1970/1996 Lister Jaguar 'Knobbly'

Motor racing has never been inexpensive and consequently in the post-war years, as an interest in motorsport began to return to the UK, a number of impecunious privateer racing drivers had no option but to build their own cars with varying degrees of success. One such was Brian Lister, a director of his family's Cambridge-based light engineering firm, who was better placed than most to become a racing car designer. He enlisted the considerable talents of Don Moore and Archie Scott-Brown to help with engine tuning and driving respectively, and built his first car in 1954. The MG XPAG-powered Lister proved an immediate success, notching up five first and eight second places in short order. Upgraded that summer with a Bristol straight-six, the Lister won its class during the British Grand Prix support race and throughout the 1955 and 1956 UK racing seasons, was a serious thorn in the side of both the Aston Martin and Jaguar Works teams. The company’s success with MG and Bristol-powered cars was such that Lister soon had the financial backing of BP and Shell and also secured a deal with Jaguar for the supply of engines, thrusting the small company into contention for the World Sports Car Championship. The result was the Lister-Jaguar, which eventually developed into the now-legendary ‘Knobbly’, nicknamed for its curvaceous but rather bumpy bodywork. Nothing performed like a Lister ‘Knobbly’, and nothing quite looked like one either.

This remarkably faithful and very well built Lister 'Knobbly' recreation was originally created by Eike Wellhausen in 1996 using a 1970 Jaguar E-Type that had been registered to John Gregson of Classic English Racing Automobiles/Proteus as a donor car (still registered as the donor car by the DVLA). Eike Wellhausen is perhaps best known as a Lister Jaguar 'Knobbly' exponent and, in addition to owning a genuine example, he has constructed (and raced) several evocations over the years, including the fabulous example on offer here.

Intended for road use and thus equipped with a handbrake mechanism etc., the two-seater was purchased from Eike Wellhausen by enthusiast Richard Penney in late 1999. Determined to make the sports-racer as authentic as possible, Mr Penney took the considerable step of having it rebodied in aluminium by highly respected coachbuilder Michael Riley. (It's still recorded with the DVLA under its donor identity).

General specification;

• Multi-tubular chassis equipped with rack and pinion steering
• All-round independent suspension
• Bolt-in roll-cage. Twin full harnesses
• 3.8-litre XK DOHC straight-six engine fed by triple Weber 45DCOE carburettors
• Tubular Manifold. Faux 'dry sump' system
• Dunlop ‘peg drive’ 15x7J alloy wheels and four-wheel disc brakes
• 4-speed Jaguar manual transmission
• Road-registered with a current V5C

Having covered less than 3,000 road miles and described by the vendor as 'nothing to do but enjoy her', this special car is estimated a fraction of what it would take to replicate. Offering both enjoyable fast-road use or potentially suitable for ‘open class’ competition, this aluminium-bodied recreation of the legendary late-1950s 'Knobbly' has been built to a very high standard and is certainly worthy of a closer inspection.