Some of you may be familiar with the storied history of the Lister Jaguar race cars of the late 50's.

I had the very good fortune today to meet up with an incredibly talented gentlemen at a car show today in Falls Church, Virginia who has just completed a four year project replicating a 1958 Lister Jaguar. (He took first place for his category at the show, BTW).

This is a PHENOMENAL piece of work, built from scratch (no kit here). I'll let the photos do the talking:

 

I am delighted to report that the designer, owner and builder of this incredible machine joined our forum back in April. Please welcome Listerjag.

Jim...I would like to recommend him for full access to the forum.

 

Yup, that was a stunning car. Even the exhaust wrap was incredible. However, the Jaguar badge on the hood ruins the aerodynamics.

Funny thing is, the mascot for Falls Church High School is ...

the JAGUAR!

 

Listerjag is a show off!

Amazing car!

 

That is incredible and the craftsmanship is remarkable. What amazes me is that the style transcends the half-century between when it was first made and today. Just imagine that car with identical lines but HID headlights and a more steeply raked windshield. It would look as modern as any car on the road today.

 

Superb ride, when you said Lister Jaguar I expected Lister Storm that used V12 Jaguar engines but this ride surely is worth more than it

 

What a truly stunning build. I wouldn't mind seeing some video of this car.

Question; where are the switches to control wipers, indicators and lights, I can't see them in the pics and the car obviously has them?

To Listerjag, great work, why not pop into the New Member area and introduce yourself, one of the best ways to get picked up by our Admin.

Please post up some more pics of your build, or give a link to your site, I would love to read more about this project.

 

Beautiful car - incredible workmanship. Not to be a wet-blanket, but this is not a replica Jaguar Lister - it's a replica Lister Chevrolet. Jaguar did not either design or manufacture the Lister - the Lister sports racers were totally the product of Brian Lister, proprietor of George Lister & Sons, a British engineering company. The subject car here looks like a replica of the "pre-Knobbly(?)" Lister (which ran various Jaguar and Chevrolet engines), in this case running a Corvette engine. Ergo Lister Chevrolet. It is of course the right of the creator to badge/identify the car whatever way he chooses, but I do not see an ounce of Jaguar in the car (except for the badging). That is not to detract in any way from the quality of the replica - it just does not replicate what it seems to claim to do so. It REALLY needs a Lister badge on the bonnet:
Paul Skilleter Books - Excellence in Automotive Publishing- See our NEW books 'George Abecassis - A Passion for Speed' and the 'All About' Series!

 

Very cool car, I see the later 97 xk8 'revolver' style wheel when I looked at this car's rims. I'd love to hear it run, man i bet it sounds good!

 

From the builder's write-up, those are custom wheels from PS Engineering. The one period-correct item I spotted on the car are the tail-lights (very familiar to us old farts).

 

I love it, I accept a late engine would help out with performance and reliability. It's only an interpretation, to build an exact fax of it would be very expensive if going the Jaguar route. They used full blown 3.8l D-type units.
My father said the most evocative racing memory he has is of Archie Scott Brown drifting one of the Lister Jaguars at over 150mph around the Aintree Grand Prix circuit near Liverpool, sadly only used for horse racing now (the circuit)
If it were mine, I'd have used an AJ27 supercharged engine!

I agree with SCMike, it should sport a badge like this...

 

That would be a hoot to drive! Well done build, chevy engine or not I love it.

 

WOW.....Thats just simply awesome and the attention to detail is amazing.

Thanks so muxh for sharing whitexkr and rest assured that listerjaguar has already been given full forum access.
Here's hoping he enjoys the site and imparts a little of his knowledge

 

The car could be either a Beck Lister or a Dragon. Both are high end kit cars that utilize Chevrolet running gear and resemble the Lister Jaguars or Lister Chevys of the late 50's. The car in this post was beautifully done though. As I recall, the Becks came with small-block Chevys with anywhere from 400-600 hp. In a car that weighs about 1500 lbs, this should prove adequate.

Mike

 

Thank you all for your kind comments! Fortunately, the photos hide the flaws

SCMike is correct. the car really is a recreation/interpretation (i try not to use "replica" because it is not a very good replica) of a Lister. Since i selected GM power over Jaguar power it is more closely representative of a Lister-chevy and should not be displaying the Jaguar badges (so probably does not really belong on this site).

Because of Listers close relationship with Jaguar and mostly because i just really like the growling cat so much more than the Lister badge, I put the Jaguar badge on the car. It is not intended to offend and I do not represent it other that what it is...my home-built attempt to re-create a very cool and unusual ride from the late 50's (the sheets on the windshield call out Jaguar because the schools mascot is the Jaguar and i thought the students would get a kick out of that - they did!).

There are a few ounces (very few) of Jaguar in the car...the rear view mirror, side mirrors, Lucas tail lights, and Lucas head lights were sourced from the Jaguar catalog of two large British car parts supply retailers (I am pretty sure the parts are all reproductions but..that was the best i could get). Sadly, that is about it.

It is not a beck or a dragon or a kit. I sourced the chassis and a body from Lucra Cars (their version is based on a modified Beck version) and have extensively revised, modified and reconfigured the frame and body (including creating new quarter panels, fenders, rockers, and head fairings) such that it bears little resemblance to the Lucra version.

The entire interior, aerodynamics, ductwork, sheet metal, sway bar, and the brackets, bezels, trim rings, frames, etc are my own design which i fabricated in my garage (I do have lathes and a mill and a few other items that help out quite a bit!!). The interior panels are either composite construction from molds or hand formed aluminum panels. I also learned how to use the wife's sewing machine and designed and sewed all of the upholstery on the interior panels including the seats (so, please don't look too closely at the interior as i am much better with a lathe and mill than i am with a sewing machine!).

Anyway, that is the 30 second version of the background on the project. I am still working on the "to-do" list and have a few operational issues to resolve.

Translator - there are toggle switches located under the dash that control the lights, windshield wipers (which i have needed twice already!), horn and trunk release. They are hard to see in photos as they are black rubber encased toggles located about 2 inches back from the face of the dash. I put them there to keep the dash plain and clean looking.

JagXK82001 - it is a hoot to drive - at 3.1 lbs/hp it is a pretty terrifying ride! Cant really imagine strapping on a vintage '50's racing helmet, jumpsuit and a pair of goggles and racing something like this on tires 1/3 the width of my tires and w/o any of the aero stuff i have....those dudes had guts!

bob

 

Bob,

Thanks for the background info on your build. Most impressive! It's your car, so you can call it whatever you like. It's some of us anoraks who just can't resist with our comments. With that weight to horsepower ratio, it must be much more than a hoot to drive - maybe a Hallelujah Chorus?

 

gets my vote also, fantastic!

how would one place a value on such a creation??

 

Hello all,

Well, i have attempted to set up an album with some photos and a bit of the story of how we got started on this project. I had some issues with ordering the pics but think it is sorted out. Each photo has a description of what we were trying to accomplish and explains each step in the process. Hopefully, the order of the pics will make sense.

Anyway, feel free to check out "chapter 1". It is a bit basic and prior to all of the cool stuff happening but it does summarize the "date of birth" of the basic rolling chassis. The real labor comes later as i realize i cannot buy any of the parts i want and have to go back to the drawing board, the mill, and the lathe to make what i need.

Thanks again for the interest in my little project.

bob

 

Bob- Thank you so much for taking the time to begin to share this story with us!

This is super interesting. I can't wait for more.

Here is a direct link for the convenience of other readers:
Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum - listerjag's Album: 1 - The Beginning

 

I'm looking forward to reading all of the story behind this great car. Thanks for sharing!