Identify this car
Discussion
CanAm said:
It's a Bristol 450.
PS I think you were just testing us. With you Le Mans history I bet you knew what is was all along.
You are too kind sir! I think it is time to change my PH name. What would you think to Alan? Alan Zheimer has a nice ring to it, don't you think? And before I forget - thank you!PS I think you were just testing us. With you Le Mans history I bet you knew what is was all along.
Edited by CanAm on Thursday 13th May 12:44
Dinky immortalised it with a rather crude model.
Ugly maybe but a devastatingly effective class winner at Le Mans in 54 and 55...
Note the ERA inspired 5 spoke alloys with detachable rims on the real/replica car, very cool.
Ugly maybe but a devastatingly effective class winner at Le Mans in 54 and 55...
Edited by moffspeed on Thursday 13th May 14:28
Note the ERA inspired 5 spoke alloys with detachable rims on the real/replica car, very cool.
Edited by moffspeed on Thursday 13th May 14:33
I think its a replica of the 1954 450 coupe.
The only original 450 left of the 3 or 4 made in period is the open one that has been featured in a few magazines and occasionally appeared at historic races.
I remember the open one from a visit to the Bristol cars service centre, then by the Chiswick roundabout as a child. My father's car was getting a new exhaust fitted, and I was shown the old racing cars, allowed to sit in them and go Brrrmm Brmmm.
Jon
The only original 450 left of the 3 or 4 made in period is the open one that has been featured in a few magazines and occasionally appeared at historic races.
I remember the open one from a visit to the Bristol cars service centre, then by the Chiswick roundabout as a child. My father's car was getting a new exhaust fitted, and I was shown the old racing cars, allowed to sit in them and go Brrrmm Brmmm.
Jon
The (very) ugly ones went to Le Mans in 1953, but the engines did not last the distance. A short while later the either futuristic or intermediately ugly (depending on taste) coupe appeared at Reims, and scored a class win. Class wins were repeated at Reims & Le Mans in 54 with the coupe, like the one in the first picture By 55 they had the more conventional and not at all ugly open cars, with class wins again. At this point this was still the car division of the Bristol aeroplane company, so they knew a bit about aerodynamics.
lowdrag said:
CanAm said:
It's a Bristol 450.
PS I think you were just testing us. With your Le Mans history I bet you knew what is was all along.
You are too kind sir! I think it is time to change my PH name. What would you think to Alan? Alan Zheimer has a nice ring to it, don't you think? And before I forget - thank you!PS I think you were just testing us. With your Le Mans history I bet you knew what is was all along.
Edited by CanAm on Thursday 13th May 12:44
CanAm said:
My pleasure. I had the Dinky model as a youth and didn’t realise how crude it was until I saw the pictures on this thread.
Yet at the same time Dinky produced a reasonable model of the Cunningham C5R. Their version of the D Type was quite half-hearted also and was mysteriously finished in a turquoise blue rather than brg.
Yes, it is a recreation of the closed Bristol 450 racer. I think (not certain) it is based on a period Bristol chassis, whereas the original cars were completely different from other Bristols under the skin, essentially being ERA G-Types cars after the Bristol Aeroplane Company bought the G-Type project and turned it into the 450. The sole surviving 450 wears the 1955-spec open body.
It was completed last year for a client by Mitchell Motors in Wiltshire. https://www.mitchellmotors.co.uk/news/bristol-450-...
It was completed last year for a client by Mitchell Motors in Wiltshire. https://www.mitchellmotors.co.uk/news/bristol-450-...
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