Encouraged by the considerable successes achieved with his earlier sports cars, in the later 1950s Brian Lister began to finalise plans for the production of the Lister-Jaguar "Knobbly" range, which was introduced for the 1957 season and further refined in 1958\. At this time Lister was also becoming aware of the potential export market for large-engine sports cars in the new North American Pro-Series and, following suggestions from existing customers, he realised that a more powerful engine would be required to stay competitive in the States. Accordingly he began to modify a small number of chassis in England to accommodate the Chevrolet small block V8\. The first five cars were dispatched in 1958, engine-less, to the US where they were supplied to dealers Carroll Shelby, Kjell Qvale and Seattle-based Tom Carstens, who had the cars fitted with their Chevy power plants.