Tony Crook in Octane Magazine

[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 My guess is they had the support from Joe Lewis to do so and now Lewis has simply withdrawn his money as Toby Silverton is no longer married to his daughter.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