Friday 29th July 2016

Bristol Bullet revealed

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

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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?

 

[anonymous-user]

It has some interesting details to the design but overall its a mess

[anonymous-user]

As a serial buyer of Bristols old and new, even I am not interested.

[anonymous-user]

The width of the sills! Or rather the distance from the sill to the door aperture. My god, you'd do a hamstring getting one leg inside it. No rest for the left foot when not using the clutch (no space at all), massive tunnel intrusion in the foot space (because the occupants are sitting so far inboard). The pedals are upright too. Looks uncomfortable to sit in. I can understand understand using off the shelf engines and stuff, but no excuse to execute such a badly laid out interior.

Edited by RenOHH on Friday 29th July 19:41

[anonymous-user]

williamp said:

I love Bristols, but cant quite get this. The older ones always seemed to be proud to be old, that was aprt of their charm. This has too many new features.

Desolate, can you tell us about buying them new? Are the rumoirs true? What was the process like?

By the time I was able to buy a new/newish car from them Tony Crook was no longer in charge.
I had dealt with him/the company in the past and I would say the "myth" was most definitely based on the truth as he was a one off.

I got interested in Bristols as when I was a student I used to live up the road from the showroom and when I got off the bus I would walk past the showroom and have a look in. On a couple of occasions when I went in they would be very nice and talk to me and make a cup of tea etc even though it was obvious I was not a customer.

When I bought a Fighter Crook was long gone and I dealt with Toby Silverton and it was a pleasure. But in no way your traditional "premium" experience.

One particular memory is that when I had an issue with the first car it had to go back to the factory. I lived in Cheshire and the factory was in Bristol (obviously) They delivered the car back to me and the had put the steering wheel on upside down. I wasnt happy and had the hump so they sent the production manager up in a van with a set of allen keys to fix it (10 mins max). he had a cup of tea, apologised about 500 times then drove back.

Anyway, I have always tried to support British industry and loved the concept of blokes in brown coats in workshops making things.

But in the end it would have been cheaper to buy a Porsche.


However I currently drive a 1968 410 with 440bhp engine and I really like it!