Lister Motor Company

General information

History

The Lister-Jaguar was Britain’s most successful sports racing car of the 1950's. It won at almost every circuit in Britain and was virtually unbeatable both in the UK, overseas and in the USA and continued to keep the Jaguar name in the forefront of sports car racing long after the Jaguar D Type had become obsolete.

The 'Cars from Cambridge' designed, and built by Brian Lister, were simply the best of their kind and dominated the field with Archie Brown driving, even when driven by Stirling Moss, who also drove a stint for Lister.

Brian Lister's big break came when he was offered the engines and gearboxes by William Lyons (boss at Jaguar) from the retiring Jaguar D Types which had previously dominated at Le Mans, but which by 1956 were fast becoming outdated. Lyons was correct in believing that Lister would be capable of developing a race winning car, thus keeping the Jaguar name in the forefront of racing and at little cost to Jaguar and so Lister-Jaguar was born.

Brian Lister designed and built a new lightweight and aerodynamic chassis and ‘knobbly’ body to take the Jaguar drive train and the world’s best sport racing car of the 1950’s was born!

For five seasons from 1954 Lister cars were always in the headlines and consistently beat the much larger works teams such as Aston Martin and Jaguar. It caught the public's imagination, especially popular was the mercurial and respected Archie Scott Brown, he was fiercely competitive, fun to be with, adored by everyone with film star looks even though he was severely disabled from birth.

Unfortunately, in 1958 Archie Brown died after suffering severe burns in a racing car accident at Spa. The car was criticized for having magnesium alloy bodywork which was inflammable, although an RAC examination found no faults with the car. Brian Lister persevered for a few years afterwards, but without his friend Archie things were just never quite the same.

It was left to Laurence Pearce in 1995 to take up the charge, Pearce designed a new series of Lister Storm GT race cars and spent the next decade rebuilding the racing heritage the 'glory days' were back with winning drivers such as Tiff Needell.

GEORGE LISTER ENGINEERING LIMITED
Engineering excellence since 1890
George Lister Engineering may have been absent from motorsport for some years but they have certainly not been idle. The company was founded in 1890 by George Lister who started the partnership that eventually became the George Lister Engineering Limited (GLE) we know today. The company moved to its current purpose built 30,000 sq ft facility in 2008 which is conveniently situated on the outskirts of Cambridge.

GLE employ the very latest engineering techniques such as Catia and Solidworks Cad/Cam design together with computerised machine facilities utilising three and four axis CNC machining and Laser cutting.

The GLE machine shop has around 35 highly skilled engineers serving the various departments including:

Heavy and light engineering (milling and turning etc), welding (in steel, copper, brass and aluminium), fabrication (in sheet steel, stainless steel, copper, brass, aluminum and plastics), together with hand craftwork and assembly.

Ever since 1890, GLE have offered a comprehensive service for a wide range of industrial applications which today include:

Pharmaceutical, food packaging, scientific, military, medical, broadcast, semiconductors, electron beam microscope manufacturers, architectural curtain wall systems and forms of engineering metalwork and bespoke iron work.

Oh… and of course race car design and manufacturing which includes engine building blue-printing and balancing.