412 virtues

[lansdownplace]

Kevin, I have presented the facts,to back my argument, I disagree
with many of your points, but politeness has prevented me from
pointing out some inconsistencies in your argument. For example you
simultaneously argue that lowering the center of gravity by moving
mass downwards in the car and lightening it have no effect whatever,
whilst acknowledging in the next breath that putting weight on the
roof(in a roof box) or by adding passengers will obviously affect
handling. You can't have both sides of the argument.

I scoured all the available sources for this data and when I
couldn't find the information I wanted I rang the factory and asked
then very nicely. Rather than answer my question I was invited out
to examine the information myself, which I did yesterday, I live
five miles away. I suppose it is one of the benefits of buying/
rebuilding and maintaining your car with BCL and being politely if
enthusiastically interested in what they do out there. Also having
the same people (individuals that is) work on the car as built it
the first time around helps. The figures I quoted are figures I have
seen personally from original documentation before anyone asks.

Phillipa mentioned Jeff saying that his view is that the 412 was the
best handling of their cars, and he has said the same to me. However
unlike Philippa or I, Jeff isn't a die hard 412 fan, he loves the 411s
which is what he was building when he started with the company.

Yes they do refer to original spec, but fortunately for me, my own 412
which was pretty unmolested, was recently rebuilt from the ground up
by the factory to the original spec so apart from 7 inch Blenheim
Alloys, my car rides as built. I drove lot of V8s before buying my
first Bristol, the most memorably awful was a 410 that someone in the
car business had rebuilt themselves, he was proudly telling me how he
had used bushes from a ford and done the front suspension himself as I
plowed straight on at a roundabout at about 10 miles and hour with the
most astonishing understeer ever. I didn't conclude that 410s were
bad, merely that you have to be very careful where you get them from.
You can get a good version or a bad version of any car, the best bet
is to get one from BCL that they have rebuilt or converted to a Series
6, or better still a brand new car. I can't imagine any aftermarket
version of the cars being better, or at least I haven't seen one. You
get what you pay for in life I guess.

I choose a 412 over a 411 although the latter has been reckoned to be
more of a safe bet financially in the past because I like the styling
more, it handles better (IMHO) and I can drive with the wind in (what
very little is left) of my hair. It is personal choice and enjoying
the car is all that matters. If it was just a financial decision I
would have bought a smart car.

One final point, I haven't checked the McLaren F1 figures yet. but it
has completely different suspension set up, for racing and not
cruising so they are not apples and apples. I am at McLaren in a
couple of weeks so I will ask them for the figures. Also lack of
torsional stiffness is one of the major problems in handling that no
amount of suspension tweaking will overcome. A good example is the
Aston Martin DB7 coupe got rave reviews for handling, whilst the rag
top with exactly the same suspension gets panned. It has to be set
soft because the torsional rigidity so so impaired it won't ride
properly.

Anyway, If the facts are with you, you can argue the facts, if
principle is with you, you can argue the principle, or you can just
argue.

I am off to the races.

Regards

Paul