2000 Lister Storm GTM

Overview

2000 FIA GT Drivers' and Teams' Championship winning Lister Storm GT
Powered by a glorious, seven-litre, naturally-aspirated V12 Jaguar engine derived from the Le Mans-winning Jaguar XJR9 Group C racer and producing approximately 600bhp with fitted restrictors
One of just six cars built and campaigned by the factory Lister Storm Racing team
Five outright race wins and five pole positions during the ten-round 2000 FIA GT Championship en route to the championship title
Victories included the prestigious British Empire Trophy at Silverstone
Later campaigned during the 2003 and 2004 seasons by well-established Le Mans equipe, Creation Autosportif
Offered from the long-term ownership of original driver Bobby Verdon-Roe
Restored to its 2000 FIA GT Championship winning livery
Recommissioned and extensively serviced by British specialists, Sporting & Historic Car Engineers (Tim Samways)
Demonstrated in the GT1 celebration during the 80th Goodwood Members' Meeting in 2023
Eligible for the Peter Auto’s Endurance Racing Legends (inc. Le Mans Classic), Masters Endurance Legends, HSR (inc. Sebring & Daytona Classics), and more.

Background

With five wins in ten races, Lister Storm Racing won the 2000 FIA GT Championship. This is the single biggest international racing success for the Lister brand in its 70-year history and was the culmination of six seasons of racing the Storm in various iterations. The Lister Storm GT used from the 2000 season onwards was the most closely related to the road-going model from which all the competition version were derived.

Originally established in 1954 by Brian Lister, the specialist company produced MG, Bristol, Maserati, Chevrolet and most famously Jaguar-engined sports racers through to the early 1960s. Lister ceased operations after the 1963 24 Hours of Le Mans, only to be revived by Laurence Pearce in 1986 with the full approval of Brian Lister. A clear nod to the legendary Jaguar-engined sports cars of the 1950s, Pearce set about producing tuning kits for the Jaguar XJ-S V12. The modified Lister Jaguars proved popular and close to 100 were produced before Pearce embarked on an altogether more ambitious project; the Lister Storm.

Introduced in 1993, the Storm was a luxurious four-seater grand tourer built around a proprietary aluminium spaceframe chassis and a seven-litre version of the Jaguar V12 that powered the XJ-S and more crucially had powered Jaguar to two Le Mans wins, in 1988 and 1990. In road-going trim, the massive V12 produced a hefty 546 bhp. The Storm was clothed in a distinct, angular yet slippery carbon-fibre composite design, credited to Mike Hughes. Thanks to its howling V12 engine, the Storm was the fastest four-seater road car of its day.

Sadly, the market for £220,000 road cars had quickly diminished during the early 1990s and it is believed that only four examples of the Storm road car were ever built. Pearce managed to salvage some of the project by returning the Lister brand to the racing track. Built to the latest GT1 specifications, the Storm made its debut at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans. Over the next few years ever wilder evolutions of the GT1 Lister followed but the small company faced an insurmountable uphill battle against the likes of McLaren, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota.

That changed in 1999 when a refined racing version of the Storm was introduced for the British GT Championship. It was developed to the stricter GT2 regulations and as such was much truer to the 'production' road car. In fact, the car used in 1999 was based on a Storm that was originally finished as a road car. Carried over were the aluminium spaceframe and in-board suspension of the road car. The howling V12 was fitted with mandatory restrictors but still produced around 600 bhp. A six-speed sequential gearbox was fitted. The modifications to the bodywork were more subtle than before and mainly included a front splitter and full-width rear wing.

Simply dubbed the Lister Storm GT, it proved hugely successful and won its class in the 1999 British GT Championship. Buoyed by the success, Pearce decided to field a FIA GT Championship campaign with the Storm GT. A substantial rule change had seen the cars that originally competed in the GT2 category elevated to the newly created GT class and vie for outright victories from the 1999 season onwards. Brand-new cars were built along the prototype that had been raced during the 1999 season for a two-car works assault on the 2000 FIA GT Championship.

Julian Bailey and Jamie Campbell-Walter shared one car, while the second was driven by Peter Hardman and Nicolaus Springer. Racing chassis GTM 002, Bailey and Campbell-Walter scored a debut victory in the Valencia round of the FIA GT Championship from pole position. The new Lister Storm GT beat a full field of Porsches, Vipers and also a Ferrari and a Marcos LM600. They won again from pole position at Estoril, at Silverstone for the British Empire Trophy, at Zolder and then Magny-Cours from second on the grid. It was more than sufficient to secure both the Drivers' and Teams' FIA GT Championship.

Lister would go on to produce six Storm GTs, which would continue to be raced by the factory team and customers with considerable success in international and local championships through to the 2006 season. By that time, Lister had stepped up to the Le Mans Prototype ranks but their equally distinct LMP car did not bring the success that the great Storm GTs had delivered.

Built specifically for the 2000 FIA GT Championship this car was given the full seventeen-digit VIN SA9STRM1BYB053119 but is more commonly referred to as GTM 002. Finished in the iconic Lister works livery of black with a multi-colour roof and tail, it served as the #14 car entered for Julian Bailey and Jamie Campbell-Walter. The two talented British drivers felt right at home behind the wheel of their new Storm GT. At the Valencia season-opener, they qualified on pole position in the 30-car field, just over two-tenths ahead of the closest rival. During the three-hour race, Bailey and Campbell-Walter managed to gain a lap on all rivals to score a dominant debut victory.

Bailey and Campbell-Walter continued their perfect streak at the subsequent Estoril round where they once again won from pole position. For round three, at Monza, they qualified fourth but moved their way up the order to secure a third consecutive podium finish with a third. Next up was Lister's home race, the British Empire Trophy at Silverstone. The FIA GT Championship field had grown to 33 cars, which was once again headed by Bailey and Campbell-Walter in GTM 002. After three hours of racing on the high-speed circuit, they had a minute in hand to score their third win in four starts. The victory was a notable landmark for Pearce’s iteration of Lister because it created a pleasing echo to the marque’s 1950s heyday. The British Empire Trophy had been a major race won twice by Archie Scott Brown in Listers in 1955 and ’57 at Oulton Park.

The V12-engined machine grabbed yet another front-row start position at the Hungaroring but an accident brought an early end to the charge of GTM 002. With backing from Newcastle United football club, Bailey and Campbell-Walter returned to form by snatching yet another pole position at Zolder. In the race, they lapped all but one of the cars to score their fourth win of the season. In the next three races, no wins were scored with a second from pole position at Brno was the best result. GTM 002 and its successful driver pairing finished the year in style with a fifth win out of ten starts at Magny-Cours. Lister Storm Racing won the Teams' Championship and Bailey and Campbell-Walter were crown FIA GT Drivers' Champion.

The 2000 FIA GT Championship-winning machine was not used again by Lister Storm Racing after its Magny-Cours victory. It was eventually sold to Creation Autosportif for a 2003 FIA GT Championship campaign. A new team, Creation Autosportif was created by Mike Jankowski and from Lister Storm Racing engineer Ian Bickerton. Usually sporting a metallic blue and yellow livery, the team quickly progressed from the FIA GT Championship to become a front-running Le Mans Prototype team and constructor in the following years. Its very first outing, the FIA GT Barcelona test surely provided a sign of things to come as drivers Peter Snowdon and Bobby Verdon-Roe recorded the second fastest time in what was now a four-year-old racing car.

For the 2003 FIA GT Championship, Verdon-Roe was the full-time driver, joined by Snowdon during the first two races and then Marco Zadra for the remainder of the year. At the Spa 24 hours the driver line-up was bolstered by Duncan Huisman and Jean-Marc Gounon. At the Barcelona season-opener, Verdon-Roe and Snowdon scored a top five finish. In what was a consistent season they also grabbed a fourth at Pergusa, a fifth at Donington and an impressive second at Oschersleben. Chassis GTM 002 lined up in ninth for the Spa 24 Hours but an accident in the tenth hour brought a premature end to the race.

Creation Autorsportif reunited chassis GTM 002 with 2000 FIA GT Champion Jamie Campbell-Walter for their 2004 campaign. He was joined behind the wheel by Jamie Derbyshire. The best result scored by the two Jamies was a fifth at Valencia. Bobby Verdon-Roe and Peter Snowdon also returned back behind the wheel for the Spa 24 Hours but a mechanical issue cut the race short after 350 laps of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. The final contemporary outings for GTM 002 came in the 2006 French FFSA GT Championship where it was fielded by Creation Autosportif by Romain Brandela and Thierry Stépec.

Following its contemporary racing career, chassis GTM 002 was acquired by Bobby Verdon-Roe. He was a more than appropriate custodian for the 2000 FIA GT Championship machine which he had raced in period for Creation Sportif. Earlier in his career, he had also served as a works driver for Lister Storm Racing aboard a sister car. Chassis GTM 002 was kept in his private collection, which also included an ex-James Hunt McLaren M26, for many years.

During the early 2020s, it was entrusted to specialists Sporting & Historic Car Engineers for a complete recommissioning. At this point a brand new fuel cell was fitted, which has a certification that can be extended through to the end of 2027. GTM 002 was also returned to its 2000 FIA GT Championship winning livery. The extensive work, of which the receipts are on file, was completed in time for the 80th Goodwood Members' Meeting in 2023 where it was demonstrated alongside its contemporaries in a special GT1 parade.

For pre-2005 prototypes and pre-2010 GTs, which competed in international sportscar racing, the hugely popular series visits iconic circuits, including Spa, Imola, and Paul Ricard. In addition, the series partakes in the biennial Le Mans Classic, which is the marquee event of historic endurance racing, with the latest edition to be held in July 2025.

“ From 1999 to 2005 the Lister Storm GTM was a perennial front runner and claimed numerous victories, including the British GT and FIA GT championship titles. With just six of these spectacular machines produced, they are rare and worthy successors to the fabulous Lister sportscars of the 1950s and all who drove them praise the sublime balance, linear power delivery and total versatility - whatever the weather, whatever the circuit characteristics, the Storm somehow thundered to the front. ”

2000 Lister Storm GTM

Certification & Mileage

Technical Specification

Eligibility

Spare Parts

Location & Tax Status