Thought I saw a mk2 Escort the other day but it could have been a Bristol.
Plenty of exclusive cars to be had for 250k.
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Whilst I'm sure I'd rather have a Bristol, I can't believe one would be cheaper to maintain than a Mondeo.
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Old classic bangers, not new mass-produced ones.
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I am sorry Lud - when you said old bangers mentioned I hastily assumed you meant the Senator and Mondeo.
I'll....just get my coat now.
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The appeal is exclusivity - when did you last see one on the road ?
As it says on their website "Nicely Understated - Never Underrated"
There are quite a few Bristol cars around my area and I have been waiting at the lights outside THE showroom many times looking at the display models but I have yet to see the "flies on your teeth" Speedster on the road. I wonder if they have sold ANY?
www.bristolcars.co.uk/BlenheimSpeedster.htm
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I appreciate they are a matter of taste, but they really do not inspire me as being worth the huge asking price. You could have one of the re-built e-types that were featured on Top Gear a while back for a lot less and surely that is equally as exclusive as a Brisol, with all the benfits of a modern car (reliability wise).
Do people have any other suggestions for alternative, equally exclusive automobiles? I think i would rather have a Spyker or a Koenigsegg, or for the more refined business traveller, how about a Rolls Royce Phantom (also an aquired taste i realise!)
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They are simply very expensive and exclusive (with good reason) ugly kit cars. No taste or style, poor detailing and poor construction (to judge from the photos on the website). No way I'd have one. A friend of a friend had one in the late 1970s, but that was a 1960s model a looked the business, but as said above, I'd rather have a reconditioned E-type.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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Not kit cars I think. Big oldfashioned shutlines grate on the modern eye, but I doubt if actual construction is much short of superb. And although new prices are eyewatering, Bristol sell properly checked and warranted used examples as well as offering comprehensive servicing, modification and restoration. They're coy about used prices on their website though. Very expensive cars usually depreciate quite rapidly at the start, but Bristols are so rare that it may be different with them. 'No taste or style'? A bit managing directorish perhaps, but taste and style in a £140K motor might normally be a bit apparent from say 600 yards. Not with a Bristol though. As I said, I imagine owners like this.
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I've long wondered what the appeal of the current Bristol cars can be. I agree with the above poster who sees something of the Mark 2 Ford Escort in its 'styling'.
What the Bristol Blenheim needs is a thorough makeover - new body in other words, possibly keeping the same chassis which is possibly what defines the Bristol car - long bonnet, short front overhang, spare wheel behind flap in front wing - big American V8, auto gearbox and live rear axle.
Rolls-Royce might have stopped making the Silver Cloud in 1965 but Bristol still makes a car that is mechanically very similar!
Now, where's my sketchbook - makeover time!
cheers, Sofa Spud
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I've never understood the appeal of these old relics. Can someone help me?
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I always like dthe looks of them and and kept an Autocar ? article on 407/408 owners ' views.
Would I like to drive one? No way around town. Too big.
Grand touring? Yes. But I don't do that.
Aluminium body but the steel parts rust and I believe the lsd does go on some and is HIDEOUSLY expensive. \Suspensions wear with the weight. I would imagine speedhumps would be nightmare.
Deep pockets job.
Great for occasional use.
When I win the lottery/Premium bonds etc..
I believe some Rolling Stone owns one..
madf
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I've never understood the appeal of these old relics. Can someone help me?
No, the appeal's lost on me too.
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Ditto. While we're at it - Morgan? No ta.
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let me be the last to let you down....
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You might have seen these driving impressions on the Blenheim; says it all really.
tinyurl.com/8rha5
They are very old technology and high maintenance.
A few years ago I rang Bristol about used cars. I was asked what my budget was - I'm always suspicious when there's no transparency on used car prices. I get the impression though that they set their used prices to be on a par with Bentleys of the same age.
I think I would rather have a used A8.
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Who on earth is responsible for "styling" Bristols? Probably someone on the payroll of Aston Martin or Bentley, to deliberately "hobble" the competition!
Do they deliberately make them look awful to guarantee the exclusivity?
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Bristol Owners Club site is very good.
boc.net/index.html
madf
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Flying Red's website review is a waspish piece by an American who clearly resented the telephone style of Bristol Cars (perhaps with good reason) and who then got hold of a rough example with a disgruntled owner somewhere in northern England. Certainly the review is damning, although it would be possible to trash the internal aesthetics of any car at all by choosing the right words (indeed I have heard it said by some that all cars are ugly).
For what it's worth - I have never owned a Bristol - my impression is that owners like the relative simplicity of Bristol mechanicals, which makes them long-lasting and dependable. I imagine most people who could afford it would like to drive refined, long-legged, quiet, large-engined cars. The worst thing about driving these is that they make passers-by think you are rich.
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>>Who on earth is responsible for "styling" Bristols? Probably someone on the payroll of Aston Martin or Bentley, to deliberately "hobble" the competition!
I think the car is the result of facelift after facelift over the decades - so every panel is different by now - the original Bristol of this type was quite nice looking (406 model of 1958, followed by 407 update in 1961 with Chrysler V8 in place of Bristol's own 6-cylinder engine.) One wonders if Peugeot challenged Bristol using these three digit mumbers with zeros in the middle as they have claimed the rights to such numbers for years!
Earlier Bristol cars looked quite good, and were technically interesting. Origins go back to pre-war BMW's, with the 1950's being the glory days when Bristol was a proper car maker which made the whole car including the engine - also supplied engines to other makers like AC and Frazer-Nash. Bristol also made sports-racing cars and entered LeMans.
Cheers, SS
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The website Flying Red mentions also features a good review of the VW Jetta 1.9TDi we're shortly getting over here.
Keeping on thread, celebrity Bristol owners : designer Paul Smith and one of the Gallaher brothers (Oasis)
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LJK Setright liked them, V8s as well as the far more beautiful 2 litres. He claimed some surprising cross-country speeds in them too, although these claims are often made. But Setright if not everyone's cup of tea was a serious connoisseur and enthusiast. I say this without prejudice as he once turned me down for a job before he became a car hack.
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The fact that LJK raved about Bristols, is clear evidence that he spouted, for the most part, rubbish.
LJKSetripe.
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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The fact that LJK raved about Bristols, is clear evidence that he spouted, for the most part, rubbish. LJKSetripe. ------------------------------
< Ex RF >
Come,come, TVM. We all have our pet hates but be fair. The man was knowledgeable and enthusiastic, enjoyed describing complex processes and mechanisms which he did well, and liked Citroens as well as Bristols. I agree though that his prose style could become a bit overheated and he had some annoying mannerisms (calling Lotuses 'Loti' for example).
Most of this thread is about Bristols being ugly. Few contributors have made a clear distinction between the two-litre cars and the later V8s. The 400, 401 and 403 were beautiful by any automotive standard and went extremely well for their day. Lasted too if looked after.
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Bono of U2 is supposed to have one. Perhaps he a needs a prescription in his sunglasses ! One of the Galagher brother's cannot drive.I wonder if it is this one that owns a Bristol,that would make sense.
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Bono of U2 is supposed to have one. Perhaps he a needs a prescription in his sunglasses !
In his defence, he does have a Maserati Quattroporte too. Yum!
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The website is a bit er....basic. Wouldn't buy one without trying one out for a while, it would need to be pretty special.
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Re: LJK Setright. He wrote the book "Bristol Cars and Engines", (Motor Racing Publications Ltd., Croydon
1974, 160pp, hardbound)- a definitive work on the subject. Probably quite a valuable book now if you can find one - none on Ebay at present.
Cheers, SS
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Here is the car the Bleinheim is descended from - looked good then 1960-ish.
www.arnolt.com/images/fullsize/407/407_front_qtr.j...g
Cheers, SS
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But would you want to be in the same owners' club as Bono and a Gallagher??
Phil
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"But would you want to be in the same owners' club as Bono and a Gallagher??"
If they were paying for the drinks.. definite yes:-)
madf
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But would you want to be in the same owners' club as Bono and a Gallagher?? Phil
Like a shot, it'd be a hoot!
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But would you want to be in the same owners' club as Bono and a Gallagher?? Phil
Not especially, but why not? Other Bristol owners may have got their money in even more reprehensible ways.
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Other Bristol owners may have got their money in even more reprehensible ways.
Like BMW owners being drug dealers?
Still not sure which owner is worse, it's too close to call....
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>> Like BMW owners being drug dealers?
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>>
What, all of them?
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This is the book you need! www.palawan.co.uk/Bristol.htm
Ponceville, I agree completely, at 300 quid unless they throw in a Bristol it's completely idiotic. Still I bet Setright just closed his eyes and did it for the money. A thing like that might be distasteful but irresistible.
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>> Like BMW owners being drug dealers? What, all of them?
Some of them may only be wannabe drug dealers ;)
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Some of them may only be wannabe drug dealers ;)
Like X3 drivers? would love to be big time dealers and have an X5?
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The 200 mph Bristol Fighter shows that Bristol can make an imaginitive car, even if it has a Dodge Viper engine. These days ultra high-performance road cars might be just as pointless as chavved up Corsas but they are interesting and impressive nonetheless.
Cheers, Sofa Spud
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Right SS, not a practical device really, people would notice. Bristol say, and it looks it, that the thing isn't unwieldy and doesn't have huge wings to make it that capable. What's it like though, we would love to know? So far as the bought-in V10 is concerned, Bristol have been rebuilding Chrysler V8s for years. But look, to a normal citizen this is all just what'll-she-do-mister fantasy land. Even if you could afford it you'd more than hesitate. But I have to say I would really, really like to know what the thing's like. Not sensible, but seductive somehow because far smaller and more invisible than anything else of the sort.
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