A SUPERCAR firm based in East Lancashire has welcomed representatives from top car brands for a conference held at its HQ.

Members of the Northern Automotive Alliance (NAA) were treated to a history of the Lister brand, which includes being featured in the Gran Turismo and Forza video game franchises, by current owner Lawrence Whittaker, at the supercar's HQ in Hyndburn. 

The NAA represent manufacturers and supply chain companies in the car industry, and the North West automotive cluster directly generates some £9 billion of the total UK automotive manufacture economy.

This is approximately 12 per cent of the UK total - placing it as the second most significant region for automotive manufacture in the UK.

Members of the NAA include Leyland Trucks, Jaguar Land Rover, Bentley, Pirelli and Vauxhall Motors.

Lancashire Telegraph:

A panel discussion on the future of electrification of cars and carbon free motoring also took place with Mr Whittaker and Amanda Melton, of the Nelson and Colne College Group, which has a training centre dedicated to electric car maintenance in Accrington, and Paul Jones of the NAA.

Mr Whittaker, owner of Lister Cars, said: "We are so proud to have welcomed all these fantastic people from the automotive world here to Lister.

"I'd like to thank everyone who attended including our speakers Amanda Melton CBE and Paul Jones, as well as to #AmazingAccrington for organizing a brilliant event."

Lister Cars had legendary racing cars of the late 1950s, winning or placing in more than 2,000 races with models such as the Lister Knobbly.

They then found renewed racing fame after 1999 at Le Mans and others with the Lister Storm, the best race car of the era, boasting 546 bhp and a 0-60mph time of just 4.1 seconds, driven by top drivers such as Tiff Needell.

The cars then found a new generation of fans by the Lister Storm being included in the Gran Turismo and Forza video games - which have sold more than 100 million copies combined worldwide.

Today, they boast the fastest SUV in the world, the Lister Stealth with 666bhp and an estimated 0-60mph of just 3.6 seconds.

Chief Executive of the Northern Automotive Alliance, Paul Jones, said: "We had a fantastic day.

"We had Lawrence telling us about the history of Lister, the oldest racing car company in the UK, and we had a great presentation from Amanda Melton CBE on the skills challenge for the future and how industry and academia can work together.

"Lawrence is a great example of using the UK supply chain and this is what NAA is all about, promoting the UK automotive supply chain.

"Thank you Lister cars, what a great day we had."

Lancashire Telegraph:

Principal and chief executive at Nelson and Colne College Group, Amanda Melton CBE, added: "It has been a fantastic day, there has been such fantastic engagement from our local employers.

"We are going through such an important period of change at the moment as we move over to low carbon solutions across many industries, so making sure that we have got young people and adults who are able to re-train to be able to fulfil the job needs of these very important employers to our economy, is really important."

Managing director of Camcoat Performance Coatings in Warrington and member of NAA, Peter Carter,said: "Today is the best NAA event I have ever been to, particularly as a racing petrol head.

"The discussions and presentations have been really good, the whole day has been excellent and I would like to thank everyone involved.

"The Lister brand is irreplaceable - there are no other British manufacturers to be continually in business, winning 1,500 out of 2,000 races/in the top three which is an incredible record."