OV9

Bristol Cars have moved their service centre to Windlesham, not far from here, so I took my Dad along to their open day yesterday as he's keen on buying a 410 / 411 next year. The owners club had arranged for various cars to be on display pretty much covering all the models Bristol have made over the years. Quite interesting having a look around the early cars but you need to avert your eyes once you get to the seventies & eighties models

Anyway, main point of my post was that I had a look at their current model, the Bullet. It does look better in the flesh than in photos, but for the c. £250k price tag (yes, really) I was mostly impressed with how sh*t the paint was. It was like that all over. Shocking.

It's amazing that Bristol Cars still exists. There are just so many better cars available but their brand is absolutely unique, isn't it. You can imagine someone wanting to buy a Bristol not being interested in any other marque whatsoever.

I thought they went into receivership a few years ago. Anyway, the colours and interior trim of the Bullets on their website look far better than that one.

JLv3.0 wrote: Sun Oct 28, 2018 11:10 am You can imagine someone wanting to buy a Bristol not being interested in any other marque whatsoever.

Yes, we met one of those characters ! A chap well into his eighties with a Bristol 406 that he's owned since the early seventies. Just back from a trip to the south of France in it. Kept banging on about how usable they are. Has written a book about the marque.

I think I can see the attraction of the classic models, they're very stately, and mechanically quite simple too so fairly easy to look after. An interesting alternative to a Bentley.

And I need to be on board with all this, because realistically whatever my Dad buys, Gavster & I will be inheriting at some point. I don't want to end up digging a total basket case out of a garage in 10/20/30 years' time.

Zonda_ wrote: Sun Oct 28, 2018 11:58 am I thought they went into receivership a few years ago.

I think that's happened a few times, and somehow they get bought up & bailed out to keep going.

They always look like one of those DIY kit cars you build in your garage - especially from the outside. The interiors are better (a bit), but still, £200k+ ?

How many cars do they actually sell a year?

Yep I would guess that’s £40k just looking at it and even that’s overpriced. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a newish Bristol.

Sorry for the Fail link, but the owners do seem to be a curious bunch...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... coupe.html

It was bought in 1960 by former racing driver and RAF pilot Tony Crook who allegedly old sold the cars to people he liked.

English is hard, isn't it.

Well I never knew the Kensington showroom was the official only one. It’s always looked so rundown and grubby from outside I thought it was just an independent that bought the name

Yep. That's where you order your £250k car. Baffling.