Forgotten Classics: Muddling Through with Bristol

We begin our Bristol detour with the shatteringly unattractive Bristol 450 above because while as a racer with a nonstandard chassis design it seemed an exception to the Bristol rule, in all its essentials it followed the Bristol philosophy.  That philosophy could be summed up as, “Make do and muddle through.”  Bristol engineers contrived alloy bodywork which looked like it had been hastily assembled in a dark cowshed, complete with narrow-tracked wheels deeply inset from voluminous slab sides, stuck-on headlights, and a narrow roofline trapped between odd fins... But we’ll get back to the 450 later. The Bristol car saga began when the aircraft concern decided to get into the car business to take up the slack from declining aircraft production after WWII.  They jump-started their effort by collecting drawings and engine parts for the pre-war BMW 6 cylinder cars, as well as the consulting services of engineer Fritz Fiedler (initially shared with Frazer Nash, which later split), as war reparations.  The first postwar Bristol 400 was essentially a prewar BMW 327 with a 328 engine.  Note that even the twin-kidney grille was carried over. This was the aircraft maker's shortcut to a foothold in the specialist (read "expensive") car market.  As was also the case at Saab, the Swedish aircraft maker which entered the car business around the same time, there was a serious emphasis on aerodynamics in many of Bristol's designs. This was especially evident once they moved past the Model 400, which was largely a BMW copy, and issued the 401 series, which was derived from styling studies by Superleggera Touring in Italy.  The 401 from 1950 was essentially a 400 with Italian styling.  While Bristol claimed to have made its own contributions to the styling, these seemed limited to making a taller roof for men wearing bowler hats. The rare 402 convertible version below also had the Touring-derived lines, and like a handful of dropheads by Pinin Farina had a sleeker, lower profile. All were appallingly expensive, at more than twice the price of a Jaguar. 

With the 405 in 1954, Bristol seemed to be getting into its stride.  Still with the BMW-derived chassis and engine design from the 1930s, it offered low-slung, streamlined alloy bodywork which finally had a character of its own.  The twin-kidney BMW grille had vanished, replaced with a possibly jet-inspired, deeply-inset intake emphasized by a Cyclops fog light.  At the rear, there were neatly integrated fins, and on the sedan, a glassy fastback roof.  The drophead (convertible to Yanks) was even nicer, with a wide door to access the interior.  A shorter 404 coupe version of the chassis showed up first in 1953, but the proportions were odd, emphasized by the short door which impeded access and made it look like a chopped 405 sedan, which looked more like Scheme A.

No matter, because over in Chicago, import dealer S.H. "Wacky" Arnolt had cooked up a deal to get Bristol to supply the short 404 chassis (initially with 403 brakes but later with optional Alfin drums) for the Bertone-bodied Arnolt Bristol which was offered in the USA and Europe.  Unlike other Bristols, all but one of the 142 Arnolt Bristols had left-hand drive.  All shared distinctive styling by Franco Scaglione, with a peaked hood and air scoop to disguise the height of the long-stroke engine, and peaked fenders to harmonize with that hood.  SIx of these were coupes; the rest were roadsters or stripped-down competition bolides, and they did well racing at American tracks. More important, while 142 seems like a modest number of cars, it approaches 3 times the number Bristol sold of the "standard" 404, and it was around half the price of that car.  It could have put Bristol on the map in the US, if Bristol had been interested... 

But let's get back to that 450 racer, Bristol’s only entry in the arena of sports car racing.  Characteristically, they took the shortcut of adapting an outside design, in this case the ERA Type E single seat racer, possibly because of the lightweight tubular frame with 4 wheel independent suspension, or because this ERA used a Bristol engine.   It flopped at Le Mans in 1953, but it would have been a sure-fire winner in our Worst Car Design contest…if anyone had remembered it.  But the next year Bristol came back with a refined car that while not a beauty, had an aerodynamic integrity reflecting wind tunnel studies, and won its class.  This revised 450, like the 405, and like contemporary designs from Saab in Sweden, showed that aircraft engineers could bring unique perspectives to bear on car design, and at Bristol they raised muddling through to a high art…

But then they dropped the whole line of development.  The tubular chassis and independent rear suspension from the 450 never showed up on any other Bristol during the 20th Century, and after Arnolt sold his last Bristol-based car the US connection was dropped.  In 1958 the 406 appeared, but it was basically a notchback 405.  Bristol replaced the obsolete six with a Chrysler V8 in 1961, and there were some interesting Zagato coupes including a sleek 407 (below), but  Bristol stayed with the 1930s BMW ladder frame to the end of its 411 line in 1976 and beyond, with the 603 series produced in tiny numbers through the 1990s.  By then retro cars were the only way you could sell a 1930s chassis design, and the Morgan Plus 8, for example, offered a modern V8 with an unashamedly 1936 look.  In the Postmodern Era the way to sell an obsolete idea was to celebrate its obsolescence; Morgan sold a lot more of its riotously obvious 1936 idea than Bristol did of of a car that was 1936 under the skin...

Photo credits:

All photos wikimedia except: 

Top photo: autoimages.org

Image of red Arnolt Bristol Bolide and blue coupe:  Rich Taylor reprinted in Consumer Digest

3nd from last (Bristol 450 roadster): Bristol Owners Club Heritage Trust.

Last Photo: the author