Chance encounters often alter the course of history, and there were two that gave us the fascinating story of Bristol Cars.
The first was in 1909, when George White, chairman of The Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company, was visiting France and met Wilbur Wright, who was demonstrating his and his brother’s invention: the aeroplane.
White immediately recognised the business potential so on his return founded The British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, run out of an old tram shed in Filton.
Having failed to get airborne a biplane bought from French firm Zodiac, the Bristol team improved on a Farman design they had seen detailed in Flight magazine, and so in July 1910 the Boxkite took to the clouds above Salisbury Plain.
It proved a great commercial success and became the British military’s first plane – and when the First World War broke out, Bristol’s Scout and Fighter were vital for the Royal Flying Corps.
When conflict with Germany broke out once more 20 years later, the now Bristol Aeroplane Company again provided several key types.
However, as it expanded to meet wartime demand, Bristol realised it would need to diversify in a post-war economy. As early as 1941, an internal planning document suggested car making, citing BMW and Lancia as examples to follow.
Then a few years later came that second chance meeting. Before the war, BMW’s sports cars were sold in the UK under the Frazer Nash brand by AFN, run by brothers Harold and Donald Aldington.
Posted to Bristol as a Ministry of Aircraft Production inspector, Donald heard of the car idea and brought a 1939 BMW 327/80. It was exactly what George White (named after his grandfather) had in mind, and so Bristol took over AFN.
When the war was won, Harold flew to Munich and returned with a BMW engine and blueprints for the 326, 327 and 328, to be used as the basis for the first Bristol car.
Armaments chief George Abell had previously worked for several car firms, so he was transferred to lead the new Car Division.
Just a year later, it revealed the 400. We said: “One can sympathise with the manufacturer starting out on this industrial adventure for not taking on too much at once.
Bristol themselves call the design a ‘common-sense compromise’. And one must acknowledge the real excellence of the result, which is based on so well-tried and admirable chassis as the BMW but which, for the moment, somewhat sacrifices weight considerations to durability and serviceability.”
Within an unconventional large box-girder-frame chassis sat independent front suspension, hydraulically damped torsion-bar rear suspension and a triple-carburetted 2.0-litre straight six, noted for its lightness, making 100bhp but amusingly detuned to a “sufficient” 80bhp for production.
Our 1948 road test read: “The feeling obtained in trying the [400] over more than 500 miles of fast driving was that the specification had been chosen by people who like fast cars of the style appealing to the most discriminating of motorists.
“[It’s] the sort of car one looks forward to driving as a special and pleasurable experience. The essence of its quality is its road-holding ability, which is excellent.
The chassis and suspension are surely an outstandingly successful piece of design. [It] can be placed with exactness when cornering. The ride is firm but not harsh, and the seats are deep and comfortable.
“Without doubt, Bristol at the first attempt have produced an outstanding British car.”
Albeit one that cost £2374 – more than double the rival Jaguar MkV, or about £71,320 in today’s money.
Only 487 were made over three years, but that was success for a small start-up in a tough economy, and the improved 401/402 added a few months later contributed 634.
Bristol progressed well through the 1960s – until White suffered a bad crash in his 410, necessitating a sale to dealer Tony Crook, whose eccentric autocracy led it to fall behind the times and ultimately, after his death, into liquidation.
The aeroplane firm at least still sort of exists, having been in 1957 subsumed into British Aerospace.
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