Brian Lister got into developing race cars in the mid-1950s, and he had the engineering knowledge and financing necessary to back up his dream.
He soon found himself backed by Shell/BP with Jaguar supplying engines. Thus came about the legendary Lister-Jaguar and the world-beating “Knobbly”.
According to Lister Press Release, October 1957
“This car offers the best combined price to performance, power to weight, and power to frontal area ratios available anywhere in the world for a sports car. The 1957 racing season has now ended and out of the 14 races for which they were entered Scott-Brown and the Lister-Jaguar won 11, finished second in one, and had minor mechanical trouble in the other two when in the lead, nevertheless setting up the fastest lap in both races. They have also either equaled or broken the existing unlimited sports car lap record during either the racing or at practice on all circuits where they have appeared.”
The Lister was finished with a Frank Costin body and powered by a Chevrolet motor. It is Powered by an American
Chevrolet V8 and it was one of the finest aerodynamically superior car in the 1950s.
The car has been restored by Mark Lewis Design Engineering, and won the BRDC Championship. Then It’s been entered into dozens of classic races since and has either won outright or placed highly in all of them with a memorable win at the Sussex Trophy held at Goodwood at the end of the season in 2011.
The engine of the car is presently built to produce about 435 horsepower at 6,400 rpm, as it has been tuned for its most recent racing season.