Sir George White is back with Bristol

[Monteverdi]

From Classic and Sportscar website:

Sir George White, whose late father was founding managing director of Bristol Cars in 1945, has been appointed Chairman of the firm's Advisory Board.

Already patron of the Bristol Owners Club and BOC Trust, Sir George's role will be to help and advise new owners Frazer-Nash Research on designs for a new luxury, high-performance Bristol car.

Lady White, a successful artist and designer has also joined as a consultant on Bristol's Advisory Board.

Sir George, whose great grandfather founded the Bristol Aeroplane Company from which the Kensington-based car company stems, will also work closely alongside Julian Ramshaw, who joins Bristol Cars as General Manager from the Sytner Group, where he was Business Manager.

"The revival of a famous company after it has passed through the hands of the administrators is never an easy task," said Sir George. "As far as Bristol Cars is concerned, the challenge has fallen into two halves. The first is to design and manufacture a new car, capable of equalling the quality and exceeding the performance of the cars that built the marque's reputation. Giant steps are being made in this respect, but, naturally, in great secrecy. The second is to preserve Bristol's glorious past. My role, and that of my wife Joanna, will be to assist in every way possible in exploiting the company’s history for the benefit of its uniquely exciting future."

[RogerB]

I hope the aims of the "new brooms" is to update the now out-dated suspension and fuelling of the Bristol range.

Styling has always been distinctive, this is not necessarily a bad thing so carry on!

RogerB, Bristol lover

[TonyHalls]

I have never owned a Bristol Car ( always had an Alvis ) But joined this forum in the hope of finding news that Bristol Cars will be made again. I will always claim that the Bristol is a great car, so reading that it will be produced again has made me happy.
Now living in the middle of a Forest, where any low slung car is out of the question, so have to settle for a pair of Subaru's.
Pipe dream for 2015! Bristol and Alvis -Military Vehicle Manufacturers - make a Proto-Type 4 wheel drive SUV (joint venture ) that is far superior to the ventures of Bentley, Lamborgini, Porsche etc, with an SUV costing over £100,000 of superb quality and capability. 'I wish'

[GREG]

You may be in luck ! I have already seen a prototype 4x4 SUV as well as a small car that Frazer Nash Bristol have developed. The 4WD has an electric motor on each wheel and had the Wankel engine for charging n the move. Maybe they will be developed further and end up with a Bristol badge ! It was certainly good to see Bristol advertising for staff in a Classic car mag recently for both the showroom and the factory paint shop.

[Kevin H]

4x4, Wankel engine and electric motors?

Doesn't sound like there's much Bristol DNA in that ...

[TonyHalls]

Kevin, the Bristol / Frazer Nash DNA will be quality build and innovation. Moving with the times is essential for survival, but this would not be such a bad thing if a reputation for quality and reliability in a beautiful and functional vehicle can be the new concept.
Tony

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted by TonyHalls

Kevin, the Bristol / Frazer Nash DNA will be quality build and innovation.

Bristol earned a reputation early on for build quality and some innovation, but since the 1960s (some may argue earlier) that's all it was, a reputation.

My view is that standards declined steadily under Tony Crook's control and the story about being built to aircraft standards was just part of the Bristol mythology.

Let's face it, the massive separate chassis remained largely unchanged for the whole V8 era spanning several decades. The power train was dictated by whatever Chrysler had produced and the cars lacked basic modern features that are common in cars costing a fraction of the price.

The only innovation I can think of would be limited to early adoption of LPG (brought on by soaring petrol prices), the safety wheel, although this may have been an Avon invention, and perhaps the window switches on the 412!

In the last half century the Fighter could have been viewed as "innovative" but even that is arguable.

Personally I believe the main value for FN was in the cachet of the Bristol brand, which was Tony Crook's real legacy, and something which should be studied by marketing students.

As for the title of the thread, what does the current Sir George White offer in terms of modern, innovative car manufacture? I know very little about the man, does he have expertise in this field?