Outspoken Poet's Blog

Unknown to most of the world and even to most car fans, a small English auto-company called Lister, by the surname of its founder, Lister Cars Ltd. Produced one of the most-outstanding pieces of auto art-work only to see it’s creations’ premature end. In this article I want to present to you the Lister Storm and its story.

Originally Lister started out tuning Jaguars such as the JSX. The common upgrade was a displacement increase on the V12 from 5.3 to a full 7 litres. In 1991 the company wanted to move up the evolution chain and create there own super car. After 2 years in development the Lister Storm was unveiled in 1993. With its slick yet sharp design and massive looks the Lister Storm was the centre of attention. A four-seated bullet, holding in itself a luxury interior, with extras such as letter, air conditioning and 2 air bags it was way ahead of other super sport coupes, striving to cater to all the needs of the affluent lovers of speed. The car was equipped with a 7.0 Litre V12 engine capable of producing 546 hp. Weighing at 1,664 kg it took the 0-100 km sprint in 4.1 sec. only to reach its limit at 335 km/h making it the fastest four-seated vehicle at the time - a title it held until very recently. It seemed like Lister had the perfect weapon to enter the elite world of GT sports cars as well as GT racing.

Four months had now passed since the car was unveiled and only 4 orders have been made. Over the next years those were produced but it was announced that in the future Lister will focus solely on GT racing and develop the racing versions of the storm , effectively putting an end to the road version’s production. And from the stand point of time it is now clear that this was a result of bad PR and the inactivity on Lister’s part to ensure maximum exposure to the car as in the years to come it popularity would only rise. By today the Lister Storm has a classical status among collectors and friends. With only 4 vehicles produced, only 2 are currently “on the market” as one is in the Lister museum and another one had simply disappeared from sight.

The Lister Storm did not die in 1993 though. The company focused on their programme in GT racing and through the years produced the very successful GTS, GTL and GT version with the works team even claiming the FIA GT World Championship title in 2000 with a factory programme run by Labre Competition and the impeccable Jamie Campbell-Walter behind the wheel alongside Julian Baily. More on the Lister Storm in sports coming soon.