412 Diff Ratios/Gearing Upgrade

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted by peasantslife

Am I out of step with this forum, in being prepared to suggest we can do better today than those who engineered our cars 30 something years ago? If so I apologise now.

Not at all, so no apology needed. With 900 members you will find many different views on this forum, in fact there is rarely any consensus on anything

Besides, it's not like you are doing something the Bristol factory has not already done, or at least something very similar.

Personally I don't see any point in worrying what future owners might think as there are no guarantees they won't make changes that you wouldn't make.

I sold a V8 Aston a few years ago which despite being a 1982 car had only done 34,000 km. The original leather upholstery was in very good condition. The rear seats had hardly ever been used and the front seats had some patina which was totally in keeping with the car.

Unbeknown to me, the car had surreptitiously been purchased by a dealer to whom I had already refused to sell the car. The first thing he did was have it re-upholstered, immediately destroying it's originality.

Getting back to Bristols, if you owned a tatty 6 cylinder Bristol there's a good chance that any future owner would scrap it and sell the power train, which in many cases would be more valuable than the car as a whole in an unrestored state.