LONDON, Sept 7 — SUVs used to be all about off-road capability and ruggedness, but today manufacturers are increasingly turning to the sport part of sports utility vehicles as off-road credentials are watered down in favour of better road manners and increasingly impressive performance. Now the British Lister Motor Company is taking orders for its tuned-up version of the Jaguar F-Pace, the LFP, which the manufacturer claims will be the fastest SUV in the entire world.

At the heart of the beast will be the same engine that normally powers the F-Pace, Jaguar’s excellent 5.0-litre supercharged V-8. In the regular F-Pace the engine develops 380 horsepower, and in the performance-focused SVR version it gets ramped up to a healthy 550 horsepower. However, Lister is raising the bar considerably higher than that as the LFP will boast an impressive 670 horsepower.

The company itself is currently going from strength to strength at the moment, and the LFP is the perfect model to launch as the manufacturer moves to a new dedicated head office to accommodate its current level of growth.

The company’s CEO, Lawrence Whittaker says of the car: “The imminent release of our new monster killer LFP promises to see Lister’s healthy situation continue for the remainder of this year, and beyond.”

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Currently, the Lamborghini Urus is the fastest accelerating combustion engined production SUV of them all with a 0-62mph time of 3.6 seconds, but the Lister just beats it with a time of 3.5 seconds. Of course, both are eclipsed by the Tesla Model X in its ‘Ludicrous Mode’ which manages a time of just 2.9 seconds, but that’s an all-electric model. However, even the mighty Model X can’t compete with the Lister in terms of top speed as the best the Tesla can offer is 155mph, while the LFP sails way past with its own ludicrous top speed of some 200mph.

Lister says that amazing top speed is achieved partly due to an extensive use of carbon fibre to lower the vehicle’s weight and improve handling, but there is a caveat. At the moment Lister is saying the LFP will “potentially” be the world’s fastest SUV, and even that claim is yet to be verified. Even so, it’s still a pretty special SUV by any standard, and that’s reflected in the price as it costs £140,000, or a little over US$180,000 (RM746,010) if you’d like to place an order. — AFP-Relanxews