RE: Bristol Cars returns from the dead

RE: Bristol Cars returns from the dead

Author
Discussion

Cornish Pete

71 posts

88 months

Sunday 9th May 2021
quotequote all
Sue_Donym said:
FFS, I wish people would stop trying to reanimate the corpse of companies that are dead, and usually for good reason.


If you want to make a new car, go for it. If it's genuinely good or you won't need to tack on an old badge to make people notice it.
You may wish to reconsider your participation on this forum.

Cornish Pete

71 posts

88 months

Sunday 9th May 2021
quotequote all
In the mid 80s I was trained, in Filton, by panel beaters (for want of a better phrase) who used to build Bristol bodies from pretty much one piece of sheet metal. They were absolute artists. I still view it as a privilege to have watched them work. I wonder if the UK still possesses such craftsmen.

Because of this I still stop and stare to this day if I see a Bristol.

I really hope this venture is a success.

easytiger123

2,595 posts

210 months

Sunday 9th May 2021
quotequote all
Cornish Pete said:
In the mid 80s I was trained, in Filton, by panel beaters (for want of a better phrase) who used to build Bristol bodies from pretty much one piece of sheet metal. They were absolute artists. I still view it as a privilege to have watched them work. I wonder if the UK still possesses such craftsmen.

Because of this I still stop and stare to this day if I see a Bristol.

I really hope this venture is a success.
Fair to say their panel beaters went downhill since the mid 80's, and more recent models result in staring at the bodywork for entirely different reasons..,

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1206763#&...

Adam.

27,262 posts

255 months

Sunday 9th May 2021
quotequote all
Cornish Pete said:
In the mid 80s I was trained, in Filton, by panel beaters (for want of a better phrase) who used to build Bristol bodies from pretty much one piece of sheet metal. They were absolute artists. I still view it as a privilege to have watched them work. I wonder if the UK still possesses such craftsmen.

Because of this I still stop and stare to this day if I see a Bristol.

I really hope this venture is a success.
This

Idiosyncratic hand made things, not pretty, a bit brutish and I loved their philosophy of designing a car for comfort and practicality not looks or fashion.

Would love to own a Blenheim or an old 411 like the one linked in the classifieds (I draw the line at the awful looking 412)

Edited by Adam. on Sunday 9th May 11:27

ettore

4,134 posts

253 months

Sunday 9th May 2021
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Promsuit1 said:
who wants to buy an extremely expensive updated Bristol fighter.... not many... nobody knows what it is.. it’s an irrelevant car in a world of much nicer cars that can be bought for obviously a lot less.

most of the Bristol enthusiasts (including those that can afford it) will be dead soon surely
Nice comment...

Alternatively, in an increasingly uniform, banal, world, perhaps individualism could return,

indapendentlee

401 posts

100 months

Monday 10th May 2021
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You had me until the bit about wanting to be a leader in high-end EVs by 2026 - do they know that's 5 years away? Unless they literally take ALL of the tech from someone like Lunaz (in which case Lunaz, not Bristol would be the leader?) that's basically impossible.

Davismatt

113 posts

163 months

Monday 10th May 2021
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SWoll said:
Equus said:
I actually quite liked the Fighter, but having seen one up close there was no denying that in terms of fit, finish, design and execution it was basically what you'd expect of an up-market kit car.

Asking £594K for one is a good joke, but I don't see many people astute enough to have become multi-milionaires falling for it.


smile
You do know that Liam didn't have a driving licence when he owned a Bristol don't you?

PhantomPH

4,043 posts

226 months

Monday 10th May 2021
quotequote all
Davismatt said:
SWoll said:
Equus said:
I actually quite liked the Fighter, but having seen one up close there was no denying that in terms of fit, finish, design and execution it was basically what you'd expect of an up-market kit car.

Asking £594K for one is a good joke, but I don't see many people astute enough to have become multi-milionaires falling for it.


smile
You do know that Liam didn't have a driving licence when he owned a Bristol don't you?
Or two braincells to clang together.

Its Just Adz

14,126 posts

210 months

Monday 10th May 2021
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£496k????? Ridiculous.

I give it 6 years and they will be bankrupt again.

Dave Hedgehog

14,569 posts

205 months

Monday 10th May 2021
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Its Just Adz said:
£496k????? Ridiculous.

I give it 6 years and they will be bankrupt again.
Given how long its taken TVR to develop a car and get it into production so that customers start recieving them by the time Bristol start making cars the ICE ban will be in place

PDutus

6 posts

29 months

Tuesday 28th December 2021
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I think that most people who criticise Bristols have either never actually owned one or even driven one. I owned a 1967 Bristol 410 V8 for a number of years and really liked it. It needed a fair amount of restoration work, but then again I did pick it up for £6,500. It was a joy to drive and to this day I regret selling it, but back then financial needs rather forced my hand. With what they go for these days (one reason why I kick myself very hard for selling it), I doubt I'll be able to afford another one in the near future.

Yes they are idiosyncratic. Yes the build quality of the later cars, such as the Blenheim, was evidently not what it used to be. Yes the styling of the 603 series onwards (the Blenheim is a derivative) is not, to my eyes, as attractive as the earlier V8s or the six cylinder cars.

When Bristol went into liquidation, all the spares were bought up by the Bristol Owners Club, so existing cars can be kept going. In any event, with the V8s power comes from a good old Chrysler lump coupled to the excellent Torqueflite transmission: spares for those are hardly ever going to be a problem.

So, I really hope that this latest attempt at resurrecting the company is successful.