Lister began building sports cars in 1954 through a Cambridge iron works associated with the family business, George Lister and Sons. Drawing inspiration from Cooper's use of tubular ladder chassis construction, his earliest car combined a de Dion rear axle and inboard drum brakes with a tuned MG engine and stock gearbox. The car debuted at the British Empire Trophy at Oulton Park in 1954, driven by Archie Scott Brown, a Scottish driver who became Lister's defining racing partner throughout the company's competitive years.
The 1954 season showed immediate promise. At the sports car race supporting the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Scott Brown won the two-litre class and placed fifth overall, ahead of all but the works Aston Martin entries. For 1955, Lister experimented with a wind-tunnel-influenced new body and progressed to a six-cylinder Maserati A6GCS engine in the works car, while customer cars retained the Bristol engine priced at £3,900.
The most celebrated chapter in Lister's racing history opened in 1957 when the company redesigned its car around the 3.4-litre Jaguar XK inline-six engine sourced from Jaguar's D-type programme. The aluminium-bodied Lister-Jaguar proved exceptionally fast; road tester John Bolster recorded a 0–100 mph time of 11.2 seconds in period testing. Scott Brown won the 1957 British Empire Trophy in the new machine, underlining the car's immediate competitiveness.
The body styling of the 1957–58 cars, with their distinctive curved and rippled aluminium panels, earned the cars the lasting nickname "Lister Knobbly." The Knobbly became one of the most evocative shapes in British motorsport history, driven by Archie Scott Brown, Stirling Moss, Ivor Bueb, Bruce Halford, and Innes Ireland, among others.
Tragedy struck in 1958 when Scott Brown was killed after crashing his Lister-Jaguar at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. His death removed Lister's most effective and closely associated driver at a moment when the company had entered international competition. Lister also attempted single-seater racing during this period, constructing a car for the Race of Two Worlds at Monza, though without notable success.
For 1959, Lister engaged aerodynamicist Frank Costin to design entirely new bodywork, and switched from the Jaguar engine to a Chevrolet Corvette powerplant. The Lister-Chevrolet was quick in a straight line but its conventional front-engine layout was immediately disadvantaged as the new rear-engined Cooper sports car redefined the category's engineering philosophy. Unable to compete effectively against the shifting technical tide, Lister withdrew from factory competition by the end of 1959, though customer car production continued for a time.
In 1963 Brian Lister was commissioned by the Rootes Group to prepare a modified Sunbeam Tiger for the prototype category at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Working at the Jensen factory, Lister upgraded the Tiger's suspension and brakes, fitted an aerodynamic fastback hardtop with a Kamm tail, and ran a Ford V8 engine tuned by Carroll Shelby to produce 275 hp rather than the standard 160 hp. The cars suffered engine failures at Le Mans, and subsequent Rootes financial difficulties brought this work to an end. Both competition cars and the prototype mule survive in private hands.
The Lister name returned to activity in 1986 when engineer Laurence Pearce acquired the company and established Lister Cars Ltd. in Leatherhead, Surrey. Pearce focused initially on tuning approximately ninety Jaguar XJS cars to exceed 200 mph, before designing an original sports car, the Lister Storm, which was launched in 1993. Powered by a 7.0-litre V12 engine derived from the Jaguar XJR9 Le Mans unit, the Storm was developed in various motorsport guises and won the FIA GT Championship in 2000. A Lister Storm LMP Le Mans prototype followed in 2003.
In 2013 the company passed to Andrew and Lawrence Whittaker, who rebranded the entity as the Lister Motor Company Ltd. and restarted production of the original Knobbly design to celebrate the company's sixtieth anniversary in 2014. Ten continuation Lister Knobbly cars were built. A special Stirling Moss Edition Knobbly followed in 2016, built to the exact specification of the 1958 magnesium-bodied car and personally endorsed by Stirling Moss, with ten examples offered at £1 million each.
Brian Lister's contribution to British motorsport in the 1950s represented an independent constructor's ability to challenge factory teams through ingenuity and driver talent rather than resources. The Lister Knobbly remains one of the most sought-after historic racing cars, competed for in dedicated classes at events including the Goodwood Revival and the Le Mans Classic. The association with Archie Scott Brown, and the tragedy of his death at the wheel of the car Lister built for him, gives the company's story an emotional weight that has sustained interest in the marque for decades beyond its original competitive career.