The British automotive industry has lost another icon in Bristol Cars, which has officially gone into liquidation following a long period of financial struggles and several key resignations. The 75-year-old car firm appeared to have bounced back from administration in 2016 with its Goodwood Festival of Speed debutant, the BMW V8-powered Bullet - but progress ground to a halt and the fate once predicted by former owner Tony Crook has finally been sealed. Company assets are being sold off as we speak.
The past few years were a stark contrast to Bristol’s heyday, when the company was producing gorgeous, plush and high-powered models like the 405 Drop Head Coupe and 407 Zagato. The firm’s last gasp of greatness arguably came with the Fighter in 2004, an 8.0-litre V10-powered coupe that was re-engineered by Bristol to produce 670hp at high speed, when the ram-air effect upped its output. It was a pretty epic thing, and could have been much more so, with a stillborn turbo version having been tuned to 1,026hp.
Almost as famous as the brand itself is former owner, Crook, who ensured the firm's survival following the split from the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1960. The late and oft outspoken Crook predicted its demise when his control was reduced through the noughties (he relinquished all power at retirement in 2007) - although operations continued via the company’s servicing arm. It genuinely looked to be picking up pace again with the Bullet, which received a positive response at Goodwood. The brand’s London headquarters still stood proudly on Kensington High Street.
But now the liquidators, Frost and Wadsted, have moved in, stating rather bluntly that the company had “failed to deliver in a changing world”. Perhaps the cost of taking the Bullet from project to production was higher than expected; BMW’s decision to cull the atmospheric V8 can’t have helped. Or perhaps a small brand relying so closely on partnerships was always doomed to fail in an automotive landscape this unpredictable. We might never know for sure. One thing’s for certain, nobody – not even the man himself – would have wanted Crook’s predictions to become a reality.
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