Truth is the Daughter of Time (Trevor Lister & Don Capps)

2024-01-24

Trevor Lister entered the University of Canterbury on a public service scholarship, graduating with a double degree in Physics and Mechanical Engineering. On graduation, he worked in the Ministry of Transport in the setting and administration of Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, primarily on natural gas and LPG vehicle standards. This led to a secondment to a national research and development organization where he was responsible for research on a wider range of alternative motor vehicle fuels. It led also to an international consultancy in that area, including a stint as the New Zealand delegate to the International Natural Gas Vehicles Association. Upon completion of that work, he returned to his foundation automotive design skills and his motorsports hobby. At which point he became an inspector and certifier on other peoples' projects, as well as designing, building and racing his own cars. In...

Trevor Lister entered the University of Canterbury on a public service scholarship, graduating with a double degree in Physics and Mechanical Engineering. On graduation, he worked in the Ministry of Transport in the setting and administration of Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, primarily on natural gas and LPG vehicle standards. This led to a secondment to a national research and development organization where he was responsible for research on a wider range of alternative motor vehicle fuels. It led also to an international consultancy in that area, including a stint as the New Zealand delegate to the International Natural Gas Vehicles Association.

Upon completion of that work, he returned to his foundation automotive design skills and his motorsports hobby. At which point he became an inspector and certifier on other peoples' projects, as well as designing, building and racing his own cars. In semi-retirement, he took up teaching and tutoring pre-apprenticeship students in Mathematics, Science and Automotive Engineering.

In full retirement, he assumed the role of editor of the newsletter of The Classic Motor Racing Club of New Zealand. That is when, searching for newsletter stories, he came across the work of Donald Capps, and their common interest in old Maseratis. The upshot of working together on the histories of these cars became the main point in the presentation to this symposium.

It appears that Maserati in the 1950s identified their competition cars by their engine numbers, not their chassis numbers, and that this process allowed for the individual cars to have carried more than one identity. This has implications for the provenance of these cars.

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00:00 Trevor Lister's Background

01:37 Maserati's Unique Identification System

01:53 Trevor Lister's Presentation

02:47 The English vs. Italian Approach

04:38 Case Study: Maserati 250F

10:50 Donald Capps' Database Insights

15:46 Challenges in Historical Car Identification

19:10 Q&A Session

27:48 Closing Remarks and Acknowledgements

28:38 Outro and Additional Information

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This episode is part of our HISTORY OF MOTORSPORTS SERIES and is sponsored in part by: The International Motor Racing Research Center (IMRRC), The Society of Automotive Historians (SAH), The Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Argetsinger Family - and was recorded in front of a live studio audience.

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