Body design Brian Lister/Cavendish Morton
Body built by Williams & Prichard
Chassis No. BHL119
Engine No. E-4
Engine type Straight-6
Size 3,781cc Bore & stroke 87.0mm x 106.0mm
HP 354 bhp @ 6,000rpm
Valve train DOHC
Intake 3 Weber 45 DCOE carbs
Compression 9.1
Ignition Coil & distributor
Lubrication Dry-sump
Transmission Jaguar/Moss 4-speed & reverse manual, left-hand gearshift
Chassis Welded twin-tube ladder frame with tubular cross-members
Suspension Coil and wishbone front; de Dion rear with coil-springs and radius rods
Brakes Four-wheel Girling light-alloy disc brakes: 12in dia. front & rear
Wheels 16in Dunlop Racing center-lock perforated light-alloy discs
Tires Dunlop Racing - 6.00L x 16in fronts and 6.50L x 16in rears
In Cambridge, England, in the early 1950s, Brian Lister was a youthful racing enthusiast whose family company - founded in 1890 - fabricated wrought-iron railings and gates. Brian became a great friend of fellow Cambridge racer Archie Scott-Brown, who had been born without a right hand and with stunted legs, but who could drive like the wind! In 1954 Brian built a sports-racing Lister-MG which Archie raced with fantastic success. In 1955 a Lister-Bristol emerged, and in 1956 a Lister-Maserati, but for 1957 Brian Lister put a 3.8-litre Jaguar XK engine in his works team chassis, and Scott-Brown set the British racing world on its ear.
For 1958 Brian produced this model – the immortal ‘Knobbly’ – so named after its body shape, devised to meet minimum windscreen height requirements above the scuttle, while minimising frontal area by housing the engine in a separate, higher, ‘knobble’. After Scott-Brown’s 1957 heroics, customers flocked to Cambridge – including America’s Briggs Cunningham – a great Jaguar supporter - and the partnership of Carroll Shelby and Jim Hall who would fit Chevrolet V8 engines in these Lister chassis.
Archie Scott-Brown crashed the works Lister-Jaguar at Spa, Belgium in 1958, but Walt Hansgen shone in the US in Cunningham team cars. Brian Lister lost interest in 1959, but he felt he owed it to his sponsor BP Oil, and to his many customers, to press on. New Lister-Jaguars emerged with aerodynamic Frank Costin-styled bodies, but they failed to match the magical form of these 1958 ‘Knobblies’, and in fact, proved to be less aerodynamic and therefore slower.
The history of ‘BHL119’ here is somewhat obscure beyond early US ownership, but there is evidence that it was the second works car for the 1958 Goodwood TT and possibly the balance of the 1958 season. It clearly is internationally acknowledged to be one of the most original surviving Lister-Jaguar ‘Knobblies, having been owned and raced very successfully by the well-known British drivers John Harper & Frank Sytner. This very original car has been completely rebuilt by John & Gary Pearson to be a very competitive vintage race car.
The car has competed at the Monterey Historic Automobile races for a number of years.
