Background
Lister Cars is a British sports car manufacturer founded by Brian Lister in 1954 trading under the name George Lister Engineering Limited. The first Jaguar Lister XJRS’s were built by the company BLE Automotive in Erdington, Birmingham in the early 1980s until the Lister brand was passed on to WP Automotive of Leatherhead. This is when the famous Lister Jaguar connection made its commercial reappearance in 1986. Based in Leatherhead, with engineering input by Laurence Pearce, Listers offered a comprehensive tuning package initially livening up the standard 5.3 litre V12 Jaguar engine taking it up to 6 litres.
The fuel injection was modified with 4 additional injectors and throttle bodies. The engine management system was tweaked, the heads gas flowed with larger valves fitted and to take the power, the crankshaft was nitrided, whilst Cosworth conrods carried special forged pistons increasing the compression ratio to 11.7:1. New bearings and a modified oil system were also deemed necessary in order to reliably deliver the 482bhp that it could now produce. Clearly the suspension and braking were going to need some attention, and this they duly got. The car was made to look like a modern super car with a full body kit, leather Lister Recaro interior and some very wide 17″ compomotive split rim Jaguar Lister alloys. One of these Listers would cost you a cool £88,000 in 1988.
In 1991, they fitted the 7.0 L 6995 cc/426.9 in³ version of the engine, with a 94 mm 3.7 in bore and 84 mm 3.3 in stroke, into a modified Jaguar XJS, which was rebadged Lister Le Mans, approximately 90 tuned Jaguar Le Mans were produces, the emphasis being very much on super car performance. This engine officially produced 407.2 kW 546 hp and 786.37 N·m 580 lb·ft. Listers in their day were a very capable car and still to this day they have a large following worldwide. Simply Performance has tried to act as a support network keeping fellow enthusiasts together.
Simply Performance and Lister Cars
Simply Performance has always been very interested in Lister. Not only are we based less than 10 miles from the factory in Leatherhead, we still work alongside Peter Godwin of Godwin Cars. Peter is the ex-head mechanic of Lister cars and worked on most of the production Lister XJS’s and Le mans. Peters knowledge of Listers is second to none. Peter and Simply Performance work together to offer Lister like services and parts to Jaguar enthusiasts. Simply Performance specialises in offering parts and engineering services whilst Peter has his own independent workshop locally to carry out the mechanical work.
Simply Performance offer a range of Lister style bolt on modifications such as body kits, badges, plinth scripts, wheels, large throttle bodies and V12 manual conversions. A unique set of services and parts that are not on offer anywhere else in the market. Simply Performance prides itself on good customer focus offering good value for money whilst you receive a tailored service for your needs.
Simply Performance has been involved with over 30 Listers. We have a wide network of customers who own and enjoy Listers. We would like to keep an informal record of where these cars are, so if you happen to have a Lister or want to sell your Lister – get in touch as we would love to know!