Bristol Cars was a British Manufacturer of hand-built luxury cars headquartered in Bristol, England.[1] It was formed from the car division of the Bristol Aeroplane Company after the Second World War and later became independent as Bristol Cars Limited. After being placed in receivership and being taken over in 2011, it entered liquidation in February 2020.
Bristol was always a low-volume manufacturer; the most recent published official production figures were for 1982, which stated that 104 cars were produced in that year.[2] The company also had only one sales showroom, on the corner of Kensington High Street and Holland Road in London.[1]
The company suspended manufacturing in March 2011, when administrators were appointed, 22 staff were made redundant at the factory in Filton, Bristol and subsequently the company was dissolved. In April 2011, a new company was formed by the administrator to sell the original assets to Kamkorp.[3] The new company was liquidated in 2020 in order to pay creditors.
The British aircraft industry suffered a dramatic loss of orders and great financial difficulties following the Armistice of 1918. To provide immediate employment for its considerable workforce, the Bristol Aeroplane Company undertook the manufacture of a light car (the single-seat Bristol Monocar, powered by a motorcycle engine)[4] and the construction of car bodies for Armstrong Siddeley, alongside bus bodies for their sister company, Bristol Tramways.
On the outbreak of World War II, Sir Stanley White, managing director of the Bristol Aeroplane Company from 1911 to 1954, was determined not to suffer the same difficulties a second time. The company now employed 70,000 and he knew he must plan for the time when the wartime demand for Bristol aircraft and aircraft engines would suddenly end. The company began working with AFN Ltd, manufacturers of Frazer Nash cars and British importer of BMWs before the war, on plans for a joint venture in automotive manufacture.[5]
As early as 1941, a number of papers were written or commissioned by Sir George White, Sir Stanley's son, proposing a post-war car manufacturing division. It was decided to purchase an existing manufacturer for this purpose. Alvis, Aston Martin, Lagonda, ERA and Lea-Francis were considered.[6]
Beginning
In May 1945, a chance discussion took place between D. A. Aldington, a director of Frazer Nash then serving as an inspector for the wartime Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP), and Eric Storey, an assistant of George White at the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It led to the immediate take-over of Frazer Nash by the aeroplane company.
Aldington and his two brothers had marketed the Frazer Nash BMW before the war, and proposed to build an updated version after demobilisation. This seemed the perfect match for the aeroplane company's own ambitions to manufacture a high quality sports car. With the support of the War Reparations Board, H. J. Aldington travelled to Munich and purchased the rights to manufacture three BMW models and the 328 engine.
By July 1945, BAC had created a car division and bought a controlling stake in AFN.[7] A factory was established at Filton Aerodrome, near Bristol.[8]
1952 Bristol 401The Bristol Britannia was produced from 1982 to 1993 and was replaced by the Blenheim.
George White and Reginald Verdon-Smith of the aeroplane company joined the new Frazer Nash Board, but in January 1947, soon after the first cars had been produced, differences between the Aldingtons and Bristol led to the resale of Frazer Nash. The Bristol car division became an independent entity.
The car division originally merged with Bristol Siddeley Engines, and was marked for closure, but was bought in September 1960 by George White, the chairman and effective founder. White retained the direction of the company, but sold a forty per cent shareholding to Tony Crook, a leading Bristol agent. Crook then became sole distributor.[9]
New ownership
In September 1969, only a month before the unveiling of the new Bristol 411 at the Earl's Court Motor Show, Sir George White (as he had become) suffered a serious accident in his Bristol 410. The car was only superficially damaged, but he suffered severe trauma.
As time passed it became clear that he would never regain his health sufficiently to return to full-time work. To safeguard the future of his workforce, he decided in 1973 to sell his majority shareholding to Crook. As the ties with the White family were severed, British Aerospace requested the company to move its factory from Filton Aerodrome and it found new premises in nearby Patchway. The showroom on Kensington High Street became the head office, with Crook shuttling between the two in Bristol's light aircraft.
Under Crook's direction the company produced at least six types, the names of which were largely borrowed from Bristol's aeronautical past: the Beaufighter, Blenheim, Britannia and Brigand.
End of the second era
In February 1997, Crook, then aged 77, sold a fifty per cent holding in Bristol Cars to Toby Silverton, with an option to take full control within four years. Silverton, then son-in-law of Joe Lewis of the Tavistock Group and son of Arthur Silverton of Overfinch, joined the board with his father.
Crook and Toby Silverton produced the Speedster, Bullet, Blenheim and 411 Series 6, though 2002 saw the transfer of Bristol Cars fully into the ownership of Silverton and the Tavistock Group, with Silverton in the chair and Crook remaining as managing director. Together they developed a V10 engined two-seater named after the first Sir George White's First World War two-seater aircraft, the Bristol Fighter. Crook finally relinquished his connection with Bristol Cars in August 2007.
Kamkorp era (2011–2020)
On 3 March 2011 it was announced that Bristol Cars had gone into administration, with the loss of 22 jobs when the factory at Filton, Bristol was shut down.[10] On 21 April 2011 another new company was formed to sell the assets of the former dissolved company; that company was purchased by Kamkorp, which also owned Frazer-Nash Research, a technology manufacturer of electric power systems. During this era, the company focused on restoring and selling all models of the marque while a new model was being developed.[11]
In 2015 Bristol Cars announced the development of a new model codenamed "Project Pinnacle". Initial reports indicated it would be a petrol-electric hybrid with a petrol engine from BMW.[12] However a later media report and a May 2015 press release, indicated that the car would have non-hybrid V8 power.[13][14] The car, a two-seater roadster, made its first public appearance, slightly camouflaged, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in June 2016. In July, the car was shown undisguised, technical details were announced, and its name given as the Bristol Bullet. However, subsequently there was no further news about the car's homologation, and many members of the sales and marketing team soon left the company. [when?] The Bullet was said to be powered by a normally aspirated 370bhp (280kW; 380PS) 4.8-litre BMW N62 V8 engine (sharing the same drivetrain and chassis as the most recent Morgan Aero 8) driving the rear wheels, had a body of carbon fibre, weighed 1130kg, and would cost £95,000. The planned production run was said to be limited to 70 cars to commemorate the marque's 70th anniversary.
On 5 March 2020 it was reported that Bristol cars had been officially wound up in order to pay creditors, with court-ordered liquidation under way.[15][16] The Bristol Owners Club working together with the Bristol Owners and Drivers Association and the Bristol Owners Heritage Trust is reported to be actively engaged in order to preserve the heritage and associated spares for the marque.[17]
Post liquidation (since 2021)
In 2021, intellectual property rights to Bristol Cars were registered by Bristol Fighter Limited, a subsidiary of Bristol Manufacturing Limited, owned by Essex based investor and property developer Jason Wharton, with revocation of 297 defunct trademarks. Wharton plans to transform the company into a "leading British electric vehicle company" by 2026, the brand's 80th anniversary. The new Bristol Cars would firstly launch "remastered" versions of historic cars with modernised mechanicals on a built to order basis. It was also reported that the new company will subsequently revive the Buccaneer nameplate for an all new electric vehicle.[18] Shortly after this announcement, however, controversy erupted between Wharton and Bristol's insolvency practitioner Frost Group. The practitioner stated that Wharton had in fact not purchased any intellectual property rights, but had merely purchased certain tooling and spares at the auction of the company's assets.[19] This left the Future of Bristol Cars highly uncertain.
Pre-war BMW designs, Aldington brothers and early cars
HJ Aldington, a director of the Bristol Aeroplane Company affiliated AFN (BMW's pre-war concessionaire in the UK), used his British Army connections to visit the bombed BMW factory in Munich several times post-war. In 1945 he took plans for BMW cars back to Britain,[7] and BMW chief engineer, Dr. Fritz Fiedler was also employed. Its first car was the Bristol 400, prototyped in 1946 and introduced at the 1947 Geneva Motor Show. Derived from immediately pre-WW2 BMW products (thanks to a connection to BMW through Frazer Nash), the chassis was based on the BMW 326, the engine on the 328,[20] and the body on the 327. Even a variation on the famous double-kidney BMW grille was retained. Bristol, however, did a thorough examination of the car's handling and ended up with performance "only matched by outright purpose-built competition cars".[21] Seven hundred of the Bristol 400 were built, 17 of which received "handsome" drophead bodywork from Pininfarina.[5]
In 1949, the 400 was joined by the five-place 401. Bodied by Touring, it was aerodynamically sleeker, accelerated better, and had higher top speed. It was joined by the drophead 402, of which just 24 examples were built.[8]
The 403 followed in 1953,[8] which featured improved brakes, gearbox, dampers, heater, and engine (a detuned racing motor, in fact).[8] Bristol would use this same engine in the 450, entered at Le Mans in 1953; it broke its experimental crankshaft, but despite being less than aerodynamically ideal proved fully five seconds a lap quicker than the competition.[22] Bristol withdrew from racing two years later.[23]
Along with the 403 was the 404, on a shorter wheelbase, with a more powerful engine and styling reminiscent of the 450. The 404 introduced a concealed front wing-mounted spare wheel and battery. It was built to extremely exacting standards, and the price reflected it; this, plus newly introduced "punitive taxation", meant only 40 were produced.[23]
Bristol's traditional wing-mounted spare wheel on a Bristol 410
The 405, which entered production in 1954, was much more successful, not least for being Bristol's only four-door. It remained in production until 1958, with 297 saloons and 43 drophead coupés produced in all.[23]
Bristol debuted the 406 in 1958, and it remained in production until 1961.
It was followed in 1963 by the 408, with drastic restyling as well as improved suspension. This was succeeded by the 409. Many buyers preferred the crisp steering and gearbox of the earlier six-cylinder cars.[24]
The 410, introduced in 1966, was a return to the high-performance touring tradition, offering the same top speed as the 409, and superior acceleration, with the same powerplant. It also saw Bristol become a private company and marked a return to quality to the exclusion of output: no more than three cars a week were to be made.[24]
In 1969, the Bristol 411 appeared, with a new 6.2-litre Chrysler V8 (still rebuilt and modified by Bristol, as before) delivering higher top speed and even better acceleration.[24]
Until 1961 all Bristol cars used Bristol-built derivatives of the BMW M328 2-litre six-cylinder engine. These engines also powered a number of sports and racing cars, including all post-war Frazer Nashes (apart from a few prototypes), some ACs, some Lotus and Cooper racing cars, and several others.
In 1961, with the launch of the Bristol 407, the company switched to larger Chrysler V8 engines, which were more powerful than Bristol's own, BMW derived 2.25-litre 6 cylinder engine. The Chrysler V8s could be bought off the shelf from Canadian Chrysler without the startup costs of Bristol's own 3.65-litre all alloy 6 then in development. All post-1961 Bristols, including the later Blenheim and Fighter models, used Chrysler engines.
The Bristol Aeroplane Company, originally the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, was both one of the first and one of the most important British aviation companies, designing and manufacturing both airframes and aircraft engines. Notable aircraft produced by the company include the 'Boxkite', the Bristol Fighter, the Bulldog, the Blenheim, the Beaufighter, and the Britannia, and much of the preliminary work which led to Concorde was carried out by the company. In 1956 its major operations were split into Bristol Aircraft and Bristol Aero Engines. In 1959, Bristol Aircraft merged with several major British aircraft companies to form the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) and Bristol Aero Engines merged with Armstrong Siddeley to form Bristol Siddeley.
The BMW 328 was a sports car offered by BMW from 1936 to 1940, with the body design credited to Peter Szymanowski, who became BMW chief of design after World War II.
The Kamkorp Group was a privately held holding company, encompassing a wide range of businesses but operates mainly as Frazer-Nash Research Ltd. It was owned by UK-based Indian businessman Kamal Siddiqi. Over the past 25 years, the Kamkorp Group has developed proprietary digital electric and hybrid electric powertrains and products for the transportation and industrial markets. The company has produced various automobile prototypes under the brands Frazer-Nash and Metrocab. Until 2020 it owned Bristol Cars, under which brand the Bristol Bullet sports car was being developed. The Bullet was unveiled on 26 July 2016 and production was to have started in 2017.
Armstrong Siddeley was a British engineering group that operated during the first half of the 20th century. It was formed in 1919 and is best known for the production of luxury vehicles and aircraft engines.
Sunbeam Motor Car Company Limited was a British automobile manufacturer in operation between 1905 and 1934. Its works were at Moorfields in Blakenhall, a suburb of Wolverhampton in Staffordshire, now West Midlands. The Sunbeam name had originally been registered by John Marston in 1888 for his bicycle manufacturing business. Sunbeam motor car manufacture began in 1901. The motor business was sold to a newly incorporated Sunbeam Motor Car Company Limited in 1905 to separate it from Marston's pedal bicycle business; Sunbeam motorcycles were not made until 1912.
Frazer Nash was a brand of British sports car manufactured from 1922 first by Frazer Nash Limited founded by engineer Archibald Frazer-Nash. On its financial collapse in 1927 a new company, AFN Limited, was incorporated. Control of AFN passed to Harold John Aldington in 1929.
Fritz Fiedler, was an automotive engineer. His projects included the BMW 328 sports car, the ex-BMW Bristol straight-six engine, and the BMW New Class sedan.
Filton Airport or Filton Aerodrome was a private airport in Filton and Patchway, within South Gloucestershire, 4 NM north of Bristol, England.
The Bristol Type 603 is a car that was launched in 1976 by British manufacturer Bristol Cars to replace the 411. With the 603 – introduced along with the Zagato-built 412 – the Bristol car underwent its first major facelift since the introduction of the 406 in the late 1950s. The design was to last until the marque's demise in 2011. Bristol's chief designer Dudley Hobbs strived to make the car more spacious and aerodynamic, while also using flatter body panels that would be easier to hammer.
The Bristol Type 143 was a British twin-engine monoplane aircraft designed by Frank Barnwell of the Bristol Aeroplane Company.
The Bristol 400 is a luxury car produced by the Bristol Aeroplane Company of Great Britain, its first. After World War II in 1947, BAC decided to diversify and formed a car division, which would later be the Bristol Cars company in its own right. BAC inspected the former BMW car factory in what was now a Soviet-controlled East German factory, and returned to Britain with plans for the 327 model and the six-cylinder engine as official war reparations. Bristol then employed BMW engineer Fritz Fiedler to lead their engine development team. In 1947, the newly formed Bristol Cars released their 400 coupé, a lengthened version of the BMW 327. that featured BMW's double-kidney grille. BAC had also acquired Frazer Nash who had held a licence to build BMW models pre war.
Bristol is a city in south west England. Its economy has long connections with the sea and its ports. In the 20th century aeronautics played an important role in the economy, and the city still plays a role in the manufacture of aircraft. Bristol is also a tourist destination, and has significant media, information technology and financial services sectors. Reports released in 2018 showed that the city is growing exponentially with a projected 2.3 percent annual growth rate until 2020.
The Bristol 404 and Bristol 405 are British luxury cars which were manufactured by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. The 404 was manufactured from 1953 to 1958, and the 405 from 1955 to 1958. The models were successors to the Bristol 403. The 404 was a two-seat coupé and the 405 was available as a four-seat, four-door saloon and as a four-seat, two-door drophead coupé.
The Bristol 406 was a luxury car produced between 1958 and 1961 by British manufacturer Bristol Aeroplane Co. Their cars were constructed to very high engineering standards and were intended to be long-lasting to justify their very high price. Buyers might arrange considerable changes to the specification of their own particular vehicle. Bristol Aeroplane's car division later became Bristol Cars.
The Bristol 407 was a sports tourer car produced by British manufacturer Bristol Cars between 1961 and 1963. It was the first Bristol model to be made by the company after separation from the Bristol Aeroplane Company, which had built all previous Bristol models. Outwardly it resembled the 406, on which it was based, and which had been produced between 1958 and 1961.
The Bristol 410 was the fourth series of Chrysler V8-engined models from British manufacturer Bristol Cars. It was the last Bristol to use the 5.2-litre (318 cubic-inch) engine originally found in the Bristol 407.
The Bristol 411 is an automobile which was built by the British manufacturer Bristol Cars from 1969 to 1976. It was the fifth series of Chrysler-V8 engined Bristol models. The car was rated highly for its comfort, performance and handling by contemporary reviewers.
The Bristol 412 is a car which was produced by British manufacturer Bristol Cars from 1975 to 1986. Variants were produced as the Bristol Beaufighter, from 1980 to 1993, and as the Bristol Beaufort, from 1984 to 1994.
The BMW OHV V8 is an overhead valve V8 petrol engine produced from 1954 to 1965. It is BMW's first V8 engine, and BMW did not produce another V8 automobile engine until the BMW M60 in 1992.
The Bristol Bullet is a two-seat, open-top sports car produced by Bristol Cars. Originally announced under the working title of "Project Pinnacle" in 2015, it was first shown to the public under camouflage at the 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed. The Bullet commemorates Bristol's 70th anniversary, and is the company's first all-new car since the Bristol Fighter, which was produced between 2004 and 2011, as well as the first Bristol car to utilize a carbon fibre body and a Morgan Plus 8 chassis. Power is sourced from a naturally aspirated 4.8-litre BMW V8 producing 400 bhp, but will be the last Bristol to do so before switching to forced induction engines. The retro design was a homage of the Bristol 405 Drophead coupé.
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