Blenheim Production Numbers

[AlanD]

Does anyone know the total number of Blenheim's that were produced?

Regards

AlanD
Sydney

[DaleC]

I doubt whether even Bristol themselves know for sure. Tony was so full of obfuscation, misinformation & exaggeration that any figures he espoused are likely to be spurious. And Toby became so Fighter and precarious finances fixated that I doubt he cared to double check. It took me an age tto pin down that around 25 Brigands were produced...... If you do find out, let me know. I'm writing a book.....

Regards

Dale Chappell.

[AlanD]

Dale, in the unlikely event I do come across some information I will certainly pass it on.

One possible source of information may be the vehicle licensing authority in the UK, not sure what it is called. I have seen info on other car forums where a search has been done on the internet to reveal how many of a certain type/model of car, is registered in the UK. I would not know where to start on this myself.

Regards

Alan

[Barrie]

I don't know why Bristol cars are still so coy about production numbers. Tony Crook used to consistently keep production numbers secret to understandably give the impression of a thriving business. Now these cars are no longer in production their rarity adds to value in most people's eyes so one would have thought that it was in Bristol's interest to reveal how rare they are. This is especially so as they are basically a maintenance and restoration company now.

[AlanD]

A series 3 is for sale with Graeme Hunt cars, an example they previously sold a couple of years ago.

Interesting comment from Mr Hunt saying Mr Crook told him 26 to 30 left the factory.

Regards


Alan David
Sydney

[Geoff Kingston]

Alan,
I spotted this ad as well and it could be taken in two ways either a comment on total numbers of all the series of Blenheim 's produced or a comment on the Series 3, if the latter it is quite close to the revised number Geoff D mentioned, yet if the former it is also quite close to the total number of cars of all series identified on the BOC website, interestingly however the Blenheim is the one model they don't give an estimated production figure for.
Perhaps the BOC registrar would like to comment if he is following this thread but it does seem the figure of 8 or 9 series 3's is too low.
Geoff K.

[Sam410]

Originally Posted by AlanD

Dale, in the unlikely event I do come across some information I will certainly pass it on.

One possible source of information may be the vehicle licensing authority in the UK, not sure what it is called. I have seen info on other car forums where a search has been done on the internet to reveal how many of a certain type/model of car, is registered in the UK. I would not know where to start on this myself.

Regards

Alan

You are thinking of the howmanyleft.co.uk site. Its accuracy depends on the data held by DVLA, and as many Bristols are incorrectly registered as "Bristol (BLMC)" with no model listed it is not good for Bristols. You can see all the Bristols here:
https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/?utf8=✓&q=bristol

If you have a Bristol registered as "Bristol (BLMC)" it is possible to have it corrected - there are instructions on the BOC website at https://boc.net/service.php#dvla. They look outdated, but they worked about five or six years ago when I had my 410's registration corrected. The error came about when the DVLA's records were computerised in the 1980s.

[livermoreb]

If you have a Bristol registered as "Bristol (BLMC)" it is possible to have it corrected - there are instructions on the BOC website at https://boc.net/service.php#dvla. They look outdated, but they worked about five or six years ago when I had my 410's registration corrected. The error came about when the DVLA's records were computerised in the 1980s.[/quote]

I have just had my 410 record altered at DVLA just by writing a letter to them and sending it along with my V5.

There are nearly a thousand Bristols registered as Bristol (BLMC) for some reason so the figures in the "How many left" web sites are a long way out. Perhaps we should encourage all members to check their V5 and where BLMC is shown to get the records put right.

[Bryn Tirion]

Originally Posted by AlanD

Dale, in the unlikely event I do come across some information I will certainly pass it on.

One possible source of information may be the vehicle licensing authority in the UK, not sure what it is called. I have seen info on other car forums where a search has been done on the internet to reveal how many of a certain type/model of car, is registered in the UK. I would not know where to start on this myself.

Regards

Alan

The howmanyleft site is merely misleading and of no use whatsoever. Two of my cars are very rare indeed, and I know of many more examples or each than are on that site, let alone the ones I don't know about. One of these cars is an early Morris Oxford estate, so no possible excuse for listing it incorrectly. Test it for a Bristol model by merely using Google Images for a search: you will count more running, UK licensed Bristol 408's in the top two lines than this site reports exist.

[AlanD]

Sam410. Thanks for posting the howmanyleft link. I suppose we can take one tiny bit of information from the site and that is that there were at least 16 Blenheim's registered at one time in the UK. This would not account for cars that were exported direct from the factory. I know of one silver colored Series 2 that was (and probably still is) in New Zealand.

Do any of the Bristol Car clubs have a register that may give further information?

Regards

Alan David
Sydney

[GREG]

When I asked Sid Lovesey which was the best Bristol ever made, he told me the Blenheim 4 ! It's certainly the best driving Bristol I have ever been in and that includes the Fighter -- actually , especially the Fighter.

Sadly there was only one Blenheim 4 ever built -- I am writing a very short book on it :-)

Looking to the future, I recently managed to obtain a leaked photograph from someone that told me it is the new hybrid electric Bristol ! It seems to be strongly influenced from the Bristol 400 but it can carry 8 people in comfort with full air con -- enjoy...

[Laurent B]

Hello

I recently made an inventory of all the Blenheims. I used photos published by car spotters and car dealers on the Internet. This was not very easy because many cars have had several registrations. A few were repainted and I know a Blenheim 1 wich was turned into Blenheim 3 ! However, the website Cazana.com helped me to recreate the history of all cars registered.

So, there is at least 34 Bristol Blenheims
_ 5 Blenheim 1 (one of wich turned into Blenheim 3)
_ 6 Blenheim 2
_ 22 Blenheim 3
_ 1 Blenheim 4

Among these 34 cars :
_ 5 are known by their VIN
_ 3 are genuine LHD cars. 1 was registered in France, 1 in Germany and 1 in Sweden (but it recently came back to England)
_ 1 RHD car was turned into LHD by Bristol Cars for a Swiss customer in 2013. This car is now in the Netherlands.
_ 2 cars have an Irish registration

Of course, my inventory is not completed and I am still searching new informations, but you can already have an idea of the volume of "production". Production datas claimed by Tony Crook were very optimistic !

Excuse my English, I am French !

[Geoff Dowdle]

Laurent B,
it is interesting that you have collected this Blenheim information.

The information I have about the Blenheim production is that they were all produced RHD .
Blenheim 1 6 cars
Blenheim 2 10 cars
Blenheim 3 17 cars ( one was completed RHD & converted to LHD before delivery)
Blenheim 3S 1 car

Note there is no record of a Blenheim 4 unless an earlier car was later updated.
Some of the cars above could have been returned to BCL for conversion to LHD.

Geoff

[Laurent B]

So the "Blenheim 4" is in fact a second hand car updated, isn't it ? Although I found a lot of pictures of this car, I don't know much about it. The original specifications, the VIN or the date of update are unknown.

Several Blenheim 3 have "S" wheels, so it's difficult to say which one is a real S or not. However, the specifications and technical datas of the S are not exactly known.

I know at least 2 Blenheim 3G and one of them have "S" wheels. So is it a "3SG" or not ?

[AlanD]

Great work Laurent and Geoff!!

Very interesting information. Does the total for the series 2 include the silver coloured example that when to New Zealand, I have seen this car when I was in NZ. I am not sure if it was purchased second hand in the UK and then exported or went direct from the factory. When I met Tony Crook in the Kensington showroom he mentioned there was one there, which I subsequently saw in Auckland.

Regards

Alan David
Sydney

[Geoff Dowdle]

Alan,
The Blenheim in NZ as far as I can find out is a Blenheim 3 .
Chassis TTBL399168874
Silver with Black trim
Exported in Feb 2000 , but I don't know if it was direct to New Zealand .

Registered in NZ June 2001 "ACU206"

I have not seen the car , do you have a photo of it that you can post on the forum??

Geoff Dowdle
Sydney Australia

PS
you should join the BOC of Australia on one of our events or meetings which are held regularly in Sydney .
But you won't see a Blenheim , they are mostly early 6 cylinder cars.
You would be most welcome.

[Brianfromdorset]

I keep meaning to sit down of an evening and compile a list of how many different cars appear on Google images. There's quite a few.
Incedently I drove Tony Crooks Blenheim last week thanks to the super guys at Spencer lane jones Hackett. It was a fantastic experience.

[Lance]

The NZ Blenheim is mine.It was delivered to me in the UK in Jan 2000 by TC himself .I exported it to NZ later that year.Car Magazine once described the Bristol as a "hand-built horror" and I can but agree.It's lovely when it's
going but that isn't often enough.It actually broke down when I was driving it away from the showroom in Kensington High St.Still can't bear to part with it though which must mean something.

[jon.p.godfrey]

Originally Posted by Laurent B

Hello

I recently made an inventory of all the Blenheims. I used photos published by car spotters and car dealers on the Internet. This was not very easy because many cars have had several registrations. A few were repainted and I know a Blenheim 1 wich was turned into Blenheim 3 ! However, the website Cazana.com helped me to recreate the history of all cars registered.

So, there is at least 34 Bristol Blenheims
_ 5 Blenheim 1 (one of wich turned into Blenheim 3)
_ 6 Blenheim 2
_ 22 Blenheim 3
_ 1 Blenheim 4

Among these 34 cars :
_ 5 are known by their VIN
_ 3 are genuine LHD cars. 1 was registered in France, 1 in Germany and 1 in Sweden (but it recently came back to England)
_ 1 RHD car was turned into LHD by Bristol Cars for a Swiss customer in 2013. This car is now in the Netherlands.
_ 2 cars have an Irish registration

Of course, my inventory is not completed and I am still searching new informations, but you can already have an idea of the volume of "production". Production datas claimed by Tony Crook were very optimistic !

Excuse my English, I am French !

Dear Laurent,

Thank you for your hard work! I have enjoyed your Recensement page very much!
I am also very curious as to what happened to the first Blenheim, registered as 'MPH 100'. I wonder if it was updated to Blenheim III specification?

[Sam410]

Originally Posted by Laurent B

Among these 34 cars :
_ 5 are known by their VIN

Hi Laurent,

I suspect a number of early Blenheims (or one of them at least) were 'remanufactured' and sold as new Blenheim 3s, receiving a new VIN in the process. I know of someone who had a very late B3, and found two different VIN numbers on the car. He discussed it with BCL and was advised which was the correct one. The impression he got, though not confirmed by the company, was that they'd simply failed to change all the VIN stamps (I'm not certain how many there are) when the car was rebuilt.