make that £1 million. Tipping the scales at 841 kilograms (1,854 pounds), the Knobbly produces 350 horsepower from 3.8 liters of displacement, translating to a top speed of 184 miles per hour (296 km/h). Zero to 60? That’s doable in fewer than four seconds; quick even by modern standards.

Now try to picture the Knobbly for the 21st century. If your imagination came up with a similar design to the sketch published by Lister on Facebook, good on you because that’s what the British automaker (and Jaguar tuner) has next in the pipeline.

“Yes, we will build it,” reads the caption on the world’s favorite social network. Borrowing the styling of the predecessor from the 1950s, the Knobbly II features a lot of carbon fiber, racing stripes, an open cockpit, and a wraparound windshield that harks back to sports cars from 60 years ago.

Lister doesn’t give any details whatsoever about the oily bits or performance. Given the low-profile tires, there’s no denying the engine will be an impressive piece of mechanical engineering. Given the company’s relationship with Jaguar, maybe the Ingenium inline-six is Lister’s best option.

In the Range Rover Sport HST, the engine develops 400 PS (395 horsepower) and 550 Nm (406 pound-feet) of torque from a displacement of 3.0 liters. The straight-six comes with an electric supercharger, twin-scroll turbocharger, and mild-hybrid assistance.

In addition to the Knobbly, Lister plans to bring the Storm back from the dead as a V12-engined hypercar. Projected to develop 1,000 brake horsepower, the Storm II is expected to feature a 7.8-liter V12 sourced from Jaguar.

If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories