Toby Silverton interview in Octane
Kevin,
I have pretty well been in and around aviation all my life. Cockpit and instrument panel layouts are a great source of interest. When an aircraft manufacturer then turns to producing cars and we look at their approach to driver ergonomics - how they have designed the controls, there are alway unique ideas (some may say quirky) incorporated into the design. Saab are another example with driver layout influenced by their aircraft design. I had a couple of Saabs over the years the last being the 900 Aero Turbo in the early 90s. Apart from horrendous servicing costs it was a delightful car. Take the switch gear and the ignition key in the floor between the two front seats. To the unitiated, this may be a silly place but in the dark, your left hand can find it instantly. Everything was within easy reach with space utilised well and logically. Generally in these cars, ergonomics were excellent and some of this would have to have links to their aviation heritage.
Bristol also has this commonality. Switchgear is placed to be easily located without having to look. The instrumentation in the binnacle (404-Blenheim) and controls design in earlier cars has aviation influences.
This can't be a bad thing. What I'm saying is the links can't hurt and are probably a positive for BCL's image as an individual car manufacturer.
Aerodynamics has always played a part in design of Bristols to make them as efficient as possible.
A week ago I met a fellow who grew up in Bristol and he told me that as a boy, he used to watch Bristols being tested on the Filton runway.We've all seen photos of some of the cars with tufts of wool attached to the external surfaces to assist in analysis of aerodynamics on these cars being tested in that very same place. It's nice to see that there's some links to aviation still but I don't expect everyone to necessarily see it from this point of view. I wouldn't be in the least surprised if Silverton uses his aviation background to contribute in some way to the design and development of future Bristol cars.
John K.
|