408 Production Numbers

[Brian Moore]

Geoff thank you very much for your informative response.

I do not know the chassis number of the vehicle I saw. However, I do have the owner's phone number. He wasn't the most outgoing or even welcoming individual but I could call him and ask about the chassis number if you think it is a worthwhile thing to do.

What do you think, Jeff?

By the way, I used this car as the subject of my very first blog post. Here is the link if you would like to see some pictures:

CarNation

Thank again Geoff!

brian

[Geoff Dowdle]

Brian ,

The only 408 Mk2 known to the BOC is chassis 7203
In the late 90's it was advertised in Hemmings and last known owner was
Yevgeny Pshenichny .
Is he the current owner??

If it is not 7203 it would be good to find details of the car and owner to help complete the BOC Register

Thanks
Geoff

[Brian Moore]

Originally Posted by Geoff Dowdle

Brian ,

The only 408 Mk2 known to the BOC is chassis 7203
In the late 90's it was advertised in Hemmings and last known owner was
Yevgeny Pshenichny .
Is he the current owner??

If it is not 7203 it would be good to find details of the car and owner to help complete the BOC Register

Thanks
Geoff

Geoff the current owner's name is Bob, don't know his last name. I'll give him a call. He told me he is owner #3. He also said owner #1 was Phil Spector, the music producer. I'll see if I can get the chassis number. Thanks.

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted by Brian Moore

Geoff the current owner's name is Bob, don't know his last name.

I think I know who it is. Is the car in Oregon?

[Brian Moore]

Originally Posted by Kevin H

I think I know who it is. Is the car in Oregon?

No Kevin. It's in Southern California. (At least it was as of about a month ago.) The owner told me he bought it from a bloke here in Southern California also. And of course, there is the alleged link to Phil Spector. See here for some photos of the car:

CarNation: The Bristol 408

[GeorgeG]

Interestingly, the penultimate photo of the mystery 408 Mk 2 shown in Brian's CarNation post shows a floor-mounted auto gear shift lever, whereas the original Mk 2 had rectangular "piano key" selector buttons (changed from round buttons on the original 408), and these were subsequently also used in the 409. In the RHD versions the buttons are between the steering wheel and the driver's door (on the right hand side of the dash below the ignition key) so I assume that in the LHD version they would have been on the opposite side of the dash.

So it looks as though the restoration changed one of the quirky bits of the original. The floor-mounted auto gear shift lever was not adopted by Bristol until the 410.

I love threads like this, perhaps because I am in the middle of restoring my 408 Mk 2 - still in the destructive phase....

George

[Brian Moore]

Hi,...I received the following response from Bristol Cars this morning. (The intro "Further to your enquiry" suggests this message to be a follow-up but it is the only one I have received from them.):

_____________________
Good morning Mr Moore,

Further to your enquiry, we have checked our records and found there were only 16 408 Series 2’s built with only one on left hand drive. This vehicle is currently owned by Mr ________, California, USA.

Kind regards

Bristol Cars Services
_____________________

Note,...I've removed the owner's name.