Fighter T
 

Hello everyone

First post on this forum.

Has any magazine published a road test of the Fighter T? Or, has anyone on the forum driven one, and if so what was your imprestion?

Regards


AlanD
Sydney

I have driven a prototype Fighter, very easy to drive, buckets of torque and tremendous fun. On the downside as it was a prototype the fit and finish wasn't fully resolved and it tram lined a bit. The niche it occupies is very small with intense competition and new versions of model specials in runs of five or ten are common, look at the Zonda. I am not sure there are any two Foghters the same.

It is a shame the Fighter GT didn't get released before Christmas, that might have changed things. It is a mean machine indeed.

Paul

What is a Fighter GT?

Regards,
Markus

It is a standard fighter which is lowered with much wider track, flared arches, side skirts, louvered bonnet and front wings and fancy spoilers. Plus an 8.4 engine. It was to have been ready quite soon so we will need to watch what happens.

Doesn't sound good.
Who needs flared arches, side skirts and useless spoilers after getting out of puberty.

Regards,
Markus

The 'Newer" Bristols
 

I have to agree with what was said above. I don't consider a Bristol a muscle car or an exotic car by any stretch of the imagination. There are people out there that hot-rod most anything, and it is not uncommon to put twin turbos or superchargers, and even monstrous engines in just about anything. Can we just leave that stuff to that group? I think any new efforts to change the Bristol, including these latest concoctions is the makings of a disaster for the company. If the new owners don't see that, then I don't think there is any hope for the future. Bristols will go the way of dozens of other makes.

That is exactly what had happened to Bristol until Toby stepped in; BCL were making no cars, one or two cars a year can hardly be classed as 'production', their only income coming from servicing and restoration.

The world has moved on from what BCL traditionally built, name one small scale manufacturer that makes a full 4-seater 2-door saloon/coupe? (Ferrari made over 6,000 cars last year, Maserati made over 5,500 and Bentley made over 4,000 so they're not eligible).

The fact is, if you want to sell cars you have to make a product that people want to buy; which today means it has to look as fast as it goes and produces 700bhp+, anything less and it's a non-starter; just look at what is on offer from the competition and that will tell you what it takes to succeed (Lamborghini Aventador, Pagani Huayra, Koenigsegg Agera, Ferrari 599 replacement, etc).

The alternative may be to make a very fast electric supercar.....

These kind of fast and flashy supercars have existed for a long time, there was the Countach in the seventies and so on.
Bristol has never been in this market and hopefully will never be.
If it is not possible to keep up the marque character of Bristol - and Bristols have always had lots of individual character - than it's better to let the marque die. Why should it be saved just for the name's sake? For 25 employees?

Regards,
Markus

Yes - for 25 emplyees and for the service and parts.

A lot of people squirmed at the thought of Chrysler V8's and some still do !

Looking forward to the next incarnation of Bristol, whatever shape it takes, and will judge them afterwards.

No more Bristols, as we knew them, I guess....
 

Really too bad that the company failed in their efforts to go into the super-car market. What few resources that were available were gobbled up to enter a market already dominated by so many exotic makes. A street and road car with 700 horsepower is absurd,and are best left to sports stars and celebrities. Isn't it interesting that Morgan can still make what their customers want? There are specialists on every continent that can make anything you can imagine, and at a price substantially below what some of these outfits charge for their offerings. People seeking something truly unique will eschew the 'me too' expensive offerings. Taste does not have to carry a high price tag. Intelligent people are not sheep.......There, I said it!

I think the Fighter is fantastic.
As to me, it's the most interesting and fascinating supercar available on the market by a wide margin and the only really practical one.
And it's absolutely unique, comparable to nothing else.
I can't afford it, but if I could, I would buy one immediately.

For my taste it's also the most beautiful one, pure and uncluttered technical no-nonsense lines, no "design gimmicks" at all, nothing ostentatious, nothing to impress by-passers. Other cars in these league look ridicuously posh to me.

Regards,
Markus

Fighters and bombs and Ferraris
 

The super-duper dream cars are plastered on the walls of 14-year-olds' bedrooms, and as to them ever achieving the means to have such a car are quite remote. We leave the outrageous to the celebrity-sports stars to show off their wealth, not their taste. In my own case, I have had the good fortune to own a few rather rare and exotic marques and can tell you first hand that most are not what they are cracked up to be. After a few miles behind the wheel, the burning question becomes; 'is that all there is?' The car gets parked until a new victim can come along and buy it, and find out for themselves what the car is not. There are thousands of Chevrolet Corvettes that sit in garages everywhere whose owners finally acquired their 'dream machine', only to be disappointed with the overall driving experience, the discomfort and the expense of owning a full-size toy. There is a Ferrari parked a few miles from my home, and it was offered to me for literally pennies on the dollar. The owner has not driven it in at least ten years. The car is beautiful, but I would suggest that he sell tickets to raffle the car off. I am certain a great many others have been offered the car.

I wouldn't agree there.
For example, I think old Ferraris are far from perfect, but really a lot of fun to drive (my personal experience is limited to the Daytona and the early 365 GT4).
Just not practical for everyday life.

Regards,
Markus

Ferraris and the fun involved
 

Yes, I think they are an adventure on wheels. My friend had a 250 California convertible (redundant), and I had the pleasure of adjusting the valves. His parents bought it for him, and he drove it every day. Now, that was a lovely car. My dream car in that decade was the 250Gt Berlinetta short wheelbase, and at a paltry $14,000, it may as well have been a million dollars. Years later, I settled for an E-Type that I could afford. Then on to Aston-Martins, a true disaster. So it goes.........

Well, the 250 SWB IS in fact a million dollars nowadays. Or even more.

Regards,
Markus

250 Gt Swb
 

Yes, and that proves that there are more people out there with more money than brains. At 14K, that was a reach, even back then......I watched these cars being raced, and bashed about. Ah, those were the days!

The Fighter did one thing for Bristol, it took brand awareness to people who didn't even know Bristol existed, courtesy of magazine articles and numerous petrolhead internet forums. Unfortunately probably 99.9% of those new Bristol followers couldn't afford to buy one.

Nevertheless the Fighter delivered marketing value when no one was really interested in the latest incarnation of the Blenheim. It proved Bristol was still alive.

What Bristol also needed, IMHO, was another new car that was more affordable, that would appeal to a wider audience than the Fighter.

As for marketing the Fighter, they should have let Top Gear test a Fighter T. Almost every other supercar I can think of was on the show, which is watched by tens of millions of people around the world. That's hard to beat for exposure.

I have always wondered as to exactly what the Bristol 'marque character' is?

The majority of owners drive cars made more than 30 years ago, and the people buying the cars in the 50's aren't the same as those buying the Fighter today. I would be surprised if, since 1975, BCL made more than a total of 150 cars, Fighter excluded, so who was buying these cars? Liam Gallagher?

And should BCL still be making cars with an ancient straight 6? I know that some think so; and making cars that went out of fashion the moment that 70's straight edge design did?

Obviously some owners don't believe in evolution.....

In one word: understatement

Wearing your fur to the inside not to the outside, so to speak.
In other words, the exact opposite to what you proposed.

Just compare the various Bristol models from the beginning of the company on to their respective contemporaries and you get the answer to your question.
It is certainly not a matter of angular or rounded design or of six cylinder, eight cylinder or whatever engines.

That said, the Fighter suits the marque ethos just perfectly.

Regards,
Markus

Apparently, a lot of people wonder, more don't care, but some are comfortable.

So far as evolution in external car design in concerned, I was worn out on the wedge shape about 15 minutes after it appeared. It was asdated as fin fenders. But, then, who am I?

Just a car buyer, who was more attracted to a 411 or a 603 than nearly any car on the market today.

Of course, I'm an old man, so that explains it.

I have nothing against people who prefer what is past, I too would choose a 411 (series 4 or 5) over most cars today, but also look to the future with an eye to what will be, although I would never consider myself a revolutionary, I am just a realist, as painful to some as this may be....

May we let this thread die with the marque?
 

Opinions vary, but there seems to be some sort of consensus reached by both sides when it comes to the future of the company (if we can call it that).
On the one hand, the 'realists' and 'conservatives' want the company to get back to it's roots. They want sensible cars, reasonably priced, very reliable, understated and elegant in their own way. Fine.
The avant garde group want modern, high-powered, outrageous cars that specialists have built for ages; truly unique examples of the latest, greatest technology available. Sure, but all these things fade, just like fashion, and many big companies have tried this route. I can name BMW, Jaguar, even Mercedes building some truly awesom cars. The market fades more rapidly than the companies can recover the R & D costs, let alone make a profit. So, who is right? Are there many Bristol followers out there that would consider buying stock in Bristol, if it was offered. I wonder. The American auto industry has seen their fortunes fade, and like Great Brittain, the government attempted to keep them afloat. Guess what? Failure.
OK, maybe it is time to admit that the market will not sustain a 'boutique' product like the Bristol, the Aston, and any other make you care to add to the list.

I am not so pessimistic. The market sustains even a lot of boutique products from small manufacturers, not just in the automotive sector. It is just a question of the right marketing and the right cost management.

Regards,
Markus

Marketing and other stratagies for Bristol
 

You are right, and many small companies stay open and operating, and a lot of their success is dependent upon what we call 'hands-on' in the business. I have found in my own 4 business adventures that you cannot operate them at 'arms-length' unless you want to deliberately run them at a loss. I did that of course, for tax reasons in some cases. But to just 'invest', with hopes of some return is pure folly. I suspect a lot of that took place in Bristol's case. Same goes for David Brown and the Aston saga. There has to be a personal interest in the business. No one will run your business for you like you would yourself.

The problem with Aston Martin in the David Brown era was that the profit margins were far too low or even non-existent.
The cars were expensive but they were not expensive enough to recoup production costs. Hand-built products can never be cheap, there is no way around that. Companies like Bristol, Wiesmann, Pagani or whoever can only survive in the high-price sector. There is absolutely no point in trying to compete with mass producers in lower price regions.
There are enough examples of companies failing exactly because of such attempts.

Regards,
Markus

i remember a story concerning a well-heeled individual who, upon ordering his DB5, i think, demanded that he be charged at 'cost' for hir car, to his dismay he was informed that the car cost £1,000 more to build than Aston were selling it for! And people wonder why they went bust....

I think that in todays world compromise is required, and for me, if Bristol need to build a few 'flashy' cars to generate the income to develope their 'traditional' models, 30 years over due in my mind, then so be it (this is what Ferrucio Lamborghini had in mind when he built the Muira, and had the Peruvian deal not gone sour, Lamborghini might still be creating gloriously tasteful supercars, like the 350GT & Espada, rather than phallic extensions for those with more money than taste...

Bristols, Maseratis, and others
 

To be fair, I now believe all of this is water under the bridge. If the new owners decide to put the Bristol name on an electric car, then we can all turn the page and enjoy what few old cars are left and cherish them for what they are (were).
For years, I had lusted after a Maserati Mistral, and they were cheap by most standards back then, and I am sure they did not make serious money on any on their cars. Maserati hung on for years, being handed off several times to different buyers. Their turbo, upright, boxy sedans/coupes were the final nail in the coffin. They tried to reach a lower-priced market and paid the price. Not enough to just put your name on something. Somewhere, out there, there must be a few individuals who would like to make Bristols for fun, and not necessarily for profit. Please join me in prayer...........................

What do you mean by "final nail"? Maserati had a glorious renaissance after the De Tomaso/Biturbo period with the 3200 coupé under the new owner Ferrari/Fiat and has become an established and respected brand again.

Regards,
Markus

Maseratis
 

Well,they fell off the map over here, and I have not heard a thing about them since they were 'saved' again.

Yep - I love the Maserati 4 door, really nice interior and colours -- I wish Bristol had made something similar.

Maybe they will soon ! - everything is still possible and no fat lady's are singing.

What a lot of fellow Bristol owners don't know is that I manage a "think tank" that provide progressive innovative ideas to a number of industries and we are working hard on commercial strategies for the Frazer Bristol brand.

There is every reason to be exited and optimistic for the future in all areas, for old sagging Bristols and new pert designs. Not just electric hybrid but wind , solar, steam and dark matter magnetic kineteics are all virtualy ready for release.

One of our recovering members ( Paul Wilson ) had a failing electrical goods repair shop only a few years ago and was living at the Filton YMCA until the "think tank" were brought in to help ! He now drives the best Bristol ( arguably ) on the road and is chalenging companies such as Binatone in the electronic note pad markets !

I have offered Bill and Kate the loan of my Beaufighter for the wedding doo tomorrow, so this should help get the brand back into public focus.

We all just need to pull together. ( and be realistic with our comments )

*REVISION*

My colleague has brought it to my attention that Paul was not in fact residing at the Filton YMCA.He was in fact only leading the "Village People" tribute band along with my friend Arthur S -- apologies for any confusion.

All true, I must thank Arthur for his input on dry cell battery technology and the use of smaller valves for the processors without which my 'Duffle Pocket' range of electronic organisers would never have made it to the shelves of PoundStretcher.

P

I visited Arthur today in the high security wing at Rampton and he is pleased that some of his ideas worked for you and apologised for putting Imac in your hair conditioner bottle !

It's a shame that Bill and Kate resorted to using the traditional coach for the wedding today instead of the Beaufighter I offered, but T. Crook slept in and Arthur couldn't / didn't pass security clearance as the back up driver.

Nevertheless , the germ of the idea is already there for future Royal precessions to all be in electric carriage vehicles -- all provided by Frazer Bristol.

I am swelling with pride ! - I think

I thought this thread was about the Figher T ?