Hi Barrie
I had bought the previous Bristol book published by Butterfield press and at the last Heritage Trust lecture in Bristol the Author gave a talk on design, his father and Bristol Cars.
You will be able to order the book direct from Butterfield at-
www.butterfieldpress.co.uk But if doing it through a bookshop if they can get it for you the ISBN number is 978-1-9996325-2-6.
I ordered direct off the website. It was posted well packed and tracked.
Dudley Hobbs was the companies Chief Designer having started his career in the Aircraft side of the business he transferred to the newly formed car division had a hand in all the early cars, a major roll in refining the design of the 401 and eventually took over the responsibility for the design of all Bristol cars upto and including the 603, the exceptions being the 450 and 412's.
All this of course in the days before CAD so every element of the body design and construction was drawn by hand, some of these being reproduced in the book.
The young designer I feel had not really taken in properly what he was looking at at the earlier cars especially the later series of 411's, if he had I am sure he would not have said the 603 did not look like a Bristol.
Think of the competitors in the late 50's early 60's cars like the Alvis TD series, the Bentley Continetals which had evolved along similar lines to the Bristol 406 through to the 411, they really could not have been anything other than British and that was just as true of the 603 which at the time was acknowledged as a very good design, perfect no but what car is?
Of course I am totally biased as I own a 603 to keep my 411 and 401 company.
Geoff.