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In about 1959 the Lister body was designed by Frank Costin. It was much more swoopy looking than the one shown above. The underlying car was the same. Costin bodies were on some Lotus race cars of the era. http://www.tamsoldracecarsite.net/Da...ave%20Ridenour
I was fortunate to catch a ride in that Jag powered Lister around the old Vacavalley Raceway during a practice session.
Pete
According to the guys showboard this one is a replica taken off the originals molds. It does have a small block chevy. Also on his board it does say they first came out with Jag motors.
But..where does the corvette connection come in? If any?
According to the guys showboard this one is a replica taken off the originals molds. It does have a small block chevy. Also on his board it does say they first came out with Jag motors.
But..where does the corvette connection come in? If any?
A well tuned 3.8 Jaguar engine with big valve heads and three two barrel side draft Weber carbs was good for about 300 hp. That what the D Types could make. A broken Jag was expensive to rebuild, and race parts were hard to come by. Not a cheap way to make power. A small block Chevy could make more power for less money, were probably lighter and could be replaced more easily.
It always sounds better to say you have a Corvette engine in your whatever than to say it has a Chevrolet engine.
All the Lister bodies back then were aluminum, made on an English wheel. Not fiberglass.
Pete
Last edited by PeteZO6; Nov 29, 2014 at 11:55 PM.
Reason: Body notes.
Hi,Lister were built in Cambridge,the original company is still going. But recently a new batch of continuation cars have been built. about £750,000 each I think. Mike.
A broken Jag was expensive to rebuild, and race parts were hard to come by. Not a cheap way to make power. A small block Chevy could make more power for less money, were probably lighter and could be replaced more easily.
Pete
I tried my hand in the restoration of a V12 coupe before I saw the light and dumped it for my Corvette. I did manage to get the original Jag mill running pretty good, but, they are very temperamental, hard to repair and parts are insanely expensive! Performance parts are actually made by Aston Martin which means most can't afford to play. $2,500 for a set of headers for example!
Most early Jaguars used someone else's drive train parts. They often used Chrysler, Borg Warner and General Motors transmissions which is one of the reasons a small block Chevy was a very popular swap.
One night before a race, my pop went up to Jim Hall with like $4 he said he collected up from the drivers for Jim to get a haircut.
My mom said it did not go over well...
Some time later, I guess Jim hadn't forgotten. My pop said he was out front, and comfortable. Holding line, perhaps even relaxing and lifting his foot a bit.
Then he looked in his mirror. He hadn't been watching. It was FULL of Jim Hall's Knobbly Jag!
Too late, Jim gave him the slip. Pop said he drove his *** off, pushed Hall all he could but couldn't get back around him.
Hall- 1st
Pop- not first.
Pop said he had destroyed his brakes. Had to get them completely re-done (not an uncommon thing even with J-56s). From that day forward, he always stuck a piece of masking tape on his dash. Written upon it:
WATCH MIRRORS!!
He did have a lot of respect for Jim Hall. Mostly for his cubic dollars I think.
Here is a photo of the Stingray racer and a Lister-Jag.
The caption reads: "At Road America in 1959 the Stingray was not quite the equal in speed of the Lister-Jaguar, trailing here, which was disc-braked and lighter in weight".
So that author Karl Ludvigsen won't mind the photo being here on this forum, here's a plug for his new book:
Corvette, America's Star-Spangled Sports Car * The Complete History 1953-1982.
It's an update of the first edition of 1973. Well worth the money!
Disclaimer - I have NO financial interest in this book.
I tried my hand in the restoration of a V12 coupe before I saw the light and dumped it for my Corvette. I did manage to get the original Jag mill running pretty good, but, they are very temperamental, hard to repair and parts are insanely expensive! Performance parts are actually made by Aston Martin which means most can't afford to play. $2,500 for a set of headers for example!
Most early Jaguars used someone else's drive train parts. They often used Chrysler, Borg Warner and General Motors transmissions which is one of the reasons a small block Chevy was a very popular swap.
Back in 1973, I was looking at either a 73 XKE 12 cyl or the vette. The 12 cyl was very impressive. But in the end I decided on the vette, mostly because the jag sheetmetal body was horribly flimsy and the interior looked like it was cobbled together over the yrs without having an overall design plan.
I tried my hand in the restoration of a V12 coupe before I saw the light and dumped it for my Corvette. I did manage to get the original Jag mill running pretty good, but, they are very temperamental, hard to repair and parts are insanely expensive! Performance parts are actually made by Aston Martin which means most can't afford to play. $2,500 for a set of headers for example! 
