Lister's F-Pace could be the world's fastest SUV

Lister wants to make a hypercar. One with 1,000bhp, to help it reinterpret the bonkers Lister Storm of the 1990s. Hypercars are costly to develop, though, so in the meantime we’re going to see tuned Jaguars to help generate some of the budget necessary.

First is the F-Type-based Thunder – revealed this week – with Lister boss Lawrence Whittaker telling Top Gear an F-Pace-based Lightning will follow.

“I think it’s something we can do a really good job of,” says Whittaker. “The likes of Overfinch don’t focus on engine mods anymore. We focus on making cars as fast as humanly possible. We want to be tuning every element.”

The Lister Thunder takes a 5.0-litre V8 F-Type and turns it up by around 100bhp, to 666bhp. Whittaker suggests the Lister Lightning could be a little more powerful, but that a whole lot more power might risk reliability issues.

Lister’s tuning will take the F-Pace’s output past the 641bhp of the Lamborghini Urus, then, and could help it challenge the Italians’ grip on the ‘world’s fastest SUV’ title. The F-Type-based Thunder hits a claimed 208mph, so with enough aero work, the Lightning could have the Lambo’s 190mph in sight.

So will Whittaker's team work on slotting V8 engines into F-Paces, which are currently V6 at best? Um, no. They’re waiting for Jaguar to launch a V8-powered F-Pace.

What appears to be an F-Pace SVR has been spied repeatedly at the Nürburgring, and Whittaker reckons we’ll see the Lightning by September. That suggests a production F-Pace SVR will be with us in the meantime.

“We are not working on any other models as yet,” says Whittaker. “But there’s no reason why we wouldn’t offer a tuning option on every Jaguar model, that’s our aim eventually.

“I’d love to do something on a new XK, but I've heard that’s not happening now, which is a shame.”

Anyone old enough to remember the barmy Lister XJS may be equally disappointed…