'You remember the chap was well dressed, but you could not remember the details'. Also, because the details belongs to the owner in quiet privacy, I might add. How could one better define change. Beautiful, thank you.
@@watsisbuttndo829 Remember reading his column in Car magazine back in the late 80's, couldn't make head nor tails of it, alas, I was only 8yrs of age. Quite a character...
Funny to see the production team all wearing ties. My Dad was in a coach building company in Switzerland during the Fifties. Pictures show that the entire team was wearing their ties. Nowadays it is hard to imagine a guy hammering and welding on a car with a tie on. That shows how proud and committed those workers were. An how much higher the quality of the exclusive cars was back in the day. I like the classy British cars of the old days. But I must admit I come from a family who drove mainly Italian cars: Alfa Romeos, Maseratis and such. In my region they had 4 different coach building companies. All of their former locacions can be reached in less than 20 minutes. A lot of the cars they built their bodies for were British: Alvis, AC, Bristols, Jaguars and more.
A beautiful car, quintessentially British, built for people with deep pockets and a stiff upper lip. Their craving for perfection finally lead them to the liquidation in May of this year.
harry eisermann Or just the opposite. Brexit could induce the incentive to build another of these genuine British cars, or motorbikes, or whatever vehicle fantasy can think of. Do not despair, every cloud has a silver lining!
A small anecdote...a number of years ago, probably early 2000s, a local friend visited me at home in Surrey with his brother. His brother was a noted collector and the car they arrived in was SMT 259, one of only two Farina bodied Bristol 400 cabriolets...certainly one of the most desirable Bristols ever made. Unfortunately the car wouldn’t restart...I think they flooded it..remember that?...but it is a beautiful car. A bit of simple searching reveals that it came up for auction in 2016 at Sotheby’s in Monaco, but fell way short of the pre-auction estimate, only achieving €224,000. I think it remained with my friend’s brother at least for a time after that. Certainly the rarest and most desirable car I ever had on any driveway of mine.
Had a soft spot since as a titch in the 1950s I got a Dinky Toys model of a Bristol (might have been a 450) Coupé Le Mans racer in BRG with a white spot on each door with a black number 20, the Grand Prix Cooper Bristol was soon added. although I have many models in my collection, those two sadly went astray over the years though I found a beaten up coupé on eBay which sits in the cabinet. I obviously didn’t understand that their saloon cars owed virtually so much to a German (also initially an aero engine maker) manufacturer being so young, as far as I knew it was just wonderful thing. And, ah, the Kensington showroom, many were the times as an adult I’ve had my nose against the window lusting at the cars just as I had as a kiddie at a toy shop hankering after those Dinky Toys. Great to see LJKS waxing lyrical about his favourite marque too, it’s yet another tragedy and symptomatic of the modern age that these marvellous specialist motor manufacturers have been lost, if there had been any justice Bristol, AC, Jensen and all of the others should be thriving, Bristol in particular. Roll on Euro millions, I’d be looking for one of each model iteration!
The late Dave Martin of Martin Audio loved these; at his workshops in Stanhope St, London, were a couple of non-runners. He offered me the 403 he had for £400 - owing to it having a Buick V8 instead of the original engine - but I had to pass on it after much consideration. I regret not taking the chance now, that was a couple of week's wages back then.
I remember an article in Car in the early 80’s where LJK Setright in the photos was wearing his Cippah and Tzitzit proudly (ritual clothing of an observant Jew).
@@johncheston5862 Also a fine clarinet player, and founded a well known orchestra - not so well known that I can remember the name offhand! Anything written by L.J.K. Setright is worth reading. He had very strong views on road wheels and steering wheels - he liked neither. If you have in you book collections any of the Automobile Club of Italy "World Cars" Volumes (by year), the commentary on the British car industry is written by him, and are perfect examples of his writing (he hated being called a Journalist).
They missed out on the 603, from which the named cars were developed from? ..................................................................Did Mr Setright play guitar with ZZ Top?
Wish they had gone into the reasoning that led to the adoption of Chrysler V8 engine and automatic gearbox. It seems to me an excellent choice, smooth powerful and long lived, at a lower cost than the hand built engine and box it replaced. But it must have been a difficult decision at the time.
They had expanded the six as far as was possible within the tooling for it, going from 2 to 3.8 litres. The 400 series cars were big and they needed more power, or really more torque. They started with a 318 and progressed fairly quickly to the big block 383 and I think you could get a 440 in the later series.
@@oregongaper The Chrysler engines with the excellent Torqueflite auto box were about the best choice at the time for that kind of car. Smooth, powerful, long lived, reliable, and economical for such a large powerful car. They must have cost a small fraction of what the hand built six cost. The big drawback was the greater bulk and weight of the large displacement V8.
Very interesting vid - shame about the audio. My hearis quite bad, but even using hi quality headphones, I understand only small bits of the commentary - shame.
Jay Leno's car has a speedometer in KM/Hr and an odometer in KM. Jay did not address this quirk in his video, and I speculated that the car was bought by a European customer. Can anyone shed light on this?
You know the phrase, He drives like he owns the road". If he's in a Bristol, he probably DOES own the road. Bristols are for people who regard Rolls Royces as cars for the hoi polloi.
They look nice for sure, very British, very gentry, but the old Jaguars beat them when it comes to styling / design, as far as I'm concerned. Exclusivity alone is not a really strong argument. But no idea about the technical reliability of Bristol compared to Jaguar. Having said that, the Bristol Beaufighter "whispering death" plane was one of the coolest looking of the war. I loooove that design.
Looking back nostalgically, stuck in their ways, refusing to adapt, believing that the phrase 'handbuilt' is a good thing and ending in bankruptcy. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you British car manufacturing.
