1958 Lister Jaguar

The one car that I absolutely fell in love with is the 1958 Lister Jaguar. This car had three very famous drivers in its history. I think the most significant driver/ owner in its history is Briggs Swift Cunningham. Briggs built the Cunningham car(s) for the sole purpose to win the 24 hours of Le Mans. In all of his efforts he never did. He built and raced his own cars for several years and then closed his car factory and raced Corvettes, Jaguars and others. One of those other cars that he raced himself and for hired drivers is this 1958 Lister Jaguar. This car is sometimes called the “Knobbly.” I believe this is because of its knobby shape. I think this shape is just plain bad. The skin just flows and covers the workings of this car. Take note of the engine bulge, especially at the rear of the engine and the position of the windshield. At the time the international rules stated that the windshield had to be a specified height above the bodywork. If they had made the engine hood go back to the cockpit the windshield would have had to be at least 6 inches higher than it is. They knew that they needed to keep the bodywork as low as possible to keep the frontal area as small as possible. The smaller the hole they have to punch through the air the faster they will go.

This car is currently owned and driven by Steve Hilton.

I want to thank Chris Hines, vice president of ArrowLane, Racing, Restoration and Fabrication to take the time to talk to me about this car. In the restoration project they tried to keep the car as original as possible. The one problem was the roll bar. The roll bar is designed to be safe and meet any requirements of various racing organizations. It is also can be removed for ascetics if they want. The workmanship and attention to detail is second to none. This car is not a trailer queen, it is meant to be driven hard. Note in some of the photos that I took as it passed me on the front straight you can see that the front end is lifting. The nose of the car is higher than the rear. This was fairly common with race cars of this era.

Note the two names painted on the side of the car. W. Hansgen and W. A Scott-Brown. Walt Hansgen was from the east coast and was one of Cunningham’s drivers and drove for him a number of years. The other is not very well known in the State. W. Archie Scott-Brown. Archie apparently only drove for Briggs in 1958 and at the Sebring 12 hours. Want to guess which car he drove.

Archie would be 77 years old if he was still alive. Archie was a roll model for overcoming adversity. He was born with radically a deformed leg and right arm. It took him several years to overcome these hurdles to be allowed to race, and race he did. Archie was the master of Lister’s. He was a factory driver for the Lister factory. Archie was killed on May 19, 1958 at Spa in Belgium. I came across an article on the internet and I am quoting part of that article as an example of the character of this man.

“the Lister chassis was powered by a Jaguar engine and, up against the best of
fully funded works teams, this awesome machine - Archie’s missile - became a benchmark for the classic front-engined sports racing car. Its lack of decent brakes troubled the driver not at all; if they failed, he announced, he would: “carry on without them, old boy.”

“He died as he had lived; on the limit, and probably ‘going too bloody fast’ at the Sports Car Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps in May 1958. He was thirty-one.”
He died just a few months after he drove this car at Sebring, Florida.