Bristol Bullet revealed

Bristol WILL reach its 70th year in business - and with an all-new car at that

Let's be honest: the new Bristol Bullet looks curiously oddball. Why? Apparently, the company's new owners found an old speedster prototype under a dust sheet when they were clearing the old Filton factory to see what they'd bought. Of course, you could also say it looks so curiously oddball simply because it's a Bristol. But the chutzpah of a company being reborn using inspiration from a hidden relic of the past certainly warrants praise.

After all, it could have done something more mainstream. Say, some sort of big retro-look two-door coupe based on old Jaguar XK mechanicals. But more authentic would be to reproduce one of the old company's prototypes, neatly marking 70 years since the aircraft business started making cars. And doing it in limited-to-70 numbers to relaunch the brand with a bang.

375hp and 1,250kg should make it brisk!

Enter the Bullet, with all its delicate, elegant sculpting, flowing features, curious snout and enough old Bristol cues to fill a history book: those front wings, that grille, the bonnet, the lights, the fins at the rear, the gills on the side. It's not a conventional beauty because no Bristol ever has been. It's the robust, meticulous engineering that sells, and it's this that hopefully the Bullet packs in spades.

We don't know too much about all that though. The launch event at Coworth Park in Berkshire was all about the visuals - about getting people to sit inside the sumptuous interior with an almost unimaginable amount of leather, a retro dial pack, a rather incongruous touchscreen infotainment system (with Wi-Fi for onboard internet) and an old BMW E60 column stalk that's there for good reason.

It's a rather open-plan cabin, too; there is no roof, see. Not even a tonneau. That half-height windscreen? That's optional. Maybe that's why there's so much wipe-dry leather and so few bits of switchgear to get wet and pop a fuse. Bristol's pitching this car as a collectable, not something to use all year round, but we do still wonder what you'll do when it rains at Salon Prive.

Under the bonnet is a more prominent old 5 Series link: a 4.8-litre BMW V8 producing 375hp. It's the same engine Morgan uses in the Aero 8 (neatly, early Bristols used BMW motors too), although the company insists it's been responsible for 'finishing' the engine. Surely that means more than just taking it out of the crate and fitting a Bristol-look vanity cover? Bristol's called it 'Hercules' after its 1,300hp 14-cylinder aircraft radial engine. Here, thanks to a 1,250kg kerbweight, it's good for 0-62mph in 3.8 seconds.

Leather, leather everywhere

It weighs so little because the body is made from carbon fibre, unlike Bristols of old which were made from hand-beaten aluminium. That may not be very retro but, as Bristol suggests, would you like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to be made from alloy? Underneath it, here's hoping the suspension boasts the sort of detail that made LJK Setright such a Bristol obsessive. All they're saying at the moment is that it's tuned for long-distance comfort rather than track day thrills, which sounds sensible.

We've UK-based Indian businessman Kamal Siddiqi to thank for Bristol's revival. His company, Kamkorp Group, bought out Bristol Cars Ltd from administration in 2011, renaming the company Bristol Automotive Group and relocating it to Camberley in Surrey (although the Bullet will actually be built in Chichester). It was during this relocation that the prototype was apparently found.

How much? Less than £250,000, which is encouraging for a one-of-70 model that could be the start of bigger and better things for this storied brand. Bristol promises we'll be driving it in the few months, ahead of deliveries beginning in 2017. So this is a car that's a here-and-now reality rather than some fanciful pipe dream. Will you be placing an order?

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