Lister Cars is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 sports car

Sports car

A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....

 manufacturer

Automaker

The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells motor vehicles, and is one of the world's most important economic sectors by revenue....

.

George Lister and Sons

Beginning in 1954, company manager and racing driver Brian Lister brought out the first in a series of sports cars from a Cambridge

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

 iron works. Inspired by Cooper

Cooper Car Company

The Cooper Car Company was founded in 1946 by Charles Cooper and his son John Cooper. Together with John's boyhood friend, Eric Brandon, they began by building racing cars in Charles' small garage in Surbiton, Surrey, England in 1946...

, he used a tubular

Superleggera

Superleggera is an automobile chassis construction technology developed by Felice Bianchi Anderloni of Italian coachbuilder Carrozzeria Touring. The company was located just north of Milan, near Alfa Romeo, Italian Citroen, and the former Isotta-Fraschini plant...

 ladder chassis

Chassis

A chassis consists of an internal framework that supports a man-made object. It is analogous to an animal's skeleton. An example of a chassis is the underpart of a motor vehicle, consisting of the frame with the wheels and machinery.- Vehicles :In the case of vehicles, the term chassis means the...

, de Dion

De Dion tube

A de Dion tube is an automobile suspension technology. It is a sophisticated form of non-independent suspension and is a considerable improvement over the alternative swing axle and Hotchkiss drive types. A de Dion suspension uses universal joints at both the wheel hubs and differential, and uses a...

 rear axle

Axle

An axle is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to its surroundings, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearings or bushings are provided at the mounting points where the axle...

, and inboard

Inboard brake

An inboard braking system is an automobile technology wherein the disk brakes are mounted on the chassis of the vehicle, rather than directly on the wheel hubs...

 drum

Drum brake

A drum brake is a brake in which the friction is caused by a set of shoes or pads that press against a rotating drum-shaped part called a brake drum....

 brake

Brake

A brake is a mechanical device which inhibits motion. Its opposite component is a clutch. The rest of this article is dedicated to various types of vehicular brakes....

s. Like others, he used a tuned MG

MG (car)

The MG Car Company is a former British sports car manufacturer founded in the 1920s by Cecil Kimber. Best known for its two-seat open sports cars, MG also produced saloons and coupés....

 engine and stock

Original Equipment Manufacturer

An original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, manufactures products or components that are purchased by a company and retailed under that purchasing company's brand name. OEM refers to the company that originally manufactured the product. When referring to automotive parts, OEM designates a...

 gearbox. It made its debut at the British Empire Trophy at Oulton Park

Oulton Park

Oulton Park Circuit is a motor racing track in the small village of Little Budworth, Cheshire, England. It is about from Winsford, from Chester city centre, from Northwich and from Warrington with a nearby rail connection along the Mid-Cheshire Line. It occupies much of the area which was...

 in 1954, with the skilled, and light, (former MG pilot) Archie Scott Brown at the wheel. Good as he was, Scott Brown could not make up the Lister-MG's deficiencies against superior competition, so Lister swapped in a Moore-tuned Bristol

Bristol Cars

Bristol Cars is a manufacturer of hand-built luxury cars headquartered in Patchway, near Bristol, United Kingdom. Bristol have always been a low-volume manufacturer; the most recent published official production figures were for 1982, which stated that 104 cars were produced in that year...

 two litre engine and knockoff wire wheels

Wire wheels

The rims of wire wheels are connected to their hubs by wire spokes. Although these wires are generally stiffer than a typical wire rope, they function mechanically the same as tensioned flexible wires, keeping the rim true while supporting applied loads.Wire wheels are used on most bicycles and...

 in place of the MG's discs. For the sports car race supporting the 1954 British Grand Prix

1954 British Grand Prix

The 1954 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Silverstone on July 17, 1954. It was the fifth round of the 1954 World Drivers' Championship.- Race report :...

 at Silverstone

Silverstone Circuit

Silverstone Circuit is an English motor racing circuit next to the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. The circuit straddles the Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire border, with the current main circuit entry on the Buckinghamshire side...

, Scott Brown easily won the two litre class and placed fifth overall, ahead even of C-Jag

Jaguar C-Type

The Jaguar C-Type is a racing sports car built by Jaguar and sold from 1951 to 1953. The "C" designation stood for "competition"....

s, behind only works

Factory

A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...

 Astons. The Lister-Bristol spent the rest of the 1954 season proving this was no fluke, beating Maserati

Maserati

Maserati is an Italian luxury car manufacturer established on December 1, 1914, in Bologna. The company's headquarters is now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. It has been owned by the Italian car giant Fiat S.p.A. since 1993...

s, Cooper-Masers, and even Lotus

Lotus Cars

Lotus Cars is a British manufacturer of sports and racing cars based at the former site of RAF Hethel, a World War II airfield in Norfolk. The company designs and builds race and production automobiles of light weight and fine handling characteristics...

-Bristols.

In 1955, a handful of Lister-Bristols were built with a new body by ex-Bristol man Lucas, claimed to have been designed with the aid of a wind tunnel

Wind tunnel

A wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air moving past solid objects.-Theory of operation:Wind tunnels were first proposed as a means of studying vehicles in free flight...

. Despite its fin

Fin

A fin is a surface used for stability and/or to produce lift and thrust or to steer while traveling in water, air, or other fluid media, . The first use of the word was for the limbs of fish, but has been extended to include other animal limbs and man-made devices...

s and strake

Strake

A strake is part of the shell of the hull of a boat or ship which, in conjunction with the other strakes, keeps the sea out and the vessel afloat...

s, it was less dominant than the '54, and competition was only getting stronger. With this in mind, in 1954 Lister moved up to a six cylinder F2 A6GCS, from the very Maseratis he had beaten in 1954, for his own works drivers, while privateer

Privateer (motorsport)

In motor sport, a privateer is usually an entrant into a racing event that is not directly supported by an automobile manufacturer. Privateers teams are often found competing in rally and circuit racing events, and often include competitors who build and maintain their own vehicles...

s (mostly club racers) got the Bristol (at ₤

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

3900). The Lister-Maser was as conquering as the Lister-Bristol before it. Lister's magic did not extend to single-seater racing, however; his F2 car, with Coventry-Climax power, MG gearbox, and (new to Lister) multi-tube chassis, proved a failure.

For 1957, Lister redesigned the car around a D-Jag

Jaguar D-type

The Jaguar D-Type, like its predecessor the C-Type, was a factory-built race car. Although it shared the basic straight-6 XK engine design with the C-Type, the majority of the car was radically different...

 inline

Straight engine

Usually found in four- and six-cylinder configurations, the straight engine, or inline engine is an internal-combustion engine with all cylinders aligned in one row, with no offset...

 six, with an aerodynamic aluminium body, the most refinement in a Lister yet, and performance, finally, sufficient to beat the Astons; it was tested by racing journalist John Bolster to a 0-100 mph (0-160 km/h) of 11.2 seconds. Scott Brown proved its quality, winning the 1957 Empire Trophy.

Refined again in 1958, with a sleeker body and better brakes, Lister-Jag still forced Scott Brown and Masten Gregory

Masten Gregory

Masten Gregory was a racing driver from the United States. He raced in Formula One between and , participating in 43 World Championship races, and numerous non-Championship races....

, the main works drivers, to work for their few successes against Ferrari

Ferrari

Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...

s and Astons, and Scott Brown crashed fatally at Spa.

Seeing the tough competition, Lister belatedly hired Frank Costin

Frank Costin

Frank Costin was an automotive engineer who pioneered monocoque chassis design and was instrumental in adapting aircraft aerodynamic knowledge for automobile use. He was the brother of Mike Costin, co-founder of Cosworth. Frank Costin used his aeronautical knowledge to design and build a chassis...

, "the most competent aerodynamicist in the business", who produced the most beautiful, and best, Lister yet. Despite this, and the Chevrolet

Chevrolet

Chevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...

-powered Lister-Corvette

Chevrolet Corvette

The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car by the Chevrolet division of General Motors that has been produced in six generations. The first model, a convertible, was designed by Harley Earl and introduced at the GM Motorama in 1953 as a concept show car. Myron Scott is credited for naming the car after...

, it was not enough, for the new rear-engined Cooper pointed to the future, and Lister closed up. In all, only fifty or so cars were built.

Brian Lister was chosen by the Rootes Group to prepare the 1963 Sunbeam Tiger Le Mans cars for Prototype category of the famous 24 hour race. The Ford V8 powered Tiger was still in early stages of development and the Lister Le Mans cars were from the first batch of cars made at the Jensen factory. Lister beefed up the suspension and brakes, added an aerodynamic fastback hardtop with a more sloping windscreen and a Kamm tail

Kammback

A Kammback is a car body style that derives from the research of the German aerodynamicist Wunibald Kamm in the 1930s. The design calls for a body with smooth contours that continues to a tail that is abruptly cut off. This shape reduces the drag of the vehicle."Kammback" is an American term...

. The 260 CID Ford V8 engine was tuned by Shelby (the maker of the original prototype from a Sunbeam Alpine) to give it 275 hp instead of the stock 160 hp. The cars were designed with a top speed of 170 mi/h but were developed in too short a time frame and both failed with engine failures blamed on sloppy preparation by Shelby. Rootes later received a refund for the engines. The two cars and one prototype 'mule' still exist. ADU 179B is owned by a UK enthusiast and ADU 180B by a Californian.

Lister Cars Ltd

The Lister company returned in 1986 as Lister Cars Ltd based in Leatherhead

Leatherhead

Leatherhead is a town in the County of Surrey, England, on the River Mole, part of Mole Valley district. It is thought to be of Saxon origin...

, Surrey, with engineer Laurence Pearce, building approximately 90 tuned Jaguar XJS

Jaguar XJS

The Jaguar XJ-S is a luxury grand tourer produced by the British manufacturer Jaguar from 1975 to 1996. The XJ-S replaced the E-Type in September 1975, and was based on the XJ saloon. It had been developed as the XK-F, though it was very different in character from its predecessor...

s. Success at this endeavour led the company to design a new sports racer, the Lister Storm. Launched in 1993 as a street version, it would use the largest V12

V12 engine

A V12 engine is a V engine with 12 cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of six cylinders, usually but not always at a 60° angle to each other, with all 12 pistons driving a common crankshaft....

 engine ever fitted to a production road car up to that time. The homologated street version of the Storm GT used a 7.0 L (6996 cc/426 in³) Jaguar

Jaguar V12 engine

Jaguar V12 piston engine was one of the premier powerplants of the 1970s and 1980s. It was first seen in the Series 3 Jaguar E-type of 1971 and was based loosely on an earlier design intended for a Le Mans car, the ill-fated Jaguar XJ13. The V12 was only Jaguar's second engine design to go into...

 engine.

Today, the company continues to build a track-only Le Mans-type prototype racer, the Lister Storm LMP, with a modified Chevrolet

Chevrolet

Chevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...

 V8 engine.

Sources

Setright, L. J. K., "Lister: From Wrought Iron to Racing Cars", in Northey, Tom, ed. World of Automobiles (London: Orbis Publishing, 1974), Volume 11, p.1201-5.

External links

• Lister Cars - official website