[UK6]

An Open Letter to Gordon Farquar on Bristol Design

Gordon,
I have read your preliminary thesis which I found very interesting.
Your task to design a new Bristol motor car is challenging. Unfortunately you have found out the hard way that fist impressions are still very influential
ie poor spelling and clumsy sentences do not exemplify excellence. Excellence is expected in the luxury car market. Having said that, if your designs are good, all else will be forgotten.

I have no formal training in design, but I offer the following thoughts:

1. Is design important to Bristol Cars?
I make this statement earnestly when I note that people are still buying the
dated looking Blenheim. The key idea here is that perhaps EXCLUSIVITY and not DESIGN is the most influential purchasing factor. An extension of this idea is that Bristol Cars may be content with producing the relatively small number of cars that they produce every year and therefore any significant investment in design may be unwarranted. In short, the company may not want to expand their market.

2. Does Bristol want to expand it’s market?
Would Bristol like to sell more cars to people who would otherwise purchase a Bentley, an Aston or indeed a Jag? If so, would it not be wise to survey all potential purchasers and not just existing Bristol owners? Further, I think that it would be important to delineate between initial buyers of Bristols vs subsequent ownership as owner perceptions may be different.

3. It follows that, if Bristol does want to expand their market, then they need to very accurately determine the needs of these new people. Intrinsic in this move is for Bristol Cars to gauge what designs their revised target ownership would enjoy. Thus, in design terms, style may have to move from UNDERSTATED TO .............MILD STATEMENT!

4. Is there a clear connection between potential owner’s needs and the preliminary designs? Perhaps I misread your report Gordon, but I didn’t see a clear connection here. Interestingly, Bristol may not have undertaken any significant customer design surveys in the past! No disrespect to you or your efforts, but with reference to my first point about exclusivity – I reiterate, perhaps design surveys may be meaningless in this low volume market!

5. If design really does matter in this market, would the Bristol Fighter be a worthy candidate for an upgrade? In my view, as a backyard designer, the profile of the Fighter befits it’s name, but alas, front on, the machine is not a “Strike Fighter” – it is a Meteor and not a Mirage or a F15.

6. Is there a market for a UK produced “high end” electric car? If so, perhaps Bristol can work in partnership with Frazer Nash (electric) Cars. Historians will not the connection here!

In closing, I hope that this feedback is constructive. I look forward to looking at your final designs.

Regards,

Brett (Australia)