Bristol Blenheim
Author
Discussion

10JH

Original Poster:

2,070 posts

210 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
Does anyone know if this car is still in production?

The website seems to say it is but I have a feeling they don't update it often!

http://www.bristolcars.co.uk/Blenheim3.htm

I wonder just how many of these have been sold in the last 5 years. I get the Figher and think it's fantastic but this....

I understand that people could want something different, but £164000 for a car that is so outdated!

WildCards

4,061 posts

233 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
I understood that the Blenheim shape remained the same but they updated various bits and bobs as and when to keep it current.


I may have just made that up though.

300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

206 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
I don't know if they still are in production. But I hope so. They are so much more interesting than most other high end barges.

For some quality isn't a matter of the number of electronic gizmos.

Mars

9,540 posts

230 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
A real oddity. On one hand it looks as though the company hasn't opened its doors to look outside in 35+ years, and yet there's the Fighter which is very much a modern-looking car.

Seez

656 posts

196 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
What are the rear lights from...

Cavalier?

OnTheOverrun

3,965 posts

193 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
Mars said:
A real oddity. On one hand it looks as though the company hasn't opened its doors to look outside in 35+ years, and yet there's the Fighter which is very much a modern-looking car with 1015bhp.
  • EFA biggrin

The Wookie

14,154 posts

244 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
I saw a Blenheim the other day... It looked like the bd child of a Capri and a Vauxhall Senator.

No doubt someone will be on soon to bleat about how fantastic it is and how only people with impeccable taste would understand the appeal.

ProfessorPeach

616 posts

187 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
The crappiness of the website would make me think twice about shelling out £164K for one.

Which I was this close to doing today.



But it's a charming, English sort of crappiness, isn't it.

matchmaker

8,795 posts

216 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
OnTheOverrun said:
Mars said:
A real oddity. On one hand it looks as though the company hasn't opened its doors to look outside in 35+ years, and yet there's the Fighter which is very much a modern-looking car with 1015bhp.
  • EFA biggrin
Just looked at their website. As well as 1015bhp, the Fighter T has 1036 lbf of torque yikes

PeteG

4,278 posts

227 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
Seez said:
What are the rear lights from...

Cavalier?
Senator.

v1paul

723 posts

192 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
I cant quite work out where all that money goes. It hasn't got any advanced technology and it isn't actually that luxury. Maybe just top build quality

Seez

656 posts

196 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
PeteG said:
Seez said:
What are the rear lights from...

Cavalier?
Senator.
Ah, they looked so familar to me, it had Vauxhall all over it!

williamp

19,857 posts

289 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
Ah, yes time for a Bristol debate. We have had one yet this year

yes they still make them, and no they dont (and have never) released production figures. A recent interview with the Chairman, Toby Silverton in octane magazine was asked the very same thing and he didnt want the value of the cars to be dependant on the years- a sort of "...well in 1980 they only made x, so mine is rare..."

And if you visit their showroom, the tobacco pipes on the desk are a joke- people seem to think they should all have them, so they do have them on the desk and pretend every now and then.


ProfessorPeach

616 posts

187 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
v1paul said:
I cant quite work out where all that money goes. It hasn't got any advanced technology and it isn't actually that luxury. Maybe just top build quality
Doubtful, since handbuild usually = shonky build quality.

There's 8 blokes in brown overcoats banging one out a year, from a shed.

Each bloke is on £20K.

That leaves £4K for materials.

Hence £164K.

Seez

656 posts

196 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
ProfessorPeach said:
v1paul said:
I cant quite work out where all that money goes. It hasn't got any advanced technology and it isn't actually that luxury. Maybe just top build quality
Doubtful, since handbuild usually = shonky build quality.

There's 8 blokes in brown overcoats banging one out a year, from a shed.

Each bloke is on £20K.

That leaves £4K for materials.

Hence £164K.
LMAO

Seez

656 posts

196 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
From the website:

BRISTOL WEBSITE said:
The Fighter is one of the very few cars ever designed where aerodynamic efficiency has been placed ahead of all other considerations
Is that Tech speak for it looks st?


Twincam16

27,647 posts

274 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
I quite often see a bloke commuting in a new-ish Blenheim near Jodrell Bank. I do actually wonder whether it's Brian Cox,formerly of D:Ream, who works there. Really wouldn't surprise me as he's exactly the sort of bloke I imagine owning one.

As far as the grumbling goes, I think the Blenheim is a wonderful thing and worth every penny. It exists because there is a very small market for people who want to buy a brand-new example of the sort of car that disappeared en masse in the early '70s - the big, traditional V8-engined GT. I see it as the last of a breed that once included the Jensen Interceptor, Aston Martin DBS V8, Iso Rivolta and Facel-Vega Facel II. The fuel crisis killed most of them off, and when the GT burst back onto the scene, it had become a more lithe, motorsport-derived genre, far removed from what Bristol offered. Some people don't like this, but don't consider themselves sedate or ostentatious enough for a Rolls-Royce. They have a very loyal niche that isn't about to go avay and isn't confined entirely to the old establishment either (Noel Gallagher and Richard Branson have them, for example).

With the Fighter, Bristol also offer something in the modern supercar league. As a result, I see them as a more exclusive alternative to Bentley. The Fighter is their Continental GT Speed, the Blenheim is their Brooklands.

Only difference is, you'll never see a Blenheim in pearlescent white, with an unsightly bodykit, a diving-board rear wing and wheels big enough to fit a Boeing 747 (but with a condoms-worth of rubber stretched round them), and a footballer on his way to training behind the wheel, pumping some hip-hop out of tinted windows.

JB!

5,255 posts

196 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
my god thats ugly!!!!

Twincam16

27,647 posts

274 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
Seez said:
From the website:

BRISTOL WEBSITE said:
The Fighter is one of the very few cars ever designed where aerodynamic efficiency has been placed ahead of all other considerations
Is that Tech speak for it looks st?
Am I the only person who thinks it looks fantastic? The modernised bd-child of a Mercedes-Benz 300SL gullwing and the Bertone Alfa Romeo Canguro.

The Wookie

14,154 posts

244 months

Monday 1st February 2010
quotequote all
Seez said:
From the website:

BRISTOL WEBSITE said:
The Fighter is one of the very few cars ever designed where aerodynamic efficiency has been placed ahead of all other considerations
Is that Tech speak for it looks st?
No it's tech speak for 'we don't have a stylist or a wind tunnel so we got Bob from engineering to pen the shape and called it aerodynamic because he once designed a barge board for Minardi in 1992'

Anyway, I'm leaving this thread now before it starts looking like the last one