Hi all,
thought I'd start this thread and then update as I go. I'm in the mist of taking what was basically a mobile shed and rebuilding it to a quality status. It's a slow process and I've already been doing it for a couple of months.

The Lister Le Mans is a bit of a legend, but also a huge mystery. No one seems sure how many of the twin supercharged versions were made, and nearly all of the ones that come up for sale which list the spec of being 640BHP, 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, top speed of 180MPH are not that at all. They are the normally aspirated 7.0L version, which there were many many more. But people like to list - or simply don't understand - the difference between the NA version and the Uber rare Twin Supercharged version.

A customer picked this up at an auction. It had a mass of paperwork with receipts for around a quarter of a million Pounds. First it was bought as a midnight blue XJS 5.3. Then a couple of years later, the owner paid Lister to upgrade it to a 6.0L normally aspirated version. A year later, it was upgraded again to a 7.0L and given the whole twin supercharger treatment including the full body kit and then painted black.

In the intervening years it was upgraded on the inside, then had a series 3 dashboard and instrument pack, it had two new gearboxes, no end of electrical issues, three clutches, then, as time passed by, it then changed hands several times and had a massive amount of poorly executed bodywork. Further owner changes meant it was owned by people who were less and less able, or inclined, to afford to look after it until such time as it came up for auction. It looked sad, run on ten cylinders - if it felt in a good mood - had more corrosion issues, electrical faults a plenty, suspension knocks and bangs, you couldn't pull away from lights because the clutch was just an on off switch, it overheated, had blowing exhaust manifold gaskets and snapped off studs, mad cracking noises from the body if you put your foot down and was generally a mess. Although bizarrely, it never failed to start first time every time, even on just the ten cylinders - somewhere in there was still a beating heart struggling to survive.

The chap who bought it asked if I could have a look at the poor running, and I did, but I could see by the bodges under the bonnet like taped together wires, noid lights strapped to all of the injectors, blocked off pipes, three different types of ignition leads, three brands of spark plugs and scotch locked electrics, that there was no quick fix.
I did basic checks like a compression check, smoke check, put a camera down each bore and was amazed to find that the engine itself was actually in pretty good order, it was just everything else.

The chap decided that it could wait while I did some of his other cars as we look after quite a few for him. That was over two years ago.

Recently, it was decided that I should look again. I spent a couple of days on it, but found so many injection and electrical related faults, plus the blown manifold gaskets, that I reported the best bet would be for me to remove the engine and gearbox and rip out all of the old wiring and injection/ignition system, and design and fit a brand new style system with coil packs, new modern injectors, do away with the distributer and fit it with a crank sensor etc, just like a new car.

So, now the engine is out and stripped as far as required. There is no ancillary gear left on it, the engine bed is out so I can rebuild the front end, the wiring looms are all removed to the engine compartment and the interior is stripped.

Unfortunately, now the interior is stripped, it's possible to see the poor body repairs that have been previously been attempted, and even worse, we can see that the way the original body adornments fitted by Lister were fitted very badly. For instance, so it could be used on a track, the overflow from the expansion bottle off the radiator has a hose which goes to a capture tank on the inner wing so it doesn't spill on the track, and clearly it must have worked, because it was full of coolant, however, amazingly, the vent from this went into the sill section and had no form of escape! No surprise then that the sill sections have been attacked savagely by the tin moths. Looking through the factory holes in the interior of the car once all the carpets were out, it's possible to see that virtually no outer sill exists anymore. It's all rotted away, but you could never see as the add-ons covered it all up. Also, the gearbox mounting points on the floor around the tunnel have torn away the steel as that much power with no reinforcements was just too much. But once again, it was impossible to see as heat proof sticky had been put everywhere. So the gearbox, and therefore the back of the engine was literally hanging on a thread. The floor has been repaired like a patch work quilt. Further, we found the front crossmember has more corrosion holes than a piece of Swiss cheese, but someone had filled them with silicon and then painted underseal over it so you couldn't see. Also, when I attempted to undo the seatbelt mounts, one just sheared off due to corrosion.

So, the next job it to see how we can remove all of the fibreglass add ons so the car can be repaired and then get them all back on again so it looks like a Lister again. On this much body work I'm going to have to seek external help as it is just too much for us.

So that's the story so far. What I'll do from now on, is update this thread every time something worth while happens so you can see (if indeed you're remotely interested) the progress. It's a lot of work, but it's something to do!

Some photos included in case anyone is left reading after that incredibly boring monolog.

It looks great in the photos doesn't it. No quite so great in the photo of the engine bay (look at the way someone chopped off all of the fan blades - no wonder it ran hot).

Looks great here.

Looks even meaner here.

Starting to not look quite so good here.

 

What about the twin superchargers?

 

I suspect you mean these. 🤨



It's out and ready to be cleaned.

 

It's amazing how good they can look on the outside, and hide all the Nightmares! I've got a 89 that had a lot of rust in the floors after an engine fire, flooding with water to put the fire out, and then being left outside with the drivers window down for 3 years. I feel your pain. Good Luck with it, and yes keep posting. I'm definitely not bored as I remember the same disheartening feeling, when I found all the extra damage to mine.

Jack

 

Thanks, about now I need the pep talk. 👍

 

As far as I'm concerned, this will be the thread of the year and beyond.

It takes really talented people to bring these great cars back to life and I'll learn by following the process.

I already have learned that cars with "Lister" or Lister -like kits can hide A LOT of damage and if one is inclined to buy one, it requires a close examination of condition!

I'll be following every word!

Mike

 

I've seen one at David Marks in Nottingham. It's in way better condition than this. Still, David had done a huge amount of work on it. To be fair to the original creators of the car, it was faster, more comfortable and generally as well put together (which is well in a relative rather than absolute sense) as most of its supercar contemporaries.

 

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ild+89+Jacobra,

This is how I got started in this. It'll be great when done! When heck freeze's over!

JTS

 

pic of my XJS cabrio modded from coupe to cabrio, by Aston Martin around 1980/82, ended up in USA and auction off to me!
then i start to find rust , BEYOND ANYTHING i ever seen,, NO floors or any metal from 6 inches up all the way around the car!
NON running , deliver backing down the flatbed truck ,used the hand brake , ripped the complete rear subframe loose from the body, twisted sidewise , locked wheels up against the body!
pic of Rotessori rig, nothing no metal!

SADD.

so much for salting the roads in England!

 

Absolutely love it. I've never seen detailed pictures of the twin supercharged engine before - please post more if you have them!

I'm sure I remember reading that they were quite badly setup as standard, with a sort of cobbled together ECU to support the supercharges,, & didn't run very well. A modern engine management system on them will be a huge upgrade if that is the case!

 

Also, that house in the first pic looks amazing.

 

Actually, the first house in the photos mine.............................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 yeh right.

 

Having stripped out all of the injection gear/loom and ECU, it seems to me that the only thing of any note is larger injectors, a change in the ECU to lengthen injection time and a vastly increased fuel pressure. The result would seem to be crap running at normal speeds as there was just way to much fuel for the engine to digest correctly, followed by a small rev range where the fuel was more in alignment to what it needed, immediately followed by massive bore wash when you took your foot of the throttle and the huge overrun of fuel that didn't know where to go. It's a wonder the cars ever lasted at all. Still, onwards and upwards. 🙂

 

Engine already out and now bed on floor - complete with mostly shot to pieces suspension, one missing anti roll bar bush, one upper wishbone bush hanging out, two nearly departed ball joints and only one of four bump stops still there - ready for a rebuild and a good sort out.


Time to don the rubber gloves, get out the Swarfega cleaner and fill the bath!







Engine bed

 

Yeah that looks kinda Yucky.

 

Bizarrely the architecture of that house seems to be of exactly the same period as Wappenbury Hall, the home of Sir William Lyons, the founder of Jaguar!

Paul

 

talk about from a different culture!
that house looks like a PRISON to me!

 

That's just a coincidence. What you can't see is just to left of this picture there's a block of flats and a disused refuse dump. 🙄

 

Interestingly enough one house previously owned by Sir William Lyons actually came on the market not too long ago, (although I'm not sure how they know that it was).;
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/76707519#/

 

I'm super interested in this thread.... Mods... PLEASE fit it... "LEG END" to legend. Driving me crazy.