The Lister Storm was a homologated GT racing car manufactured by British low volume automobile manufacturer Lister Cars with production beginning in 1993. The Storm used the largestV12 engine fitted to a production road car since World War II, a 7.0 L Jaguar unit based on the one used in the Jaguar XJR-9 that competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Due to the high price of the vehicle at £220,000, only four examples were produced before production of the road-going Storm ceased. Only three Storms survive today, although the company continues to maintain racing models. The Storm was claimed to be the fastest four-seat grand tourer during the 1990s and early 2000s.[citation needed]
The bored and stroked twenty four-valve V12 engine generated a maximum power output of 546hp; 553PS (407kW) at 6,100 rpm and 790N⋅m (582.7lb⋅ft) of torque at 3,450 rpm. The car weighed 1,664kg (3,668.5lb), and was capable of accelerating from 0–97km/h (60mph) in 4.1 seconds.[2]
In 1996, the team signed a sponsorship deal with football club Newcastle United and hired engineer Geoff Kingston. It decided to give an updated Storm an early test for Le Mans by entering a lone car in the 24 Hours of Daytona, driven by ex-F1 drivers Geoff Lees, Tiff Needell and Kenny Acheson. It failed to finish due to a high-speed crash while Acheson was behind the wheel.[3] The car was destroyed and according to an interview in Octane in November 2020, Kenny suffered from temporary vision loss in his right eye, chest injuries, a broken rib and still suffers from a reduced lung capacity on the left side.
Even with this letdown, the team pushed on towards Le Mans with the Storm GTS. A new car had to be built by G-Force due to the timescales involved. Lees and Needell were joined by Anthony Reid. The car was able to improve on its disappointing start by finishing the race in 1996, although it was classified in 19th place, 59 laps behind the winner. Lister decided after Le Mans that they would enter the Storm GTS into the BPR Global GT Series, debuting in the fifth round at the Nürburgring but sadly retiring while in third place. The car was then entered at the Suzuka 1000km with Christophe Bouchut this time joining Lees and Needell.[4] It was running in third, before retiring thanks to gearbox troubles.
The car once again proved its speed during round eight of the 1996 BPR Global GT Series at Brands Hatch, qualifying third overall.[5] It sadly retired, this time with an engine issue, while still in that third position.[6]
Storm GTL
For 1997, Lister realized that the Storm GTS was too slow in comparison to some of the newer GT1 class competitors, such as the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR and Porsche 911 GT1. The Storm was therefore redesigned, with a longer and more aerodynamic front end added to the existing car. This car was referred to as the Storm GTL and also used a carbon fibre structure and body panels. The car debuted at the 24 Hours of Daytona, where it managed to take 19th place overall and fourth in its class. Later that year, for Le Mans, two new Storm GTLs were entered, but neither of them was able to finish, with both cars out of the race by lap 77. Later in the year, a Storm GTL would travel to the United States to participate in the final two rounds of the FIA GT Championship at Sebring and Laguna Seca. The car failed to finish both races. It did take one race win and one second place, both results at Donington Park, in the 1997 British GT Championship, however.[7]
1998 saw the team again attempt Daytona, but again they suffered problems early on, and did not finish. Updates to the car meant that it failed scrutineering and was not allowed to take part in the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans[8] despite the team entering the event and turning up to pre-qualify.[9] One bone of contention was the lack of a rear window in the refreshed design.[10]
Also in 1998, the Lister Storm GTL finished fifth overall [11] in the British GT Championship in the hands of Tiff Needell and Julian Bailey (with Anthony Reid subbing for Tiff at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps round). There were three Storm GTLs entered this season and between them they achieved two victories and seven podiums including winning the Silverstone Golden Jubilee Trophy race.
An updated version of the car – featuring a longer nose design – won the overall 1999 British GT Championship driven by Jamie Campbell-Walter and Julian Bailey, winning seven races that season. The championship result was contentious, with a furore surrounding changes to the rear aerodynamics of the Storm GTL. Multiple protests were launched against the car by the rival Blue Coral Porsche team and the championship results remained provisional until after the season had ended.[12] This was futile, and the Lister was victorious.
Meanwhile, the Storm GT also won the GT2 category of the championship that same year. It became apparent that the GT1 rules were going to disappear and that Lister was very competitive in GT2, which was to become the leading class in 2000. Thus, the end of the GTL.
For 1999, the Storm reappeared, a reworked version of the earlier GTS. The car had lost the aerodynamic bodywork seen on the GTL, instead using a more stock front and rear ends. According to Malcolm Cracknell's book Taking the World by Storm, there was a shortage of new suitable GT machines at the time, so Lister was allowed to use the Storm despite road car production long since ceasing.
The team announced they would participate in the full FIA GT Championship season under the new GT2 class rules. After a poor start – retiring from fourth place in Monza and retiring from second place at Silverstone – the team managed to take fourth place at Hockenheimring, a mere two laps behind the winning pair of Chrysler Viper GTS-Rs. This was followed by pole position and third place at Zolder, and finally, a second place at Donington, with the Lister finishing a 26 seconds behind the winning Viper. These successes brought Lister into a tie for fifth place overall in the teams championship at the season's end, despite only entering half the races. In the 1999 British GT Championship, David Warnock won the GT2 category for Cirtek Motorsport in a Lister Storm GT.
Going into 2000, Lister was more upbeat about their possibilities. Chrysler-Oreca had officially left the championship, eliminating a challenge from a factory team. Thus, Lister would face competition only from privateers. With this, Lister proved its capabilities by winning the first race of the season at Valencia. Lister would follow this up with four more wins during the season, all claimed by drivers Julian Bailey and Jamie Campbell-Walter. By round seven at the A1 Ring, the team was saddled with a new inlet restrictor to try to slow them down relative to its on-track rivals.[13] With these victories, Lister claimed the team's and driver's championships with chassis number SA9STRM1BYB053119 GTM002 .
At the same time, Lister competed in the British GT championship both as a factory team, as well as with a customer car for Cirtek Motorsport. The two teams were able to take nine victories. David Warnock finished second overall in the championship using a Storm GT [14] while Tiff Needell won the races at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and Silverstone in the Cirtek (CSi branded) Lister.
Returning as champions to FIA GT, Lister continued into 2001 with two factory cars. Although the Storm GT was very rapid and able to take four victories over the year, the team had to settle for third in the team's championship – beaten by Larbre Competition and Carsport Holland's Vipers. Jamie Campbell-Walter lead the charge, with Tom Coronel as teammate initially. Tom only did a part-season, however, and drivers Mike Jordan, Bobby Verdon-Roe and Richard Dean took it in turns to partner Campbell-Walter's championship efforts. The second car featured Julian Bailey alongside German businessman Nicolaus Springer. This was the last season Julian drove the Lister.
In terms of the 2001 British GT season, Lister won the championship with David Warnock and Mike Jordan at the wheel of a Storm GT, taking victory in no less than seven races.[15] Lister also won the one and only ever race in the Interactive Sportscar Championship 2001 at Donington Park in the hands of James Pickford and David Warnock.[16]
A similar situation occurred in 2002, with Lister managing three victories but only able to take second in the team's championship, again beaten by Larbre. The main challenge this season was relying on a Pro-Am driver strategy across the two cars, as opposed to a Pro-Pro driver line-up by most other teams. The cars were shared by Jamie Campbell-Walter alongside German businessman Nicolaus Springer in car 14 and Bobby Verdon-Roe and British businessman Paul Knapfield in car 15. At times, the amateur drivers would lose one minute to the leaders during their stints.[17] Despite this, Campbell-Walter and Springer finished third overall in the driver's championship. From a British GT point of view, the Storm GT was once again driven by David Warnock and Mike Jordan. This combination delivered 3 race wins and 4 podiums, finishing second in the championship.[18] A great season, but the writing was on the wall for the Lister as the new Saleen S7-R proved to be the dominant vehicle in its first season.
In 2003, Lister was joined in FIA GT with a customer Storm, run by Creation Autosportif. The Lister factory team managed only a single win, yet were still able to take second place in the team's championship. Creation was not far behind, with a fourth-place finish in the championship, after gaining a second customer Storm. At the same time, Lister began work on a new project, the Storm LMP which would bring the marque back to Le Mans. Meanwhile, in British GT, a rule change for the season outlawed cars of the Storm's ilk and thus the team did not enter.[19] This was, therefore, the beginning of the decline of the Storm GT.
For 2004, Creation Autosportif would take over as the main competitor in FIA GT, with the factory squad appearing only at selected races. Creation managed to take only eighth in the teams championship after the team decided to move to Le Mans Prototypes as well, while the factory squad was only able to score a single point all season.
Lister would continue to attempt to campaign the car into 2005, but was only able to gather enough points for 10th place in the team's championship. Following 2005, the factory officially retired the cars to concentrate on the Storm LMP.
In 2006, French squad Red Racing would purchase a Storm for the FFSA GT Championship. The team would make one attempt at the FIA GT Championship, but failed to make it beyond seven laps in the race at Paul Ricard. As of 2007, there were no Storms racing.[citation needed]
Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Sports car racing is one of the main types of circuit auto racing, alongside open-wheel racing, touring car racing and stock car racing. Sports car races are often, though not always, endurance races that are run over particularly long distances or large amounts of time, resulting in a larger emphasis on the reliability and efficiency of the car and its drivers as opposed to outright car performance or driver skills. The FIA World Endurance Championship is an example of one of the best known sports car racing series.
Timothy Richard "Tiff" Needell is a British racing driver and television presenter. He is a presenter of Lovecars, and formerly served as co-presenter of Top Gear and Fifth Gear.
The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout the years has visited other continents including Asia and South America. At the end of 2009, the championship was replaced by the FIA GT1 World Championship, which morphed into the FIA GT Series for 2013.
EMKA Racing was a British racing team founded in 1980 by Steve O'Rourke, manager of the band Pink Floyd. The team occasionally ran under the name of EMKA Productions, the name of O'Rourke's management company. The team's name comes from O'Rourke's two daughters, Emma and Katheryne. O'Rourke and EMKA concentrated on sports car racing with brief interludes into British Formula One until 1985 when the team was broken up before returning again in 1991. The team was finally dissolved in early 2004 following O'Rourke's death. The team had won the drivers championship for O'Rourke and Tim Sugden in the British GT Championship in 1997 and 1998.
The 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 66th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 6 and 7 June 1998.
Warren Hughes is a racing driver from Sunderland, England.
Richard Westbrook is a British professional racing driver noted for his success in racing Porsche and International sports cars. As a junior, he attended St Joseph's College, Ipswich. He has won both the Porsche Supercup international championship and the Porsche Carrera Cup in his native Britain (2004). At the end of the 2007 season, Richard signed a factory contract deal with the German marque Porsche, and the British ace proceeded to take on the world's best on the other side of the Atlantic. The next year (2009), Westbrook won the highly coveted FIA GT2 Championship, taking four victories in the process, establishing himself firmly on the World motor sport stage and in the upper echelons of elite sports car drivers.
The McLaren F1 GTR is the racing variant of the McLaren F1 sports car first produced in 1995 for grand touring style racing, such as the BPR Global GT Series, FIA GT Championship, JGTC, and British GT Championship. It was powered by the naturally aspirated BMW S70/2 V12 engine. It is most famous for its overall victory at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans where it won against faster purpose-built prototypes in very wet conditions. The F1 GTR raced internationally until 2005 when the final race chassis was retired.
The 2005 FIA GT Championship season was the 9th season of FIA GT Championship motor racing. It featured a series of races for GT1 Grand Touring and GT2 Series Grand Touring cars, the former more powerful and highly developed and the latter remaining closer to the production models on which they were based. Additionally cars from National Championships and from Single-make Cups were permitted to participate in championship races but could not score points towards the various awards. The championship itself consisted of a GT1 Championship for Drivers, a GT1 Championship for Teams, a GT2 Cup for Drivers and a GT2 Cup for Teams. A Manufacturers Cup was also awarded in both classes. The championship season began on 10 April 2005 and ended on 25 November 2005 after 11 races.
The 1997 FIA GT Championship was the inaugural season of FIA GT Championship, an auto racing series endorsed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO). The FIA GT Championship replaced the BPR Global GT Series which had been held races and championships from 1994 to 1996 after the series was promoted by the FIA, while Stéphane Ratel took over as promoter and organizer of the new championship, replaced the former BPR Organisation after the departure of partners Jürgen Barth and Patrick Peter. The races featured grand touring cars conforming to two categories of regulations, GT1 and GT2, and awarded driver and team championships in each category. The season began on 13 April 1997 and ended on 26 October 1997 after 11 rounds, visiting Europe, Japan, and the United States.
The Chevrolet Corvette C6.R is a grand tourer racing car built by Pratt Miller and Chevrolet for competition in endurance racing. It is a replacement for the Corvette C5-R racing car, applying the body style of the new C6 generation Chevrolet Corvette as well as improvements to increase the speed and reliability on the track. Since its debut in 2005, it has continued on from the previous dominance of the C5-R in its racing class with multiple American Le Mans Series championships and race wins in the Le Mans Series, FIA GT Championship, and 24 Hours of Le Mans. There are two main versions of the Corvette C6.R: the GT1 version which has 590 HP, carbon-ceramic brakes, and aggressive aerodynamics, and the GT2 version which has 470 HP, cast-iron brakes, and relatively stock aerodynamics with respect to the road car. Unrestricted though, the LS7.R engine will produce around 800 hp. By 2012 the C6.R GT1 was retired from the competition while the GT2 version continues to race around the world.
Jamie Oliver Campbell-Walter is a British professional racing driver. He was born in Oban, Scotland on 16 December 1972. He won the FIA GT Championship in 2000 and took a World Endurance Championship title in 2013 as an Aston Martin Racing factory driver. He now owns and runs Bullet Sports Management with business partner and former team-mate Nicolas Minassian.
The Chrysler Viper GTS-R was a successful racing variant of the Dodge Viper developed in conjunction with Chrysler of North America, Oreca of France and Reynard Motorsport of the United Kingdom. Officially unveiled at the 1995 Pebble Beach Concours, it has won numerous championships and famous events in its history.
Pratt Miller Engineering, also known as Pratt & Miller, is an American company involved in the automotive and arms industries. It was founded by Gary Pratt and Jim Miller in 1989. A defense division was added in 2013 and the company was acquired by Oshkosh Corporation in 2020. The company is headquartered in the unincorporated community of New Hudson, in Lyon Township, Oakland County, Michigan. They are best known as service providers for many of General Motors' motorsports programs, including the operation of the Corvette Racing team.
The 2009 FIA GT Championship season was the thirteenth and final season of the FIA GT Championship for grand tourer cars competing in the GT1 and GT2 categories. The season began 3 May, and ended 25 October after eight races. This was also the final season of a combined GT1 and GT2 championship before the launch of the FIA GT1 World Championship in 2010.
Thomas "Tommy" Erdos is a Brazilian auto racing driver. A two-time Le Mans Series champion and 24 Hours of Le Mans winner in LMP2, he has raced for most of his career in Great Britain and Europe, where he currently resides in Buckinghamshire, England.
Timothy Philip Sugden is a British racing driver. He is both driver and manager for his own racing team, Tim Sugden Motorsport.
Aleksey Igorevich Vasilyev is a Russian auto racing driver.
Patrice Goueslard is a French racing driver. He competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans each year from 1999 until 2010, having initially made his debut at the event in 1994. His best finish in the event came in 2006, when he and Larbre Compétition drivers Luc Alphand and Jérôme Policand took seventh overall, and third in the GT1 category. In addition to this, he has won the French GT Championship and the GT1 category of the Le Mans Series on three occasions each, as well as the Gentleman Trophy category of the Blancpain Endurance Series on one occasion.
The 1999 Privilege Insurance British GT Championship was the seventh season of the British GT Championship, an auto racing series organised by the British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC) and sponsored by Privilege. The races featured grand touring cars conforming to two categories of regulations known as GT1 and GT2, and awarded a driver championship in each category. This was the final season that the GT1 class competed in the series. The season began on 28 March 1999 and ended on 10 October 1999 after eleven events, all held in Great Britain with one race in Belgium. The series was joined by the BRDC Marcos Mantis Challenge Cup for several events.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
