1959 Lister Costin Jaguar

The Lister Costin Jaguar

The glorious result of a collaboration between the successful ‘garagista’ Brian Lister and the expert aerodynamicist Frank Costin, the Lister Costin Jaguar is among the most beautiful 1950s sports-racing cars ever built.

You see, while the car the Costin replaced, the so-called ‘Knobbly’, was extremely successful, its aerodynamic inefficiency meant it was never going to maintain its competitiveness in the face of a rapidly evolving technological landscape. Costin’s sleek wind-cheating alloy body combined with the proven tubular chassis and Jaguar six-cylinder drivetrain resulted in a car that could exceed more than 180mph – an extraordinary speed for the time.

Only 12 Lister Costins were built, collectively earning success at the world’s greatest motor races, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Sussex Trophy at Goodwood, Nürburgring 1,000KMs and Road America 500. And they were raced by the period most famous drivers, including Stirling Moss and Jim Clark. Today, the Lister Costin remains an extremely effective racing car in historic motorsport, with eligibility in a wide range of events around the world.

Given that great period Lister Costins fetch seven figures in today’s discerning market, the small number of facsimiles built to the exact design and specification of those originals are seriously appealing to those wishing to mix it at the sharp end of the historic racing scene. Chassis number ‘BHL 183S’ is one such example.

Chassis number BHL 183S

In the lofty world of 1950s and 1960s competition Jaguars, there’s a family in the United Kingdom whose name resonates especially strongly and that’s the Pearsons. Founded by John Pearson in the early 1960s, Pearsons Engineering initially focused on keeping C-type and D-type Jaguars and Jaguar-powered Listers in rude health.

In more recent years, the company – now run by John’s son Gary – has forged a strong reputation maintaining and restoring the very same cars and preparing them to the Nth degree for historic motorsport. In 2016, Pearsons Engineering set about building a new Lister Costin Jaguar, ensuring every last detail was identical to those original examples from the 1950s.

The car was constructed to the exact 1959 technical specifications as the original, with Pearsons Engineering’s team of engineers painstakingly building the chassis and the body over the course of 18 months, referencing archive drawings and using period-correct techniques. Power is derived from a Crosthwaite & Gardiner-built dry-sump six-cylinder Jaguar engine producing 370bhp. Pearsons’ own wide-angle cylinder head and camshafts ensure it is among the most competitive Lister Costin Jaguars on today’s historic racing grid.

Upon completion of the exhaustive project in September of 2016, this car was inspected by the Lister Motor Company and confirmed to be to ‘Lister Ex-Works Specification’. It was awarded ‘Sanction II’ status and duly assigned an historic ‘BHL’ chassis number, in this case ‘BHL 183S’. Being able to officially carry the Lister name and with this official ‘Sanction II’ status, ‘BHL 183S’ is eligible to compete at a wide variety of different historic motorsport events, including the Le Mans Classic and the Goodwood Members’ Meeting.

Indeed, this beautifully elegant Lister has proven to be an extremely quick historic sports-racing car, particularly in the fiercely competitive events organised by Motor Racing Legends. At the Le Mans Classic in 2018, Gary Pearson and Andrew Smith put this Lister on pole position in Plateau 3.

In 2021, Max Girardo and James Cottingham won the three-hour Royal Automobile Club Pall Mall Cup at Silverstone in emphatic fashion. And the pair followed that up in the same race in 2022, this time held at Donington Park, with class victory.

On the small number of occasions it has been raced, ‘BHL 183S’ has always been prepared, entered and subsequently maintained by Pearsons Engineering, regardless of expense. Corresponding invoices on file attest to that. As such, the Lister is in overall excellent condition, with only a smattering of small stone chips on the nose commensurate with the longer-distance races in which it competed and small spidering to the paintwork on the bonnet contours closest to the engine.

This stunning Lister Costin is now absolutely ready to race and more than capable of mixing it at the front of any of the many historic motorsport grids for which it’s eligible around Europe and beyond.