Quote:
Originally Posted by lansdownplace
Hi Kevin, I think you need to look at the top notch 411 restorations and S6s to appreciate why the press at the time thought that Bristol had a seat at the very top of the build quality tree.
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Paul,
I have no doubt that some restorations of Bristols and the 411 S6 upgrade, result in a car that was better than new. But you can take almost ANY classic car and restore/upgrade it so it is better than when it originally came out of the factory.
However, when you were talking about why people buy Bristols I thought you were talking more in a general sense.
I bought 411 because I considered it to be a "practical" classic which can comfortably transport 4 people. The anonymity also appeals to me and the fact that I will never see another one pull up beside me at the lights (there are only 2 or 3 411 S5s in Australia - when I bought mine I think it was the only one).
I must admit I thought I was also buying something special in terms of engineering and quality, mainly due to reading Setright's 'A Private Car'. However once I started working on the car I soon realised that engineering and quality were nothing special (apart from the panel fit, which is excellent).
I would describe the engineering as relatively simple and robust - nothing wrong with that, because it does the job. Fortunately most quality issues can be addresses retrospectively, albeit at some expense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 408Berlin
I wonder why people treat the quality of Bristols so high.
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To a large extent it is the "link" with an aeroplane manufacturer, combined with the new purchase price and exclusivity. In other words, it's largely perception. In reality I suspect quality started diminishing shortly after the car business became detached from the aeroplane business.
Getting back to values. It's ironic that while other classic "prestige" cars, particularly sports cars such as Astons, fetch much higher prices today, they were usually cheaper than Bristols when they were new.
Most of the other manufacturers went bust, (Aston went broke several times), probably because their development costs were much higher and they did more in-house. They also spent more on marketing and they also sold through dealer networks.
Bristol Cars of course is still going today, still in private hands.
I wonder what Bristol 407-412 values would be today if Bristol had developed the prototype BMW V8 engine as Aldington suggested back in the 1940s ...