Lister Portfolio

In the News

Lister cars are renowned across the globe. They have been making headlines for decades, from the Archie Scott Brown and Sir Stirling Moss racing achievements, through to the press launch of the Lister Storm at Earl’s Court, featuring actress Jenny Seagrove sitting on the car, and selling the first one straight off the stand to the Sultan of Brunei; right up to date with multiple reviews and featuring on Top Gear. The launch of the special edition Lister Jaguar Knobbly Stirling Moss at the RAC also created column inches, with only ten ever to be made, and delivered by Sir Stirling himself.

LISTER KNOBBLY CONTINUATION

On the following pages are a selection of stories – Lister creates a lot of press interest.

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Left and below Gorgeous aluminium body

takes 500 man-hours to craft; owner Brian Scowcroft (on left) commissioned Lister to make the first road-legal Knobbly.

T he stark Cumbrian landscape unspools in a blur, and conversation thus far has been conducted largely by means of hand gestures. But

‘IT’S GIDDYING STUFF, AS IS TO BE EXPECTED OF A ’50S SPORTS RACER ON OPEN(ISH) EXHAUSTS’

are dispatched with gusto. The horror-film fog of a few hours ago has made way for weak winter sun and he’s revelling in one more opportunity to play with his new toy before the roads are salted again.

then it’s hard to be heard over the full throated howl of a Jaguar twin-cam six as it reaches its sweet spot. The vast acreage of bonnet rises and falls like cleavage, the point of focus from the passenger seat being the onslaught of fresh air that bypasses the shallow wind-deflector and smacks you around the chops to the point that your face is frozen in a rictus grin.

to Highway Code adherence generally make for a purgatorial driving experience in the real world: think ‘will it catch before it catches fire’ start-up theatrics, Olympic standard strop-throwing shenanigans in traffic, and a spine-rattling ride quality. More often than not, you soon pine for something

marque revival, Lawrence Whittaker, even went as far as to persuade several company old boys to come out of decades-long retirement to act as consultants during the construction of the initial batch of ten new Knobblys, and to help train the next generation of car builders. The original plan back in 2013 was simply to produce millimetre-perfect Listers with HTP papers that could be used in Historic racing, subject to the discretion of event organisers.

It’s giddying stuff, but then that is to be expected of a ’50s sports-racer on open(ish) exhausts being exercised on challenging blacktop. Except this is nothing of the sort. This Lister-Jaguar ‘Knobbly’ was completed only recently. It is, in modern-day parlance, a ‘continuation car’, the important distinction being that it was ordered as a road car rather than as a track weapon.

building the new Listers. It took several trips to the VOSA testing centre before they approved a car. We had to adapt more than 200 individual parts.

concessions to IVA Type Approval, and doing so without deviations from the script having an adverse effect on its looks or appeal. That’s quite a tightrope to walk, not least when your customers are, by definition, high-net-worth individuals with correspondingly high expectations.

that bit more user-friendly. As such, you approach this car with a degree of trepidation. It isn’t as though Lister doesn’t have form when it comes to making road cars, mind, but that was more in the realm of the outrageous XJ-S conversions of the late 1980s, and the uncompromisingly angular Storm GT car that followed in the early ’90s. This is something else entirely, a machine that aims to duplicate the wondrousness of the original Knobbly while also making

Meanwhile, the helmsman displays not a particle of doubt as speed rises and corners

‘The major problem we had to overcome was the heat from the exhaust. The exhaust gets very hot and this was unbearable for passengers. It was less of an issue when racing, but obviously no good on the road. Eventually, we ceramic-coated the exhaust and put a lot of heat-resistant material in the bodywork to deflect the heat, and in the end it worked very well. However, a lot of R&D and investment went into sorting the problem.’

It blazes a trail for a new strain of street legal sports-racers from this resurgent Cambridgeshire marque, but therein lies the rub. Competition tools with a nod or two

‘My father had bought an original Lister Knobbly to restore,’ Whittaker recalls. ‘While trying to find out more about the car and order some parts, he contacted George Lister Engineering [Brian Lister’s grandfather’s company], which was still in existence. They invited us to their factory and we were

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That would be individuals such as Brian Scowcroft, who commissioned the first Lister Knobbly road car. The car collection of this sometime Formula Ford racer stretches from a V16 Cadillac to a Franay-bodied Bentley via all manner of vowel-laden Italian supercars. In this company, the Knobbly

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overwhelmed to see that they had the original chassis jigs, body bucks and other parts just lying in storage. My father and I were immediately smitten and set a acquiring the five different make up The L whi

Demand for the new Knobblys soon outstripped supply. ‘We sold the first ten cars within two months of release, w surprised me a great de shocked at h glo

doesn’t appear out of place, that’s for sure. But, then, it was built using much of original Brian Lister-era tool be expected. Th