Bristol: The Inside Story

[lansdownplace]

A very Private Car is beautifully produced but is priced at a level
that pretty much restricts it's appeal to someone who already owns a
Bristol. Mine took a good six weeks to arrive which suggests that it
wasn't 'on the shelf'. Perhaps they send the already printed sheaves
off for individual binding when you order?

Bristol: A Private Car, is a limited edition of 1000 books (of which
100 are in leather at a pretty big premium). At #300 each the project
revenue would be #300,000. Give say 50k to the author and 25k to the
photographer, and say 30k for the printing the break even point comes
up after 350 sales. It is a similar proposition to the offerings of
the Franklin Mint in that respect. My book is No. 616 so the project
is a good one!. That book was a bit of a one off in that it was
written by a nationally known magazine car writer who had a widely
publicized lifelong association with the marque combined with portrait
photos of all the major cars in a coffee table book. It was aimed at a
small niche and will probably take 15+ years to sell out. I doubt
there is room for a direct competitor book. Although that said it
would be interesting if there was a series of books, one per model
with a very specific history of that particular car.

I am looking forward to the Balfour book, which from what I have heard
will contain a lot more of the facts than we might expect, or even
hope for!. It is priced at a level which opens interest in it up to
more than just owners. As we don't actually know until next year we
can but speculate.

One benefit of using Haynes is that they have a distributors like
Borders and WH Smith on their lists, this in turn means that there
might just be a Bristol Cars book to choose in the automobile section
which in turn might increase interest in the marque.

I have always thought that what is really needed is a history of the
company. not based on it's products but as a business. It is one of
the most unusual companies in the country in terms of it's niche
position, business model, resilience, the longevity of the staff and
cast of characters. Especially where the man who wired the very first
400 still works full time as a Director. The film rights to such a
story would be worth a fortune.

Paul