Lister
Lister Motor Company is one of Britain's most underappreciated racing dynasties, a small specialist builder whose Jaguar-powered machines beat the world in the late 1950s before disappearing from the scene, only to be revived decades later with the extraordinary 60th anniversary Knobbly continuation car.
The Origins of Lister Cars and the Jaguar Partnership
Brian Lister founded the company in Cambridge in 1954. Lister's background was in tubular steel frame construction, and his first cars used Bristol engines. The transformation came in 1957, when Lister adopted the Jaguar D-Type's straight-six engine and built the car that would define the company's legacy. That year, Archie Scott Brown drove the Lister-Jaguar to victory at the British Empire Trophy and the Goodwood Sussex Trophy, cementing the partnership's reputation at the highest level of British motorsport.
Racing Glory with the Lister-Jaguar Knobbly
The Lister Knobbly, named for its distinctive curvaceous aluminium bodywork, became one of the most successful racing cars of the late 1950s. Drivers including Stirling Moss, Ivor Bueb, Bruce Halford, and Innes Ireland all competed in Knobblys, making it a fixture at circuits across Britain and Europe. The car's tubular steel chassis, hand-beaten aluminium body, and Jaguar six-cylinder engine made it light, fast, and beautifully engineered for its era.
The arrival of rear-engined cars in the early 1960s made Lister's front-engined layout obsolete for top-level racing, and the company faded. It was a common fate for small specialist builders that relied on a single dominant technical formula.
The Revival: Lister Storm and FIA GT Championship
In the 1980s, engineer Laurence Pearce acquired the company and began tuning a limited series of Jaguar XJS models. Pearce then returned Lister to competition with the Lister Storm, a road-legal car powered by a Jaguar XJR9-derived 7.0-litre V12 engine. The Lister Storm went on to win the FIA GT Championship in 2000, a genuine result that showed the old marque still had competitive fire.
The 60th Anniversary Knobbly Continuation
In 2012, Lawrence Whittaker acquired the Lister Motor Company and set it back on course with a range of Jaguar F-Type and F-Pace derived road cars. But the centerpiece of the modern revival is the 60th anniversary Lister Knobbly continuation series, produced in 2014 to mark six decades since the company's founding.
Only ten cars were built. Each uses a six-cylinder Jaguar 3.8-litre engine and four-speed gearbox, almost identical to the D-Type units fitted in the 1950s originals. Engines are assembled from all-new remanufactured parts around original Jaguar blocks, and the tubular steel frame is fabricated using the original jigs and drawings, with period employees involved in the build. The hand-beaten aluminium body is shaped to exactly match the original Knobbly silhouette.
Half the run sold within weeks. The full order book was filled shortly after, representing around five million pounds in orders. The cars are road-legal, meaning their owners can drive to a circuit, race, and drive home, in a machine that genuinely channels the spirit of Archie Scott Brown and Stirling Moss.
The official Lister Cars Knobbly page covers the continuation car's specification in full. Auto Express covered the road-legal Knobbly reveal in detail when the car was announced.
The Lister Legacy and Where to Find Similar Vehicles
The Lister story is inseparable from the Jaguar D-Type. The Jaguar D-Type that powered Lister's greatest victories is itself one of the most coveted racing cars in history, and examples are available through TheArsenale. For those drawn to the broader world of hand-built, pedigree sports and racing cars, the luxury and specialist car collection at TheArsenale brings together some of the most extraordinary machines in the world.
