A less-lairy Lister XJ-S
I ENJOYED BEN Barry’s article about the Lister XJ-S in Octane 218. However, he omitted one piece of Lister’s latter-day history, and it’s worth recording because I think it produced by far the best looking of all the Lister variants.
Prior to Laurence Pearce getting involved with the venture, the idea of reincarnating the Lister name on an improved XJ-S actually came from Ron Beatty of Forward Engineering. He and entrepreneur Iain Exeter went into partnership and developed the whole concept with Brian Lister from around 1982 across several prototypes and production models. I successively bought two of those prototypes from Iain.
A photo of that first Lister is attached [below right] and I think Ron’s changes turned the XJ-S from slightly ugly duckling into immaculate grand tourer. The finished article was infinitely prettier than any of the TWR or other aftermarket editions, and in my view sleeker and more subtle than the rather ostentatious full-fat Listers that followed.
Ben rather charitably refers to
