Brabazon

[TBC]

Having been a fan of Bristol cars for over 30 years, I find the very fact that someone has spent the time thinking about and working on designs for the next generation of cars a positive thing.

I have one reservation, and nothing to do with the styling (Bristols have always been an aquired taste) is there a market for a four seater?

I know that Ferrari build one Porsche, Aston Martin and Lamborghini are proposing new models, but they serve a different market to the traditional Bristol four seaters.

If you look at the market today all of the tiny manufacturers make two seaters (Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini etc are all owned by multi-nationals) whereas Bristol now share a market with manufacturers such as Pagani, Keonigsegg, MacLaren, Spyker, Gumpert etc (Aston Martin's production figures now make them a relative mass producer).

If Bristol release a new model (the cost associated with designing a brand new car is enormous - a heard a figure of £40m for the Fighter's development) so developing a new car from scratch and making a profit on that sort of investment may be impossible with production figures being so low, whereas it could be based around the Fighters chassis, possibly a convertible...

TBC

[giaberto]

There is a market for a four-seater Bristol as long as it is based on the existing chassis and drivetrain of the Blenheim and keeping technical investment to a minimimum by profiting of Low Type Approval, which means no costly developments for ABS or airbags.

It should be like a new skin (possibly aligned to the Fighter styling cues) with a more aerodynamic bodywork and some ingenuous and cost-effective packaging solutions, aiming to recapture the existing customers who have been buying the proven Bristol formula of the past 40 years. Fighter is indeed aimed to a new clientele for Bristol, a bit like the Aero 8 has targeted a new audience for Morgan.

I do not think that the example of Bentley, where Volkswagen has exploited a big potential growing to a production of thousands per year, could apply to Bristol because in this case investment should be much larger and current climate does not help.

Giacomo

[TBC]

I agree that it is possible if they retain the chassis. However I read somewhere that the next generation of Bristols will use Mercedes drivetrains which may indicate all the electronics that go with said package including ABS etc. I'm not sure that the tiny market for bespoke four seaters would accommodate a new car without features such as ABS.

Bristol have made some 50 Fighters and about the same number of Blenheims in the 14 years it has been in production. I hope that Bristol do make a replacement for the Blenheim but it would have to sell in relatively large numbers (in Bristol terms) and although Bristol cap their production to 150 cars a year the last time they made anywhere near that number was back in the sixties.

TBC