British automaker Lister recently made a triumphant return to building cars by reviving the Knobbly in a limited run of 10 continuation road legal models based on the legendary 1950s D-Type Le Mans racecar. Shown in a series of new teaser images, Lister has also been working on a new sports car for the 21st century known as the Thunder for the last two years. Autocar has now confirmed our suspicions that the Thunder is based on the Jaguar F-Type coupe and will be revealed in January 2018.

It promises to be quite a comeback too, as Lister has extensively rebuilt the F-Type's supercharged 5.0-liter V8 to produce a whopping 666 horsepower. This devilish power allows the Lister Thunder to accelerate from 0-62 mph in 3.2 seconds and reach a top speed of 208 mph. For comparison, that easily beats Jaguar's range-topping F-Type SVR, which has 567 hp on tap and can sprint from 0-62 mph in 3.7 seconds. Other modifications made to the F-Type-based Thunder include a new suspension setup to enhance the sports car's agility and traces of Lister green paint applied to the exterior.

Lister's head of sales and marketing Rory McDonnell also confirmed that the Thunder will feature a luxurious interior with Nappa leather-wrapped seats. The Thunder marks the brand's first step towards achieving its goal of becoming a new carmaker. Lister's CEO Lawrence Whittaker also has aspirations to build a hypercar capable of hitting 0-62 mph in under three seconds and reaching a top speed of 250 mph. Lister's last new road car was a homologation model of the '90s Storm racecar packing a reworked version of the Jaguar XJR's V12 engine. Its modern-day successor sounds very promising, so we'll be keeping a close eye on the Lister Thunder's developments in the run up to its reveal next month.