Tony Crook in Octane Magazine

[Janne]

As much as I respect the engineers in the Bristol company, there is no way they could have designed a super car approaching the prestanda of the Bugatti.
It cost more money to develop that car than I imagine Bristol Cars total revenue since the beginning (Inflation adjusted) of the company.
The sum of UKP 30 million for developing the Fighter has been mentioned. That sum alone would hardly pay for the development and tooling for the front suspention of the Bugatti.

I have firsthand witnessed an owner of a Fighter discussing with the staff the possible location of a serious fuel leak in the vicinity of the fuel tank, on his brand new car.
An true enthusiast may accept such a potentially lethal fault, but if that happened to somebody else? Media disaster.

Have we heard of anybody achieving the topspeed in the Fighter, and keeping it for a few minutes??
I have not.

I believe that they should have developed a totally new car exterior wise, using a better engine and gearbox, maybe using one of the superb V8 from BMW or MB, with associated gearbox and diff.
The 603 derivation (Blenheim 3 you mean?) had an excellent suspention, chassis and interior.

[Markus Berzborn]

Where do you intend to hold the Fighter's top speed for a few minutes? This would not even be possible on a German Autobahn, let alone on a British motorway. Only on a race track.
Noone can realistically expect Bristol to compete with Bugatti, as Bugatti - just like Bentley and Lamborghini - is actually Volkswagen, a multi-billion group of companies. And the Bugatti is also much more expensive, by the way.
Or does anybody expect Morgan to compete with Porsche or something like that? These cars from small companies are bought for their own sake and mostly by people who possess several cars anyway and do not need to compare them on a rational level.
By the way, several Ferrari 458 Italias have already burst into flames, and Ferrari certainly has more money than Bristol to spend for development purposes. They are backed by Fiat, of course.

Noone could expect the Fighter to recoup its development cost within a few years. And Bristol Cars must have known that. So why did they spend that much money in the first place? My guess is they had the support from Joe Lewis to do so and now Lewis has simply withdrawn his money as Toby Silverton is no longer married to his daughter.
By the way, someone who talked to the administrators last week told me that there are several bidders seriously interested in acquiring the company and that the administrators are quite optimistic the company will continue one way or the other under a new management. As this is just second hand information, I cannot verify it, of course.

Regards,
Markus