Lister Storm GT

[BSchneiderFan]

What's the future for Lister's GT programme? Justin Keen and Liz Halliday have been doing sterling work this year - and have remained defiantly upbeat - but it's increasingly clear that the Storm GT is simply too old now to compete against Maseratis, Saleens and Ferraris, and the gap will widen when the Aston Martins arrive full-time in customer hands next year. In truth, I'm surprised Lister ran the Storm GT this year; with the prototype programme to deal with, I expected them to dump the GT. But surely this will be its last year?

(It's an interesting footnote that Listers have rarely been seen in customer hands - too expensive?)

[panoz.lmp1]

Originally Posted by BSchneiderFan

(It's an interesting footnote that Listers have rarely been seen in customer hands - too expensive?)

Their are five Storm GT. One in Brazil, one in France, one in Italy and two in UK

[BSchneiderFan]

The only customer Storm GT to race internationally was the Creation Autosportif car, yes?

[Audi R8R]

As far as I am aware Lister have plans to be in FIA GT in 2006, so they're either still going to plug away with what they have or build something entirely new.

[Graham Goodwin]

Creation had (and indeed still have) two Storms I believe.

[lj79]

The GT and Proto progarmmes are separate entities commercially, so there are no adverse issues with one programme propping the other up.

Fiona Pearce (who knows better than all of us) is of the opinion that, with a couple of top-line professionals as opposed to this year's line up - her words, not mine - the car could could be a lot faster. I know that at Spa the car had an old spec engine, c.50 bhp down on the latest spec'

I sincerely hope it continues in 2006, otherwise the Jag V12 will finally have finished its top level competition career. I think it started with Group 44's E-Type in the mid-70s.

[panoz.lmp1]

Originally Posted by Graham Goodwin

Creation had (and indeed still have) two Storms I believe.

That´s interesting. Because there are only five build (thats confirmed by Fiona - said Janos).
So Creation must (?) have one car ????

[marcosgt]

Does that include the road car? I've seen at least one on the road.

Cheers.

[The Badger]

Could the Storm be homollogated as a GT2 car ?

[BSchneiderFan]

Originally Posted by lj79

Fiona Pearce (who knows better than all of us) is of the opinion that, with a couple of top-line professionals as opposed to this year's line up - her words, not mine - the car could could be a lot faster. I know that at Spa the car had an old spec engine, c.50 bhp down on the latest spec'

Faster, maybe, but enough to challenge the Maseratis and Astons that will be class-leading cars in 2006?

[jhansen]

What's the point of making a comment like that unless they intend to put pro drivers in the car? Bit silly if you ask me.

And I agree BSfan, it certainly will continue to struggle in 2006.

[BSchneiderFan]

Yep, you're right, jhansen, it's a bit like saying "If we were two seconds a lap faster, we'd be competitive". Well, yes, but... The Storm has come to the end of its useful life; it happens to every car, and, let's face it, the Storm has lasted a long time.

[TheNewBob]

It's a bit like the Viper, Porsche 993 and Marcos LM600 - cars which simply reached the end of their life to be internationally competitive, but it's always sad to see them go. It's painful to see the Lister being so slow this year, proves the rate of progress in the championship when it was just 2 years ago when they won a race and were often at the front.

I'd quite like The badger's thought of homologating it as a GT2 car - although I'm not sure if it's engine size etc. would be within GT2 regs? If they really wanna keep the car on the track then why not try the G1 or G2 class?

Maybe after their prototype operation they'll consider creating a new GT car?

Would always be a shame to see the car and it's Jag V12 go - it's what helped me get hooked on sportscar racing in the first place, and I love the car to bits...

[lj79]

Originally Posted by jhansen

What's the point of making a comment like that unless they intend to put pro drivers in the car? Bit silly if you ask me.

And I agree BSfan, it certainly will continue to struggle in 2006.

Perhaps the team is seeking enough backing to be able to pay for two pro drivers.

Laurence (and Fiona) Pearce have massive self-belief in their product - that's a good thing.

[lj79]

Originally Posted by marcosgt

Does that include the road car? I've seen at least one on the road.

Cheers.

They were still building road cars to order last year. Sultan of Brunei / Oman etc..?

[Joe Taylor]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Could the Storm be homollogated as a GT2 car ?

It's already been downgraded once, from old GT1 to GTS (new GT1)

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by lj79

I sincerely hope it continues in 2006, otherwise the Jag V12 will finally have finished its top level competition career. I think it started with Group 44's E-Type in the mid-70s.

It will be a shame that the engine will not compete in current racing. Although it survives in historic racing

It stayed competitive for a couple of decades. Not bad for a road engine! I guess the main thing that hurt it in the end was the weight, it is a heavy lump. Followed by it's thirst (although it did alright in Gp C!).

To talk specifically about the Lister, I remember seing it in the paddock at Oulton in the British GT and saw the bonnet off. My first reaction was that they must be changing the engine, but then as I got closer I saw the engine was in the car - it was so low down and so far back (almost in the cockpit!).

Also today I was watching a 'home' movie of Le Mans '96 with Tiff getting everyone revved up as they managed to get the Lister back on track to make the end of the race. I'm not 100% sure it was still a 12 then

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by Joe Taylor

It's already been downgraded once, from old GT1 to GTS (new GT1)

Couls they not do the same again ? After all they are going to build a GT2 DBR-9 .

[BSchneiderFan]

Laurence Pearce has remarked in the past that the Storm GT is virtually a mid-engined car.

[lj79]

Originally Posted by Joe Taylor

It's already been downgraded once, from old GT1 to GTS (new GT1)

No, they're different cars.

In 99 BGT you had the old GT1 (now outlawed) competing in the same races as the old GT2 (now GT1)

[lj79]

Originally Posted by AdamAshmore

It will be a shame that the engine will not compete in current racing. Although it survives in historic racing

I'd say 3 decades. It won an FFSA GT race this year

[Bramzel]

Originally Posted by BSchneiderFan

Laurence Pearce has remarked in the past that the Storm GT is virtually a mid-engined car.

It's exactly as mid-engined as the Corvette, DBR9 and 550 imho

[MorganFan]

There was some discussion on the forum on the Lister site a while back about them replacing the Storm GT with a new car. I think the outcome of that was basically, nice idea, but too expensive, although they might look at taking on an existing car to allow them to keep running a team in GT.

I guess if you are going to go to the trouble of designing your own car from scratch, you may as well make it a prototype, that at least gives you a chance of grabbing some glory and/or headlines at LM etc.

I believe they do still (or at least would) manufacture new Storms to order, again, some posts on the Lister forum indicated there were at least 5 road-going Storms, although with a price tag between £300K and £400K, I guess it was never going to be a big seller.

[TheNewBob]

Originally Posted by lj79

No, they're different cars.

In 99 BGT you had the old GT1 (now outlawed) competing in the same races as the old GT2 (now GT1)

Indeed - the old GT1 car was the GTL, not the GT. Although I think in the very early days like '95 the GT was actually in the GT1 class, but like the Viper it was downgraded to GT2.

These older cars are still around, but not internationally - Euser still enters the LM600 in national championships, and Vipers are numerous in FFSA, not to mention Lister being pretty competitive there along with Italian GT's too.

It's been suggested on this forum before about what would happen if FIA GT went global and the old Euro GT was revived as a stepping stone - I think the Storm would be pretty competitive in that environment rather than international racing.

[TheNewBob]

found the thread about the idea of a Storm GT replacement - yes it does say basically they have plans but it takes money/investment to get it off the ground.

Also found this quote from the team in a reply in that thread: "We don't agree that the Storm GT is no longer at the top - just circumstances. Look at Justin's performance at Spa in the wet?" - in all reality is this really believable? I'm such a big fan of Lister, and it's so great to see they're still enthusiastic about the Storm, but can the car really still be competitive against the like of Maserati, Aston Martin and Corvette? I hate to say it, but I don't really think so...