RE: Bristol Cars Saved By Frazer-Nash

RE: Bristol Cars Saved By Frazer-Nash

Thursday 21st April 2011

Bristol Cars Saved By Frazer-Nash

Moribund marque is brought out of administration by new owners



Bristol Cars has been bought out by the Swiss company Kamkorp Autokraft, part of the Frazer-Nash group.

Bristol, which had to make 22 of its 27 staff redundant when it went into administration in March, will be revived to help showcase for its new owner's eco-friendly technology - Frazer-Nash showed an electric sports car concept back in 2009 called the Namir.

"Over the next few months we will start to reveal the details of our plans to combine Bristol Cars' tradition and iconic marque with Frazer-Nash's pioneering technology to showcase our cutting-edge electric and range-extended powertrains," said William Chia, the group's director of operations.

But present Bristol owners needn't worry that they've been forgotten, says Chia: "Owners and enthusiasts of the cars should be assured that, even though these are early days in our tenure of the brand, we are committed to providing them and their cars with the highest levels of quality, technology and service."

Author
Discussion

Ray Luxury-Yacht

Original Poster:

8,910 posts

216 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
I hope this isn't a 'Swiss Smolenski'...

king arthur

6,556 posts

261 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
Interesting, given the connection with Frazer-Nash in the birth of the company in the first place.

vixen1700

22,864 posts

270 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
Got to be 25 pages at least for another Bristol thread. hehe

dlc74

37 posts

175 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
Good for Bristol... hope the guys get their jobs back.

Digga

40,300 posts

283 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
Ray Luxury-Yacht said:
I hope this isn't a 'Swiss Smolenski'...
Quite.

Another bit of British motoring heritage slips into foreign ownership. Not to sound ungrateful - I'm glad it's not gone altogether - but ther is something inevetable and also very disturbing about the way we do not seem capable of financing our domestic manufacturing industry.

Twincam16

27,646 posts

258 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
I hope this is good news.

I tell you what'd be great - Bristol is kept on as the big, quirky four-seater GT and Fighter supercar manufacturer (I'd love a redesign of the Blenheim though, to make it a kind-of latter-day version of the much-missed Aston Martin Virage Vantage, with a Viper V10), and for volume sales to bulk things out a bit, they release a small, affordable sports car capable of doing a track day under the Frazer-Nash name as a modern incarnation of this:


Ean218

1,963 posts

250 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
king arthur said:
Interesting, given the connection with Frazer-Nash in the birth of the company in the first place.
Interesting spin being put on this whole thing.

Frazer-Nash Research is actually part of the Kamkorp group, rather than the other way round, and they are based in Singapore!

Twincam16

27,646 posts

258 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
Digga said:
Ray Luxury-Yacht said:
I hope this isn't a 'Swiss Smolenski'...
Quite.

Another bit of British motoring heritage slips into foreign ownership. Not to sound ungrateful - I'm glad it's not gone altogether - but ther is something inevetable and also very disturbing about the way we do not seem capable of financing our domestic manufacturing industry.
Actually, here's a thought.

Frazer-Nash became Frazer-Nash-BMW due to their role in importing the cars into Britain.

The first Bristol cars used engines straight from the Frazer-Nash-BMW 328, taken in part as reparations, for their power.

It could be said that they've come home.

StormLoaded

889 posts

179 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
good to see Bristol Cars being saved.

never really been my cup of tea although some of the models in the 50s certainly have something about em.
my gf's granddad used to be a test driver for them after the war until he retired and would spend his days blasting up and down filton runway in between planes coming and going!

whilst he wanted to be a pilot, many pilots seemingly wanted his job biggrin

vixen1700

22,864 posts

270 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
Best of luck to them, just hope they modernise somwhat the way Morgan did and get away from the Blenheim.

Although keep producing 411 Series 6s in very small numbers for when I win the lottery. smile

FourWheelDrift

88,494 posts

284 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
More likely something like this, the 2009 Frazer-Nash Namir ItalDesign concept.



800cc and electric hybrid power.

M666 EVO

1,124 posts

162 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
dlc74 said:
Good for Bristol... hope the guys get their jobs back.
Here Here...

CocoUK

952 posts

182 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
FourWheelDrift said:
More likely something like this, the 2009 Frazer-Nash Namir ItalDesign concept.

800cc and electric hybrid power.
I was just having a butchers at the Frazer-Nash website to see the sort of eco-tech they work with. The stats appear well:

"The FN Namir is the fastest range extended electric car in the world with a top speed of over 187 mph (300kph) and acceleration from 0 to 100kph (62mph) in 3.5 seconds.
Frazer]Nash Energy Systems provide both the Battery Management System and Charger."



Dalto123

3,198 posts

163 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
I'm not sure whether to be happy or sad at this news. yes it's nice to see a vintage British car manufacturer being saved but on the other hand their cars were on the whole very expensive and ugly and personally for people who had more money than taste. That's a bit stongly opinionated isn't it??? tongue out

SlimRick

2,258 posts

165 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
FourWheelDrift said:
More likely something like this, the 2009 Frazer-Nash Namir ItalDesign concept.



800cc and electric hybrid power.
Looks like it has a receding hairling!

jpf

1,311 posts

276 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
Rots of ruck to em.

Now you guys go and buy their cars instead of big Mercs, etc. and they won't have to be saved again. It is all your fault. It is your fault TVR isn't around, it is your fault Marcos went POOF, it is your fault that Invicta isn't on the front page of Autocar and VEMAC hasn't sold in the UK. All your fault!

Kidding of course!

oilit

2,623 posts

178 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
the proof as they say is in the pudding - afterall, look at all the fraser nash cars you see on the road .................

I suspect they will cease manufacturing the cars, - if you read the press release carefully it does make a lot about existing customers quality care and service...

Afterall from what I have read the service part of the business was profitable.

Regardless, good luck to the 'remaining 4' staff

chazwozza

729 posts

186 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
oilit said:
the proof as they say is in the pudding - afterall, look at all the fraser nash cars you see on the road .................

I suspect they will cease manufacturing the cars, - if you read the press release carefully it does make a lot about existing customers quality care and service...

Afterall from what I have read the service part of the business was profitable.

Regardless, good luck to the 'remaining 4' staff
5 staff....

Prince Jefri

1,971 posts

169 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
M666 EVO said:
Here Here...
It would be good but I doubt it will happen.

I doubt Bristol Cars will be back as we knew them. Why would you buy a company that went out of business due to lack of demand and start to build the same thing again! I guess a lot of the employees were specific to the building techniques of Bristol....I'll be happy to be proved wrong!

nightSpirit

1,057 posts

168 months

Thursday 21st April 2011
quotequote all
FourWheelDrift said:
More likely something like this, the 2009 Frazer-Nash Namir ItalDesign concept.



800cc and electric hybrid power.
If Butch Patrick was a car...