All Things Wheeled: Automotive History; Bristol (not the place, the company)

Chances are that if you have, in fact, heard of this car manufacturer before, you heard about the Bristol Fighter. But, although the Fighter was an incredible machine, and deserves to be remembered, you might want to know more about the Bristol brand. So, here is a brief history of Bristol Cars.
The Bristol brand was founded in 1947, as an off-shoot of the British Aeroplane Company/ British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Their first model was the 400, or 2 Litre, as it was more commonly known. The 400, the 401, the 402, and the 403 were all designed by BMW. Essentially, the 401 was just a slightly upgraded version of the 400, and so was the 402 of the 401, and so on. In fact, that is what Bristol did all it's life, almost, except for the Fighter. Because all those cars? They all rode on the same chassis. Bristol used that same chassis design and size, without change, until around 2011, for all of their models.
          Well anyway, after the 403, there was the 404, 405, and 406, which were designed by Bristol themselves, but later slightly 'remodeled' (in the form of the 407) to fit a Chrysler V8, which they did later use in their production cars. In 1963, the 408 was introduced, with better suspension and huge styling changes. The 408 was followed by the 409, 410, and 411, the latter being the most popular of the three. The most iconic feature of any Bristol car is the spare tire compartment on the left side of their cars.
          The Bristol 412 was introduced in 1975, marking a change in Bristol styling from then on, leaving the old styling behind until 2016. Variations on the 412 include the Beaufighter and Beaufort. The 'standard' 412 was styled by Zagato.
   OK, now let's take a look at some of the more obscure Bristol cars. The first is the 407 Zagato, which was just what it sounded like; A 407 with bodywork designed by Zagato. Then there was the 450, a Le Mans entry attempt in 1955, but after the driveshaft shattered during testing, and after the great 1955 Le Mans disaster, Bristol withdrew, never to race in Le Mans again. The last and most strikingly designed specialty Bristol car is the Arnolt-Bristol Bolide, made by the famed S.H. Arnolt, but designed by Bristol, and using a Bristol engine.
   The Blenheim was Bristol's last luxury model, lasting until 2011. It was a relatively common-looking car for it's day, but still very recognizable. It was also designed in-house by Bristol.
          The last, and possibly best, Bristol production model to date was the Fighter. It used a Dodge Viper-sourced V10 engine, and it had gullwing doors. It had a top speed of about 210mph, making it one the fastest and affordable supercars of it's time.
           In 2016, Bristol unveiled the Bullet concept prototype, which was supposed to enter production in 2018, but never did. Had it done so, it might have revived an almost dead brand, but it didn't, and as far as I know, it is either dead or dormant, which is very sad. Thetruthaboutcars.com described it aptly as 'A living dinosaur' brand. Possibly it will be revived soon though, as nowadays it seems that more and more iconic brand names that have been dead are being brought back to life. I hope to see the same done with Bristol in the near future.

Bristol 2 Litre