Raerer than hen's headlights

[Metalman]

Not sure how many of you may have caught up with the double page piece in 01.12.13 Sunday Times Driving section ?

Nice pic of a Bristol Fighter in bristol red . Dominic Tobin's article lists the Fighter as the rarest (UK ) car of the past decade according to registration data from DVLA. Apparently only 6 of the beasts were registered in Britain from a total of 13 manufactured.

Genenerally positive comments I particularly intrigued by the description supplied by Charles Freimuth who is currently offering a Fighter for sale at
£ 159,500 " buy a Bristol - its got personality..a cross between a Saville Row suit and Monty Python ".

So there you have it :-)

PS not posted link as it seems to freeze..best google SundayTimes and head to Driving section ..hope it works

PPS also refers to website How Many Left which offers way to check DVLA data to see how many cars are remaining for road going cars

MetalMan

[Ronald G. Stephenson]

Comment all you want, but used cars are used cars, and generally, the more expensive the original price, the greater the price drop in the first 4 years. When many makes will not bring ten cents American on the dollar, it is a good telling point about perceived value. Of course, to the 'money is no object' crowd, most of us would take full advantage. It is really amusing to go on some of the sites and look at prices. Even more amusing to look at the 'completed listings' and see that they did not sell, or the bidding was very low. I once bought a DB6 Aston that had been listed five years prior, and it was a great deal at the time, only to learn the gentleman would accept the same price when I contacted him. A glorious purchase, and it does happen when the seller 'just doesn't want it anymore'.

[Stefan]

I have a look at this website and it's rather interesting. It tells me there are now 1041 licensed Bristols, and 443 on SORN. However when I looked at individual models it seemed rather inaccurate. Are there really only 18 400s on the road? Are there only 6 412s? And one solitary Beaufighter?
Looking a little more closely I see there is an erroneous type of Bristol (BLMC)
Mine was labelled like this for many years and it took some correspondence to change this. There are 1041 licensed Bristol(BLMC)s and a further 443 SORNs.
Interestingly this number declined sharply from 4,800 in 1995 to a steady 1000 odd for the last 3 years. Was this as the genuine BLMC rustboxes dissolved away, leaving Filton's alloy aerodynes gleaming in the sun?
But this site is all done by one volunteer so hats off to him for a nice try, even if there are some sources of considerable error.

[Ronald G. Stephenson]

Many cars are clapped away, like most of mine (not Bristols) and have not been on the road for a very long time. People do not renew registrations unless they intend to drive their cars. Many are disassembled and may never see the light outside their storage places. Sadly, it is true that many rare old cars meet a terrible fate, and are gone forever, and we have to assume some of them are in hiding. I have an opportunity right now to buy one that was being 'restored', and all work stopped. Another 409 languished outside for years, so long all the paint was gone from it, primer too. Person would not sell, and to my knowledge, the starving artist may have had to sell it to eat. I have given up contacting him.

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted by Ronald G. Stephenson

Comment all you want, blah blah blah ..

What sort of response is that?

Metalman's simply made a helpful post letting us know about an article on a Bristol. He wasn't "commenting" on anything.

Unfortunately however, unless you are a subscriber to the Sunday Times you only get to read two paragraphs

The How Many Left site that Stefan refers to is here

[Janne]

During my 10 years in UK I saw maybe 5 Bristols on the road.
They are rare.
Of course I could have missed a few "modern" ones, as the design is - let us say - very discreet.
One Fighter.