Carmaker whose curvaceous Lister-Jaguar swept all before it on the racing circuits of the late Fifties until a tragic accident

Having built what was arguably the most successful racing car of the 1950s, Brian Lister turned his back on the sport at the height of his success when the other half of one of British motor racing’s most celebrated partnerships was killed while racing in one of his cars in 1958.

The Lister-Jaguar was virtually unbeatable on British circuits after its introduction in 1957 and the meteoric success that it brought to Lister’s small manufacturing plant near Cambridge caught the public’s imagination. Consistently outperforming bigger constructors, such as Aston Martin, Lister’s front-engined one-seater swept all before it. Affectionately known as “the knobbly” for its curved body work, it also made a star out of the driver Archie Scott Brown — a charismatic figure with a curled moustache who beat a severe disability which effectively rendered him partially lame and one-handed to climb to the top of the sport.

Scott Brown’s death after crashing a Lister-Jaguar during a race in Belgium in 1958 caused Lister to retire from the sport. Lister was particularly hurt by criticism that the Lister-Jaguar was unsafe. When asked about the car’s reputation for poor braking as he careered around corners, Scott Brown had responded, “I’ll carry on without them old boy”. Soon after Scott Brown was killed when he crashed at a corner while vying for the lead with his great American rival Masten Gregory. The car had burst into flames and Lister received further criticism that its ultra-light magnesium-alloy bodywork, which fitted snugly around the tubular ladder chassis, was inflammable.

An RAC investigation found no faults with the car, but Lister’s grief was such that he began to withdraw from the sport. However, a commercial version of the car went into production in 1958 with great success.

Brian Lister was born into an engineering family in 1926 and attended Perse school in Cambridge. His father’s business, George Lister & Sons, specialised in manufacturing torpedoes, and Brian was apprenticed there in 1942. He spent most of his spare time tinkering with car engines, starting with an MG, and emerging covered in grease when being called to dinner.

He developed his first racing car with an MG engine in 1954, entering it into a race in Snetterton and winning with Scott Brown behind the wheel. The successful entry of the small unheralded team put plenty of noses out of joint in the racing paddocks. Fellow drivers, who did not take kindly to the prospect of losing against a driver who they regarded with disdain rather than admiration because of his disability, complained that the Lister was a safety risk and Scott Brown’s licence was temporarily revoked.

However, Lister’s father was impressed at this early success and agreed to diversify the family firm into a racing team. When Jaguar decided that its D-type — which had won the Le Mans 24-hour race for three years in a row — needed replacing with a new model, its boss William Lyons donated the engines and gearboxes to Lister. Lyons believed that Lister could adapt the engine into a winning car and keep the Jaguar name in the forefront of racing and at little cost to Jaguar. It proved to be a masterstroke.

Lister was remembered as an unfailingly courteous man with a predilection for colourful bowties. He was described as diffident and could not have been more different than his flamboyant friend, Scott Brown. However, Lister was transformed into a different beast altogether with a drum kit in front of him, playing with his jazz band, the Downbeats.

He is survived by his wife Josephine Prest, and by their daughter. He sold the company in 1986 and the new owner Laurence Pearce revived the Lister-Jaguar marque with a new range of cars based on the concept of souping up already rather racy Jaguar XJS’s and giving them an eye-watering top speed of 200mph.

Lawrence Whittaker, managing director of Lister Cars, said: “Brian Lister was a wonderful man who was always incredibly modest about his amazing achievements. Whenever I met him, I was left with the lasting impression of his passion for British engineering.”

Brian Lister, owner of Lister Cars, was born on July 12, 1926. He died on December 16, 2014, aged 88

The Times 2 January 2015, Leo Lewis

Geely, the quirky Chinese carmaker that began life as a manufacturer of refrigerators, is poised to announce a new £150 million factory in Britain to produce the next generation of energy-efficient London taxis.

Plans for the plant, which have been under deliberation since late 2013 and have received heavy coaxing from the British government, are expected to be announced soon.

It is understood that Geely’s favoured location is Ansty Park, an industrial estate on the outskirts of Coventry seeking to establish itself as a home of technology and innovation. The site is also close to the existing headquarters of the Geely subsidiary Manganese Bronze Holdings, which, trading as The London Taxi Company, builds the famous black cabs but had to be rescued by Chinese investment two years ago.

A formal decision by the Chinese before May will come as a relief. Geely’s reported intention to invest heavily in UK manufacturing was touted as one of the prizes of David Cameron’s visit to China in December 2013 — a trip that broke more than 18 months of diplomatic frost between London and Beijing but was noticeably short on deals.

Since then, the Chinese company’s silence has become ominous, particularly as Geely’s profits have been hit hard by the Chinese slowdown, difficult export markets and, more recently, the plunge in the Russian currency.

In its eagerness to persuade Geely to come through with the investment, the UK is understood to have offered a selection of possible sites. Although Ansty remains favourite, Geely sources said that other options had not been ruled out.

The chief focus of the new factory will be the TX5, an upgraded “green” version of the classic London cab scheduled to enter the market in 2018.

The existing TX4 plant apparently is not up to the demands of the planned next generation of taxi, which will draw on some of the technologies acquired by Geely when it bought Volvo Cars.

Geely’s Hong Kong-listed shares have fallen by about 30 per cent over the past month, with most of the damage done in the past few days.

Li Shufu, the billionaire president of the company, warned last week that full-year net income would fall by 50 per cent on heavily falling sales volumes and unrealised losses on the tumbling rouble.

It looks lovely to most people, a stunning vista of Scotland at its best, but for investors the empty seats on Stagecoach’s Glen Nevis tour are anything but pretty. Indeed, after the company admitted to a faltering performance from its regional bus routes, those investors wasted little time yesterday in disembarking.

Shares in the transport group plunged 28.2p, or 7 per cent, to 379.2p after it revised down profit from its British bus and North American businesses. However, it insisted that its share of profit from Virgin Rail Group, in which it has a 49 per cent stake, would offset the reduced profits elsewhere in the group.

It also warned that the plunging price of oil would not necessarily feed through to better profits because it may be forced to pass on savings to passengers because of competitive pressures and the lure of cheaper fuel for motorists. The company also said that it was being forced to pay staff more to fill vacancies, a sign that the tighter jobs market is beginning to push up wages.

Stagecoach reported pre-tax profit of £98.3 million for the six months to the end of October, marginally lower than last year’s £98.5 million. Revenue rose 4.8 per cent to £1.5 billion.

Motorists and cyclists are set to benefit from the government’s record £6 billion spending spree to fix potholes across England over the next six years.

The £1 billion-a-year investment will be enough to fill in 18 million potholes, according to the department for transport, as well as improving other local road infrastructure.

The southwest will benefit the most, with £850 million going to the region, while the northeast will receive the least with £270 million.

It is the first time councils have been given locked-in funding over this length in time, which the government says will help local authorities plan ahead and save money for the taxpayer. Patrick McLoughlin, the transport secretary, said potholes were a menace and that long-term planning would put an end to short-term fixes.

Labour reacted angrily, suggesting the government’s poor record on road maintenance was the reason such a large investment was needed. The party pointed to the department for transport’s 2013 road conditions report that showed spending on minor roads had fallen by 20 per cent since the coalition came to power in 2010. According to the report, 17 per cent of local roads — more than 19,000 miles — should be considered for maintenance work.

“You can’t believe a single word ministers say,” Michael Dugher,Labour’s shadow transport secretary, said. “Local roads are in a desperate state under David Cameron. Over 2,220 miles more of our local roads now need maintenance work compared to 2010.

“Hard-pressed motorists and businesses are justifiably sick and tired of having their vehicles damaged because of Britain’s pothole crises. This Tory government is all talk. Motorists have had enough of their failure and broken promises.”

More than £4.7 billion will be shared between 115 English councils, while £575 million will be set aside to help repair and maintain highway infrastructure such as junctions, bridges and street lighting. The remaining money will go into an incentive fund scheme to reward councils that deliver cost effective improvements.

Local authorities welcomed the investment, but said £6 billion fell far short of the amount needed to repair Britain’s “poor quality” roads. The Local Government Association (LGA) criticised the decision to hold back more than £1 billion, insisting all the funds should go to town halls.

An LGA spokesman said: “Previous LGA analysis of the £6 billion funding over five years found it equated to an extra £300 million a year on top of the £700 million councils were expecting, but was still £800 million short of what was needed to repair the poor quality of roads in one year alone. So while helpful, this new money does not bridge the overall funding gap which is increasing year on year.

“It would be more useful if the whole £6 billion was given to councils to get on with the important job of fixing roads, rather than £1 billion of it being tied up in Whitehall bureaucracy.

“Recent harsh winters and decades of underfunding by successive governments have created a national backlog of road repairs that would take £12 billion and a decade for councils to fix.”

Mr McLoughlin said: “Poorly maintained local roads, blighted by potholes, are a menace to all road users, particularly during the festive period as people travel to see family and friends.”