Bristol Cars goes into administration

[Hendry]

fido said:

I might need to borrow Ozzie's flamesuit but .. whilst folks bang on about their 'Britishness' they were based on old BMW cars and even look a bit like them

Where have you been hiding since the early 60s?

The BMW connection comes from immediately after the war when Bristol Aeroplane Company needed something to do and got the German's designs as reparation.

How much BMW do you think there is in a Blenheim or Fighter?

[King Fisher]

I just pray to God it doesn't get bought by a Russian called Smolenski.

[MarsellusWallace]

It's a shame but as a lover of cars and especially British ones I never really got what Bristol was all about and nothing about their cars turned me on or made me want to own one.

[Hendry]

As an aside I often have dreams about winning the Euromillions quadruple rollover and buying Aeromax chassis from Morgan, straight six 3.0 engines from BMW and clothing them in this as a continuation of the 404 (probably the prettiest Bristol in my eyes):

Edited by Hendry on Thursday 3rd March 23:20

[Stuttgart911]

JonRB said:

Oh no. That's dreadful news. Bristol and Morgan are the last bastions of the tradition of hand-built British car industry.

Anthony Crook was always a thorough gentlemen when dealing with my father and me. He was also I believe, a distinguished pilot, as well as a first class race driver. The company innovated and developed many new ideas and safety measures that were way ahead of their time. Run flat Denovo tyres and LPG being just two of the more recent ones. The story of Bristol Cars, as told by LJK Setright is recommended reading, and is a lesson that many other manufacturers might follow.

[threespires]

BMW
I've mentioned it many times before in these pages.
BMW do not have any product between £100,000 & £200,000 where VW Group and Mercedes do.
Bristol would be the perfect marque for BMW to pick up and use to fill that gap.
They already have a strong history between each other.
To me, it's a 'no brainer'.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

I love it that if you click onto the 'Bristol' classifieds, there's half a dozen Bristol cars for sale, and one Honda Civic located in Bristol

I think the Honda owner might be a little dim...

[Stu - B]

Stuttgart911 said:

JonRB said:

Oh no. That's dreadful news. Bristol and Morgan are the last bastions of the tradition of hand-built British car industry.

Anthony Crook was always a thorough gentlemen when dealing with my father and me. He was also I believe, a distinguished pilot, as well as a first class race driver. The company innovated and developed many new ideas and safety measures that were way ahead of their time. Run flat Denovo tyres and LPG being just two of the more recent ones. The story of Bristol Cars, as told by LJK Setright is recommended reading, and is a lesson that many other manufacturers might follow.

I mostly found Tony Crook to be a rude old man who certainly did not act like a gentleman. This is just my view on dealing with him 16 years ago. He may of course have mellowed with age.

[CarMad426]

Maybe not my kind of cars although i loved the looks of the fighter but still shame to see them go, always liked the fact that they carried on doing there own thing for as long as they did, lets hope they can come back at some point.

[Hendry]

threespires said:

BMW
I've mentioned it many times before in these pages.
BMW do not have any product between £100,000 & £200,000 where VW Group and Mercedes do.
Bristol would be the perfect marque for BMW to pick up and use to fill that gap.
They already have a strong history between each other.
To me, it's a 'no brainer'.

I see your logic but I fear they would go the same way as Bentley. You may think that's a good thing and I don't think anyone is going to spend any boardroom time worrying about upsetting the traditional base because it's tiny, but is Bristol becoming another brand for a mass maker how we really want it to live on?

[tali1]

Stu - B said:

Stuttgart911 said:

JonRB said:

Oh no. That's dreadful news. Bristol and Morgan are the last bastions of the tradition of hand-built British car industry.

Anthony Crook was always a thorough gentlemen when dealing with my father and me. He was also I believe, a distinguished pilot, as well as a first class race driver. The company innovated and developed many new ideas and safety measures that were way ahead of their time. Run flat Denovo tyres and LPG being just two of the more recent ones. The story of Bristol Cars, as told by LJK Setright is recommended reading, and is a lesson that many other manufacturers might follow.

I mostly found Tony Crook to be a rude old man who certainly did not act like a gentleman. This is just my view on dealing with him 16 years ago. He may of course mellowed with age.

Never met him - but you are right the general consensus was that he was rather rude.Before Bristol he ran Anthony Crook Car sales and held concessions for various small volume exotics
LJK Setright's wife committed suicide in his favourite Bristol.

[Flanders.]

Trommel said:

Appearing on Top Gear couldn't possibly have led to a single extra sale, especially given the Barratt/DFS/Superdry/X Factor demographic (pretty similar to the one on here).

Factory cars were reviewed by evo.

Ahh the pathetic PH snobbishness shows its ugly head again.

[threespires]

Hendry said:

I see your logic but I fear they would go the same way as Bentley. You may think that's a good thing and I don't think anyone is going to spend any boardroom time worrying about upsetting the traditional base because it's tiny, but is Bristol becoming another brand for a mass maker how we really want it to live on?

I agree with your sentiments entirely, but business is business & the world wants 'brands'.

Next - A Bentley Q7 ? - I'd put money on it.

Shame innit, but I suppose one day our grandkids, whilst discussing the new BMW badged Geely, will look back at today's cars & repeat what we're saying.

Edited by threespires on Thursday 3rd March 23:40

[Stu - B]

tali1 said:

Never met him - but you are right the general consensus was that he was rather rude.Before Bristol he ran Anthony Crook Car sales and held concessions for various small volume exotics
LJK Setright's wife committed suicide in his favourite Bristol.

I heard that as well. Hardly a ringing endorsement.

[HereBeMonsters]

st.

I always hoped I'd get rich enough that I'd be able to walk into the showroom and spend weeks ordering my perfect car, itself taking months to be built by a man in a shed that I could go and visit.

Alas, my dream is gone. A sad, sad day.

[Hendry]

Flanders. said:

Ahh the pathetic PH snobbishness shows its ugly head again.

He's right though. Who would have gone and out bought a Bristol on the back of James May getting ribbed about his enthusiasm from the other two? They're not priced to compete with Civic Type Rs.

[Emeye]

Apart from people losing their employment I really don't care about this. These cars never did interest me or the stupid tales of English quirkiness - they were just cars for daft upper class old boys who were still trying to cling onto the British Empire! Tally Ho Rupert old bean!

[Hendry]

Emeye said:

Apart from people losing their employment I really don't care about this. These cars never did interest me or the stupid tales of English quirkiness - they were just cars for daft upper class old boys who were still trying to cling onto the British Empire! Tally Ho Rupert old bean!

I see individualism as something to be celebrated. It's not about the Empire, it's about ploughing your own furrow rather than joining the masses and just settling for a BMW X5 and box sets of Friends.

You and I are very different people. Seems there's no place on here, or in life, any more for people who don't want their life shrink wrapped.

[Jgtv]

Actually sorry to hear this, not massively surprised but still sorry to hear it.

Shame because if they would have let the tts at Kahn, Masonary and the like "bling" the fighter they would have sold out, I know its against the ethos but still its better to have a something and keep the company than have nothing.

[ewenm]

Jgtv said:

Actually sorry to hear this, not massively surprised but still sorry to hear it.

Shame because if they would have let the tts at Kahn, Masonary and the like "bling" the fighter they would have sold out, I know its against the ethos but still its better to have a something and keep the company than have nothing.

I'm not sure that they'd agree with you. Everything I've read about Bristol suggests to me they'd rather fold than make something that wasn't 100% true to their ethos.