A Lister Costin Jaguar, competing in the Stirling Moss Trophy for Pre'61 Sports Cars, at the Silverstone Classic 2015
This story begins with Briggs Cunningham. In 1955, after the American millionaire's fifth attempt to win Le Mans with cars built by his own company, it was time for a change. The IRS was threatening to shut down his eponymous car company, since it had never turned a profit. Although his cars had placed as high as third at Le Mans, it was time for an expensive redesign. Negotiating with Sir William Lyons, a deal was struck which gave Cunningham the Jaguar distributorship for New York, New England, New Jersey, and half of Pennsylvania. In return, he shut down his car company and agreed to race Jaguars. He settled down to selling Jaguars from his Fifth Avenue showroom, and took delivery of a brace of D-Types for his racing team. In 1956, disaster struck Jaguar. A raging fire destroyed the factory, bringing race car production to an abrupt halt. For Cunningham, it meant that there would be no timely successor to the D-Type, which was already beginning to show it's age. Enter Brian Lister. Lister was the proprietor of George Lister & Sons, a British engineering company known for an eclectic product line which included wrought iron fences. Early in the fifties, Lister had turned his interest in racing into a way of promoting his business. He developed a series of small, light race cars. These proved successful. In the wake of the Jaguar fire, British Petroleum scouted for a specialist builder who could build a Jaguar powered racer. Impressed by Lister's success, they offered him sponsorship and access to a supply of D-Type engines. Lister was an talented engineer, and set to work building a special chassis to carry the new Jaguar motors. It was built around a lightweight steel space frame, and clothed in aluminum (in some cases, magnesium) bodywork. By 1957, his efforts had produced a car known as the Knobbly Lister, for it's unusual flowing bodywork.
Size: 4763px × 2916px
Location: Silverstone Circuit, Towcester, Northamptonshire, NN12 8TN
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1950, 2015, car, cars, circuit, classic, costin, jaguar, lister, moss, pre61, racing, silverstone, sports, stirling, trophy
