Bristol Article in Octane June '11 issue

[jimfoz]

Originally Posted by lord sward

Bristol Cars had a large feature in Top Gear Magazine way back in issue 12 (1995ish), and it was a glowing review by Quinton Wilson and a Blenheim 2 road test by Andy Wilman (now current TopGear TV show producer). CROOK is also interviewed by Wilman for the magazine. However, in the past CROOK had prevented Top Gear (the show) from having a car, although I understand that James May was looking to arrange a road test of a current vehicle for the next series before the failure of the firm. Clarkson is also said to have been refused a road test of a Blenheim 3 in the last few years for one of his newspaper columns.

Crook is also on record as saying the company had never received any help from any Government - quite the opposite in fact.

TC used to get quite aggrieved if any slight criticism was made about his cars whether it was a noisy ventilation fan (the journalist hadn't used the system correctly) or the fact that the 603 didn't have any door mirrors (bad wind resistance - hmmm, right). I recall he even wrote in to C&S mag in relation to a newly restored 409 that suffered from fuel starvation (I can confirm it wasn't restored by us!).
I guess he got fed up with lending them out and correcting the testers and considered his cars above that kind of scrutiny. I imagine if I had a small concern like his I would be quite defensive over my product. Top Gear magazine were probably quite clever in that they gave sufficient praise without being too toady in order to secure future try-outs.
Surprising that Car magazine never got to test them considering the LJKS connection, but I wonder if TC still held a grudge over the slight disagreement they had over the BOC in the 70's.