LHD production numbers

[412usa]

The car looks the same in almost every respect to my 412usa, with the exception of the emission controls.



Peter

[lansdownplace]

It is an S2 body as it has the targa top, however it wears the Beau
nose and repeaters. It is odd that it has the single exhaust given
there is no evidence of the turbo charger and it has a clock rather
than a boost gauge in the instrument binnacle, but as I said it has
the pigs trotter exhaust. The question is, was this a factory pre-
production styling exercise for the Beaufighter, Was it the first/one of the first Beaufighters that was later neutered or is it an S2 an owner
have it's appearance upgraded later?

Any ideas?

Paul

[Claude]

Originally Posted by dbrotzen

Thank you all! So very few. I'll guess I have to settle for a RHD then, unless I get lucky.

If you join the BOC, I believe you are still provided with an owners list. As the registrar in North America at the time (before I moved overseas), I called everyone on the list, and as part of the valuation part, I asked the question "did you buy the car recently and if so how much? Or is the car for sale now, and if so, how much?" This proved a dangerous question as a few people answered the latter with remarkably low prices.

For example, I was down in Virginia on business, and as usual had rung the Bristol owners to stop by a take photographs for Bob Charlton, the then global BOC registrar. One 409 in particular was in lovely shape and I did my usual data collection of inserting a large-font printout with the Chassis ID No in the windscreen and then taking a few photographs to post off to Bob. I was heading home, about 20 miles north on the freeway when the penny dropped, and I used my car phone to ring the owner to make sure I had not recorded the wrong figure as it was about 1/3rd of what the market was asking in those days. No, he knew what it was worth, but would be delighted to sell it at that price, provided he did not need to advertise. He was wealthy, had gotten good use out of the car, but had no interest in showing the car to prospective buyers. I turned around, wrote him a cheque and said I would fly down a month later to collect the car, asking him have his mechanic assure it would make it back to New England. We kept that car (nicknamed "The Dutchess") a long time, and only sold it in New Zealand because we live on an island and taking road trips was, in those days, more complicated as the first stage was a salt-water wet $160 ferry ride. It was not being used enough to merit owning it any more, especially given the other four classic cars in the garage.

At one point, just before I was to move to RHD New Zealand, I found that the following LHD cars were on the market in the USA: 401, 402, 403, 404, 405, 406, 407, 408, 409... and I already owned a LHD 410 and 405, meaning that for under $100,000 I could own almost the complete LHD collection. Instead I sold my two LHD cars and am now down to one RHD 411 that I can't get through NZ regulations without an awful lot of wasted money.

So, if you really want a LHD Bristol, pick up the BOC directory and do some telephoning. It is not unlikely your future car is parked in a garage somewhere and if you don't sound too desperate, the vendor may be delighted to move it on. I would begin by tracking down the 410 in Tulsa OK. Jerry Johnson's Rolling Art is listed on the internet, and he may still have the car for sale. If he does, get a quote on buying it fully restored by his company, as I gather he is in the business.

Alternatively, if you have the funds and want to try something very creative, see if the 405 LHD Monnereau car is still for sale in Paris, and ask Toby Silverton for a quote to refurbish it and install a V8 power-train.

Good luck,
Claude

[412usa]

My car has all the same features you mention. The two down pipes join into the single exhaust , in my case, with a catalytic converter.

The guages and switches are identical. There was a rumor that the Beaufighter was made out of unsold 412USA's however I think this is unlikely given that Bristol probably built to order rather than build an enormous stock. However I do have drawings for the 412USA that would suggest preparations for a production run.



The chassis number on my car is into the Beaufighter range and if the info is correct on this car, sold in 1984, is after the initial Beaufighter registrations. Also Early Beaufighters have the flat dash. My car was built in the fall of 1979 and has the same dash configuration as this car.



The plot thickens!



Peter>

[dezelsky]

David,

Did you consider the LHD 409 coming up in Bonham's auction at The
Greenwich Concours on 7 Jun:

http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/wspd_...aleSectionNo=2

It looks nicely restored but description states that it needs re-
commissioning after storage.

Paul

[Peter.Kent]

Is it the 412 USA located in Switzerland according to the Club website car description? I have never heard of a Beaufighter with the targa top. Nor a 412s2 with single exhaust system ... or the quad lights etc. £51k is eye wateringly optimistic particularly when a really good Beaufighter went for £12500 at auction (in Oxford) a couple of months ago. I wonder who bought it and when we will see it again. Peter

[412usa]

Peter,



The 412USA resides, in my drive-in climate controlled basement, in Canada. The description on the web site is somewhat confusing. I think the swiss car in the web text is probably the car currently for sale on the German site which shares many of the features of the 412USA, but perhaps without the emisssion controls etc. The price would obvoiusly depend on condition. Superficially, this car looks to be in very good condition with quite low milage and perhaps as the only other LHD model, it is quite rare.



Peter McGough

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted by Richard

The owner's wife speaks English so you can contact her on the number given on the mobile.de website if you wish.

I can't find this car in the mobile.de site - is that where it is?
Does anyone have a direct link to it?

Thanks,
Kevin

[406Special]

Kevin,

It's now on the classic driver site as per link
http://www.classicdriver.com/uk/find...lCarID=1784508

Clyde

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Kevin Howard

I can't find this car in the mobile.de site - is that where it is?
Does anyone have a direct link to it?

Kevin,
It's not easy to find on the mobile.de site but click on the link. The car is in Switzerland and the private vendor in Germany.
This is not the same 412 as on the Classic Driver site. On the Classic Driver site the car is in the UK and the vendor/dealer (Michael Brinkert) in Germany.
Regards
Richard

[Jervaulx]

Whitewall tyres, side marker lights and those headlights remind me of an
American specification vehicle. I wonder where it was originally registered
when new?

Andrew

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Jervaulx

I wonder where it was originally registered when new?

I understand it was originally registered in Switzerland and has always been there. The present owner bought it from the original owner some years ago.
Richard

[TLF799R]

Hi Andrew,

I would be pretty certain that this is one of the missing "USA" 412s. The brochure for the USA shows two LHD USAs, neither of which appear to be either this car or Peter's so that makes it a minimum of 4 to account for!

I suspect that these are tucked in alongside the Beaufort production run. Everything I can see on the Swiss car says it is what we refer to as a USA spec. The USAs even appear to have their own special hubcap badges.

It may not have the cat as it was going to Switzerland.

So where are the rest?

Philippa

Originally Posted by Jervaulx

Whitewall tyres, side marker lights and those headlights remind me of an
American specification vehicle. I wonder where it was originally registered
when new?

Andrew

[Richard]

Originally Posted by TLF799R

I would be pretty certain that this is one of the missing "USA" 412s.

The cover of "Bristol - an Illustrated History" by Charles Oxley published in 1990 has a picture of a Zurich registered 412 looking remarkably similar (to my untrained eyes) to the Swiss 412 in the mobile.de ad. The same car?
Richard

[Jervaulx]

Thanks Philippa.

The whitewall tyres and the marker lights are big giveaways for me. It
seems a nice car either way.

Andrew

[TLF799R]

Hi Richard,

I'd think it pretty unlikely that there are two Swiss registered USAs, so yes, I agree, I think this may well be the same car. I have contacted the owner to find out more...

Philippa

Originally Posted by Richard

The cover of "Bristol - an Illustrated History" by Charles Oxley published in 1990 has a picture of a Zurich registered 412 looking remarkably similar (to my untrained eyes) to the Swiss 412 in the mobile.de ad. The same car?
Richard

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted by Richard

Kevin,
It's not easy to find on the mobile.de site but click on the link.

Thanks Richard. I can only view the default photo full size, when I click on one of the smaller photos it gives me a popup with some text in German, which I can't read (I allowed popups), but after that it just keeps giving me the same default front qtr view image when I click on one of the smaller images.

Is anyone else able to see the other images full size?

Regards,
Kevin

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted by Kevin Howard

Thanks Richard. I can only view the default photo full size,

Scratch that, I have swicthed to English which helped! Now it's working.

Thanks,
Kevin

[dbrotzen]

Thank you all for suggestions. Amazing support! Even down to specific cars!!

David

[Colin Wood]

I've watched this car decay for years at Tupper and 19th in Vancouver.
It seems the owner is determined to drive it this way and resists all buyers.
Just thought I'd share..........