'58 Lister 'Knobbly' Chevrolet racecar

[traditional]

Brian lister founded a sportscar manufacturing company in 1954 in Cambridge England and in 1957 began developing a racecar with the Jaguar D-type drivetrain to compete in 1958. Later in 1958 they also offered their aerodynamic racecar , affectionately known as the ‘Knobbly’, with the Chevrolet Corvette drivetrain as well, and in 1959 even had Frank Costain design a new body for the Chevy drivetrain.

The racing community’s move to rear-engines quickly made the front engined Listers obsolete, but there is a strong, almost cult- like interest in the old ‘Knobbly’ style racecars for historic racing now-a-days, many of them now Chevy powered, since the small-block Chevy engine is lighter and can produce more power, more cheaply.

I’ve always liked the interesting look of the ’58 Listers and remember reading about them in Road and Track magazine (my very first subscription) in ’59 when I was just a 12 year old kid.

Legacy Motors, the owners of the Diecast collectors Club forums recently offered the 1/18 scale Matrix resin ’58 Listers at less than half price and I quickly bought two of them….one to keep as the Lister Jaguar and the other to modify into a Lister Chevrolet, using internet reference for the typical visual detail changes……….usually early Halibrand mag wheels, heat extracting louvres on the top and side of the front hood, and often, exterior side pipes going into a long collector. The heat from the side exhaust usually mandates that the lower aluminum body panel is left unpainted. The Knobblies in historic racing also often have small scoops over the rear brake cooling holes, and just like many back in the day, generally have a roll bar over the behind-the-driver head fairing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2020 by traditional

[randyc]

Hey Clifford, great to see you on here.   I referred a poster to your post about the Willys pickup just the other day - he might could use your expertise in modifying diecast in the other thread titled Die cast body modification.  

 

Nice looking cars. Thanks for sharing.

[Sam I Am]

Love the red one !

[THarrison351]

Those cars are stunning!

[swede70]

Very nice - thanks for sharing.

Mike K./Swede70

[Smitty]

These are very nice models of some beautiful race cars Cliff. The modified red car looks very tough indeed. Great job! I really like the Halibrands on it.

Thanks for posting these.

Eric

[kilrathy10]

These are Killer!!! Beautiful cars...

[Vettegasser]

Beautiful 

[Geno]

Those are sweet Cliff.

[1959scudetto]

Fantastic looking race cars, Cliff !

[slusher]

Very very nice..

[ewetwo]

Beautiful. Paint is awesome.

 

[Geno]

Hey Buddy, glad to see ya post some more pics of your amazing work.