You probably only know about the Lister Storm GT1 cars if you were a sports car racing fan in the back half of the 1990s, or you played “Gran Turismo” growing up. These wild front-engine machines were powered by a massive 7-liter Jaguar V12 yoinked directly from the XJR-14 Group C prototypes. That motor gave these cars a unique sound. The cars were finicky, suffering a bunch of DNFs, but they were incredibly fast and when they held together actually won a lot of races. And thanks to a few design tricks, the car was a serious contender against factory entries from Porsche, Mercedes, Ferrari, Dodge Viper, and others.
Thankfully, for us, former Stig Ben Collins got an opportunity to take the Lister Storm out on track for a few laps at Silverstone. It’s obvious from the word “go” that this car is designed to be a tiny wrapper around a giant V12. The engine is mounted as low and far back in the chassis as possible, but it’s hard to compensate for the giant weight up front.
At the time GT1 was built around two different tire sizes, a narrow front and a wide rear. Lister, being smart, asked if they could fit the “rear” tires on the front of its race car, and the series and tire supplier both agreed. Having wider tires up front helped the car to handle its big Jag engine weight.
Here’s Ben’s initial reaction to his day in the Lister:
“You would think it would be a little skittish thing to drive, but it’s surprisingly tame. So I think, perhaps, put the original engineers back on it and this might become a more aggressive car. In-period, I’d be working the wheel a lot more than I was today at Silverstone. It was pretty fantastic. It’s really planted and pretty easy to carry the speed around and brake very late. It’s a good time!”
Apparently these cars had a reputation for cooking their drivers, what with the exhaust running down the center tunnel and all. Combine that with a twitchy and aggressive handling character, and you’ve got a recipe for a wild ride. I think I’d be quite happy nearly thirty years on to have a car modified like this one is, with side exit exhausts to keep cockpit temperatures lower, and a more docile suspension setup. This sounds like a real fun car and a real fun day.