Article Found by Accident from late 2007

[406Special]

Check this out:

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?im...%3Den%26sa%3DN

Clyde

[geo]

There is also a brief review of the Fighter on page 42 of this
weekend's Financial Times Magazine (23/24 August). Interesting blend
of the old Bristol mystique about the company with a [slightly] more
direct attempt to market the company.

George

[geo]

Sorry, the link is

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1d3e77d6-6...nclick_check=1

and the text:

Flight of fancy
By John Griffiths
Published: August 23 2008 01:27 | Last updated: August 23 2008 01:27

The factory is reached through a labyrinth of
nondescript streets in a corner of Filton, on the
outskirts of Bristol. A sign proclaiming "Bristol
Cars" stands alongside gates of solid,
blue-painted steel. Beyond them lies the
production site of a car maker that is without
doubt the industry's most mysterious.

I have no idea what goes on behind those gates;
nor, so far as I am aware, has any other
journalist. We have been barred from Bristol's
factory from the beginning.

On this occasion, however, one gate has been left
ajar. Peeking through, I can see two workshop
buildings, each maybe 100ft long, two-dozen
parked cars - everyday ones, presumably belonging
to employees - and a couple of truck trailers
with blue curtains hiding their wares. There is
an air of 1960s industrial Britain. The
architectural elan of the headquarters of other
"supercar" makers is entirely absent. Even the
public face of Bristol Cars is low-key: a small
showroom in London's West Kensington. The company
sells directly to customers; there are no dealers.

No, says Richard Hackett, Bristol's de facto
marketing chief, not even the FT can go inside
the sanctum. When pressed, he cites confidential
defence contracts linked to Bristol Cars' origins
as an offshoot of the Bristol Aeroplane Company.

I should perhaps count myself lucky that Bristol
has allowed me to drive one of its products at
all. Anthony Crook, who owned the company until
his retirement last year, refused journalists
test drives, and not much has changed since his
longtime associate, Toby Silverton, bought the
company from him. As far as I am aware, Steve
Cropley, the editor-in-chief of Autocar, is the
only other journalist to have driven the Fighter
- and only by borrowing one from a customer.

By the end of the test drive - shunning the M4
motorway and traversing instead such picturesque
towns and villages as Marlborough and quaint
Castle Combe along the old A4 trunk road - I find
the Fighter as enigmatic as the company. It is a
car (with a price that ranges from £234,984 to
£351,912 before options) in respect of which all
conventional yardsticks of value must be set
aside.
The details

A "supercar" like no other from Britain's most eccentric car company

How much: £295,395

How fast: Top speed 210mph (claimed), 0-60, 4 secs (estimated)

How thirsty: No data

How green: No CO2 data

Also consider: Bristol aficionados will consider nothing else

The Fighter was announced in 1999, with initial
deliveries scheduled for 2001. But not until 2003
did Bristol show even a rolling chassis. Since
then, Fighters have obviously been delivered to
customers, as Cropley's drive proved, but how
many is unclear. Bristol said it would build 20
Fighters a year. Surprisingly, given that FT
readers are more likely than most to be able to
afford one, the test Fighter is a 2005-registered
model with substantial mileage.

Some might pay out what is an almighty sum for
the Fighter's hand-crafted aluminium body alone.
That its curves and precision of fit are the work
of human hands, not computer-controlled
machinery, is something to marvel at. Only the
upward-opening gull-wing doors and the tailgate
are made of carbon fibre.

The Fighter's design is like that of no other
car. Its shape is unique, crafted to go very fast
but eschewing all the conventions of current
supercars. It is taller and narrower than rivals.
It bears some resemblance to a land-bound
aircraft, which is no accident: Silverton puts
great stress on Bristol's use of aerospace
principles to create its low-drag designs. The
claimed drag coefficient of 0.255 for the
highest-specified Fighter T model is
industry-leading.

The aerospace theme is echoed in the interior,
with some instruments mounted in the roof. There
is an extraordinary amount of room in the
"cockpit". You also cannot help but love the
clear glass section of the lower tailgate,
providing rearward visibility a tail gunner would
appreciate. The interior is beautifully trimmed
in Wilton and the leather bucket seats will take
their occupants across continents in comfort. The
tight turning circle would do credit to some
taxis.

And yet there is a feeling of the unfinished
about the Bristol. There is a delightful (but
£1,751 optional) engine-turned surface available
for the flat metal dashboard, centre console and
roof panel. But the panels are fastened by
visible Allen screws and the dashboard appears
covered with a lacquer that makes it seem
slightly aged. The electric seat adjusters are in
plain aluminium panels I could replicate in my
workshop. Control knobs are hand-turned from
aluminium, and look it. Maybe such an
idiosyncratic approach is treasured by Bristol
owners as part of the mystique, but it is well
removed from the luxurious opulence of the
similarly priced Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe or the
£137,500 Bentley Continental GT Speed.

The Bristol's ride, despite sophisticated double
wishbone suspension all round, still feels
under-developed.

Consider, also, the Chrysler-based drivetrains
and some may struggle to see such high value in
the car. But Bristol is in its 63rd year and
presumably has a loyal following.

Even the "standard" Fighter, with its 525bhp and
relatively lightweight 1,500kg, goes hard -
Bristol claims 210mph. The £295,395 Fighter "S",
with a claimed 628bhp, goes harder yet. Quite
what is to be made of the new twin-turbocharged,
£351,912 Fighter T, with a claimed 1,021bhp, must
await a serious test. Bristol claims a potential
top speed of over 270 miles per hour but to have
limited it to 225mph as being "more than
sufficient".

An appropriate response is, perhaps: "Prove it."

More columns at www.ft.com/testdrive

[RGSchmitt]

If you had trouble with the long, long, long URL:

http://tinyurl.com/4ry5ds

[Blenheim Boy]

I would like to introduce myself as a new member of the forum. I would like to extend my thanks to member 'geo' for sharing the FT article.

Personally speaking, I cannot help but huff and puff at John Griffiths comments on the Fighter feeling 'unfinished'. His review reminded me of Evo Magazine's lukewarm reception of the Fighter a few years ago.

Why does the correspondent feel compelled to comment negatively on Allen screws and aluminium knobs? The potential buyer can decide whether these are a pleasing sight or not. With regard to ride and handling; this is dictated by the owner's preference, is it not? That is one of the USPs of a Bristol, that is does not feel generic and can be tailored like no other car. I cannot understand why that was not made the focus of the review; surely if those who read the FT can afford a Fighter and many other of the finest things in life, they would relish ownership of such a personalised car?

And what purpose is there in comparing the Fighter to the Rolls-Royce Phantom and Bentley Continental GT, whether either be a saloon or coupe? The character of those machines is a complete contrast to that of the Bristol. The German cars are of a more generic nature; the Bentley was developed from a Volkswagen limousine for instance (hence the pricetag, about which the motoring journalists made great, positive fuss). If one does not like the ride quality of their Continental, I ask; what can the owner actually do about it? The Fighter owner only needs to make a phone call to the workshops with a request to retune the suspension.

I am a young man and I spent too many years absorbing the opinions of motoring journalists of the glossy car magazines, whose credentials were, I now retrospectively suspect, rather suspect!

[lansdownplace]

Good observation Blenheim Boy, I think you either get Bristol, or
you don't.

Sadly I don't own one, but I have been in a couple and one thing
that does stand out in the Fighter cockpit is the feel of the
criticised aluminium knobs, they are precision made, cool to the
touch, and have a lovely silky positive click to them that you get
with expensive HiFi units. I love them, my wife thinks they are
cooker knobs, which is why she is not allowed any say whatever in
the matter of potential car acquisition in our house. I did read
somewhere that the Fighter switches are £60 a pop and are from an
aircraft source.

Like all Bristols the Fighter has a huge number of tuneable
parameters and is built for the owner who is the only person whose
opinion actually matters. It is a fact that mass car production
nowadays is a very high precision, high build quality exercise where
very high production numbers allow manufactures to spend, for
example, £100k per door seal set design. however you end up with a
single flavour appliance in a nice jacket. When you buy a handbuilt
anything there is a trade off between exclusivity, development,
execution, performance and price. If you double the volume you can
double the development cost but you lose the exclusivity. You could
always follow the Bugatti business model and spend five million
pounds (yes that is correct!) per car and sell them for under a
million. Personally I think Bristol have the balance about right.

For my own more modest 412, Toby Silverton took me out in the the car
when the rebuild was complete and discussed the various suspension
setting options and their effects and then had all the changes done
and tested (while I waited). I suppose that is what building an
individual is about and why a handbuilt car cannot ever be compared
with a production car which is merely one amongst thousands.

Paul