Bristol alternatives.

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted by Jervaulx

... in a prestige car you should open the window in a more gentlemanly manner by pressing a switch by slight of hand rather than if you were in a £7000 car. I don't agree with excuses of unreliability. When you make cars costing £150,000 and above, you find a reliable mechanism and you fit it. Excuses smacks of laziness to develop and progress and to make the car a better and more passenger friendly car. I also believe this has some truth with the lack of safety features which have been proven, overwhelmingly to save many lives.


Andrew

I agree with you 100% Andrew.

For another example of laziness you only have to look at the air conditioning in the V8 Bristols. I don't know what they are doing today but even as late as the Blenheim 2 they were still using those ugly, inefficient "cassette" type air conditioners slung under the dash, which date back to the early 1970s. That's just a joke in a car in that price bracket.

The lack of development in the V8 Bristols is even more obvious when you look at the chassis, suspension and the power train.

However, rather than laziness this may have been down to economics. My guess is that the company was in terminal decline by the time Mr Silverton came along.

As for whether things like air con and electric rear windows matter, it all depends upon on how you use the car. If you keep your car under wraps in a dehumidified garage and drive it only on sunny Sundays then of course it doesn't matter and you should probably strive for originality. But if you want to use a classic car as a daily driver then a few niceties become more important.

I'm all for subtle/sympathetic modernisation of classic cars if they are to be used as a daily driver. The thread about electric rear windows is here .