[Geoff Kingston]

It may be picky but recent classic car articles have commented on and quoted sources who should know better that the maximum Bristol production figures at least in later years was never more than two a week.
Tony Crook however always maintained the figure was "never more than three cars a week" and years ago there was a video available subtitled to that effect where he says that himself while admitting that the then current production levels were nowhere near that.
It may not have been a matter of fact in terms of the number of cars turned out but it was a matter of pride for the man who owned the company and if that was his rule of thumb who can argue with that.
Well firstly the quoted sources for the simple reason that they do appear to be right, Tony Crook always mentioned the 3 a week figure so it became a part of the legend surrounding Bristol Cars that he created, the reality it appears was far from it and a far more realistic assessment of the situation was given by Richard Hackett in the September edition of Classic and Sports Car which carries the feature on the 603, he mentions a 'no more than two a week' rule applying only to the 50's cars, this I suspect is based on known production numbers. For the later cars 603 onwards he suggests as few as 10 a year.
This got me thinking about doing a rough analysis of the production numbers recorded on the Bristol Owners Club to see if there ever had been a period where any model was produced at a rate of three a week, it appears that only the 401 reached that level of production.
The 400, 403,and 404 averaged around two cars a week, the 405 and 406 slightly less but the big drop in production started with the 407 and 408 where it appears the average number of cars produced was 28 per year!
The 409 managed 26, the 410 27 and the 411's did better with an average production around 41 cars a year. The 412 managed an average of 17.5 cars a year whereas the Beaufighter trickled out of the factory at the rate of about 4 cars per year.
The 603 as Richard said was produced at a rate of around 10 cars a year but then based on the clubs figures production plummeted, the Britannia and Brigand output appears to have dropped to around 3 cars a year in total and and the Blenheim not even managing 2 cars a year based on the club figures but as there is a good chance that there are more Blenheim 3's out there than on club records production probably was around 2 cars per year.
This is only a rough analysis based on in some cases what could be estimated figures and were only a few cars appear to have been registered in one year they have been included in the adjacent full year of production otherwise some of these figures would have been lower.
What does this tell us, basically that I will do anything to avoid cutting the grass!
Geoff.