Bristol alternatives.

[Richard Levine]

"Bristol murders" were at 3 maybe, but by my count it's up to 4, as this thread should be deemed DEAD.

[jimfoz]

Originally Posted by Richard Levine

"Bristol murders" were at 3 maybe, but by my count it's up to 4, as this thread should be deemed DEAD.

Apologies. For a moment I thought we were on a Bristol Cars discussion forum.

[Markus Berzborn]

In 2005, Jack Boxstrom, wrote:

"Max is my younger brother by 7 years. He flunked his grade 11 French about three times, including summer school. So eventually our parents said, "so what do you want to do now?" and he asked for a one way ticket to the UK (at aged approx 20 - this would be about 1965).

Max got a free welding school and was hired as a chassis welder at McLaren, so I told all my racing friends not to buy a McLaren Can-Am or Formula car that year since my brother was still learning his craft! In any case, his forte was design and engineering, not welding and later he studied vehicle aerodynamics at Manchester University with Costin and designed some cars with the latter for Tiga - including a formula car that had a cockpit canopy and set a lap record at Monza.

Then he designed racing wheels for cars and bikes and had a company called Dymag Wheels that eventually had about 100 employees and made pretty well all of the world's magnesium racing wheels for F-1, Prototypes and his famous 3-spoke bike racing wheel. Sold the company and went on to project consulting and race car design. His major "from scratch" car was the AMR-1 Group "C" Aston Martin for which he also built the chassis and bodies in his new kevlar-carbon fabrication shops. He is a very clever chap and there are lots of other stories and achievements - not bad for a kid that I used to get very annoyed with because he would draw "improved" bodies, chassis, etc in my Road & Track magazines, superimposed on the magazine pictures. Early, while he was still in Canada he had a motorcycle magazine and wrote technical articles for Track & Traffic magazine - one on supercharging was so complex that I could not understand it!

Max also designed a new car with a Viper V-10 for Bristol called the "Fighter" and was with Jaguar on a contact basis doing "engine development". He still lives in Leicester, England and has been recently active in ocean going sail boat design."

If I may add - unfortunately Max Boxstrom died last year.

By the way, there was a very nice photo of a Fighter rolling chassis somewhere on the net, but I just can't find the link no more. Maybe someone knows the URL.

Regards,
Markus

[Markus Berzborn]

I am not talking about this schematic

http://www.loaditup.de/files/288597.jpg

although this is also interesting. But there was a real photo somewhere of a rolling chassis taken in the Kensington showroom.

Also note that the Fighter has a much longer wheelbase than the Viper and a narrower track.

Regards,
Markus

[browning l]

The car is remarkably light too; just over 1500kg at the kerb (a 599 weighs 1688kg), and this despite what must be a fairly sizeable contribution from the massively strong steel box-section chassis with honeycomb flooring and a couple of heavy duty roll-hoops designed by race-car engineer Max Boxstrom whose credits include the Aston Martin AMR-1 sports racer that raced at Le Mans in ’89. The coil-sprung double-wishbone suspension with anti-roll bars front and rear is also largely Boxstrom’s work.

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted by Markus Berzborn

Also note that the Fighter has a much longer wheelbase than the Viper and a narrower track.

Regards,
Markus

Good point!

At last, some factual information instead of bluster.

It occurred to me when lying in bed last night that if the wheelbases were different then that would suggest the Fighter chassis is different from the Viper. That's good enough for me. I shall inform my friend who visited the Viper plant that his suspicions are ill founded - I'm surprised he didn't think of that!

[Markus Berzborn]

It's rather interesting for me to notice that even with a newly designed car like the Fighter, Bristol keep to their tradition of long wheelbase and relatively small track - in a configuration with very short front overhang and an engine moved back to the centre as much as possible.
This makes the Fighter as well as the Blenheim look a bit disproportionate for today's taste with their long hoods, but this layout is very much in tune with classic designs from the coachbuilt area.

Regards,
Markus

[browning l]

Originally Posted by Kevin Howard

Good point!

At last, some factual information instead of bluster.

It occurred to me when lying in bed last night that if the wheelbases were different then that would suggest the Fighter chassis is different from the Viper. That's good enough for me. I shall inform my friend who visited the Viper plant that his suspicions are ill founded - I'm surprised he didn't think of that!

'Arf a mo, here, Kev...you wrote, "But when anyone declines to comment when asked a simple yes/no question, that makes me suspicious.

What's this about your mate's suspicions?

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted by browning l

'Arf a mo, here, Kev...you wrote, "But when anyone declines to comment when asked a simple yes/no question, that makes me suspicious.

What's this about your mate's suspicions?

He had his own suspicions because the Chrysler guys clammed up. When he told me the story I also became suspicious.

I am no longer suspicious, he however will remain so.

Indeed he will take some convincing that his suspicions are ill founded, because he is a Chrysler devotee. In fact even when I point out the differences in the wheelbase length and track he will probably still argue that it is based upon a Viper chassis!

For what it's worth he also reckons Bristol copied the torsion bar rear suspension from Chrysler, but I suggest we don't go there ...