History of the Lister - Kit Carchives

THE COSTIN-LISTERS
Although the Lister team considered giving up, they knew this was not the decision Archie would have wanted. For the 1959 season they came out with what they hoped would be an improved model, with a super-slick long-nose body designed by famed aerodynamicist Frank Costin.

It looked great, but it was heavier than the old knobbly version, and the Lister chassis was getting long in the tooth compared to the mid-engine cars that were starting to show up. Cunningham bought several Costin-bodied cars for his team, but they proved no faster than his old knobblies. Still, the team racked up enough points to win their SCCA Class Championship for 1959.

Lister withdrew from racing at the end of the 1959 season. Their cars were now entering obsolescence, although privateers would continue to win amateur events through the early '60s. Total Lister production was around 56 cars, the vast majority sold in kit form. In 1964 Lister built three fastback Sunbeam Tigers with Cobra engines that ran at LeMans. More recently, Lawrence Pearson licensed the use of the Lister name for the Lister Storm, a Jaguar-powered coupe that has been very successful in European GT racing.

A TURN AT THE WHEEL
As a side note, one of the best things about being an auto-motive journalist is having the opportunity to occasionally drive cars we've dreamt about, and a few years ago I jumped at the chance to wring out an original knobbly Lister-Jaguar at a private test track in Texas.

The cockpit was pretty cramped for my 6-foot frame, but once underway all was forgiven, as the full-race Jaguar D-Type engine sang a siren song through its triple side-draft Weber carbs. The four-speed Jaguar gearbox snicked from gear to gear and the handling was predictable and tossable.

The Lister, shod with narrow bias-ply Dunlop racing tires, is meant to be drifted with a looser style than modern racers with wide slicks. The big Girling aluminum-caliper disc brakes (same as on competition Cobras) really haul the big car down, but be prepared to work on your calf muscles before you run one for any length of time! The big steering wheel takes some getting used to, but the Morris Minor steering rack is quick and direct. How Archie mastered this beast with his limited physical facilities is incredible!

REPLICAS
Lister-Jags and -Chevys had a short retirement. After being put out to pasture in the late '60s, many came back with a vengeance in the late '70s when vintage racing stirred to life. They are still highly competitive, and collectors have pushed prices to the upper-six-figures for original cars. As with most collectible cars, there are also ones with questionable histories.

This combination of exclusivity and performance has led to several sets of replicas. In the '90s the company making the Lister Storms also built a short run of knobbly Lister-Jags for use in historic events. These were exact replicas and the chassis were built in the old Lister factory in Cambridge (overseen by Brian Lister) and are true continuation cars. Also in the '90s, the Lister name was licensed to a British company that sold custom body panels for Jaguar XJ sedans and the XJS. Lister North America in Oklahoma was a dealer for them, and later came out with its own design called the Lister-Corvette. It was a svelte, modern rebody kit for the C-4 Corvette, not a replica of the original. They were sold in kit and turnkey form, with body panels made by noted Porsche cloner Chuck Beck.

Beck also fell under the spell of the original Lister shape and later borrowed a knobbly example to model from for his own company. He stretched the wheelbase to give more driver room and fabricated a strong chassis that accepted Corvette suspension and running gear. Still in production, Beck-Listers have been steady sellers and have embarrassed Cobra replicas at many kit car track events (which seems only fair, considering the Lister's legacy).

Avanti Motors, based in Villa Rica, Georgia (just outside Atlanta), currently sells a 'glass-bodied Lister in three stages of completion for the home builder (from a $12,000 Stage I version to a Stage III that bases at $22,500). They find that, along with the car's unique styling and how easy it is on the pocketbook to build, many of their cus-tomers are Chevy fans who are not interested in the Ford/ Cobra scene. Avanti Motors can be found on the Web at www.avantimotors.com, or at (770) 456-0900. KC