Tony Crook in Octane Magazine

[jimfoz]

Just read an interview in the latest edition with TC himself. He looks very well for 91. Not a great deal of info that is new unfortunately, although he does speak about the BCL closure with obvious regret - he mentions that he sold 50% in 1997 to Silverton's contingent for much less than others were offering and the remaining shares in 2001. He doesn't say how he was pushed, but mentions 'a lot of trauma'. There's a few lines on the closure - the main reason he gives for the failure was the Fighter development taking all the resources. He also says that, if the company is bought, 'none of the present directors have anything to do with it'.
Now we need Toby Silverton's side of the story......

[The Fitter]

I would also like to hear T Silvertons side of the story aswell and to find out where it all went wrong. I have an idea why it went wrong, but would love to hear the truth.

[Janne]

A small company should never try to compete with the Big Boys.
The Fighter was a fiasco. Lots and lots of problems that needed to be rectified after the owners took delivery. I wonder how much money the company lost on each Fighter......

[GREG]

T.C or T.S. Only one way to find out who's best ! --- Fighter :-)

Been watching Harry Hill :-)

[Eric Brumenil]

How could you believe in silverton's version even if it's interesting to know .
He is just a big liar
You can take all his statements and interview about the Fighter one by one and all are false
If you read how much money they have invested last year on the Fighter's development , you can understand why it's finished
It is also interesting to read how much new cars they have sold
Fighter is a total failure

[Ronald G. Stephenson]

Tell you what, friends. If and when I win the lottery over here, I will buy up the remains of the company and put it back in business. The newer iterations will be dropped, and nothing newer than the 411 will be produced.

[GREG]

I don't believe in anything Eric Brumenil says. He keeps popping up telling us all he will do this and that and then asks for his posts to be removed.

I know of other well known Bristol suppliers that he is also threatening legal action against and accusing of wrong doings.

Boring Eric and very unlikely that you should be the only one for all these bad things to happen to !! Brits are never down for long

I guess a creep is a creep in most languages......

[lansdownplace]

Originally Posted by Ronald G. Stephenson

Tell you what, friends. If and when I win the lottery over here, I will buy up the remains of the company and put it back in business. The newer iterations will be dropped, and nothing newer than the 411 will be produced.

Surely this is a typo Ronald and you meant 'newer than the 412'

Paul

[browning l]

Originally Posted by GREG

I don't believe in anything Eric Brumenil says. He keeps popping up telling us all he will do this and that and then asks for his posts to be removed.

I know of other well known Bristol suppliers that he is also threatening legal action against and accusing of wrong doings.

Boring Eric and very unlikely that you should be the only one for all these bad things to happen to !! Brits are never down for long

I guess a creep is a creep in most languages......

Even if you spell it crepe, it's still a soft, half-baked, soggy mass.

[jimfoz]

Originally Posted by The Fitter

I would also like to hear T Silvertons side of the story aswell and to find out where it all went wrong. I have an idea why it went wrong, but would love to hear the truth.

I read somewhere that the Fighter development was £30m. Whatever it was, the costs of developing a new car would have been prohibitive for a company like Bristol. I never believed that they 'build slightly fewer cars than the demand dictates' and I don't think they have been building 2 or 3 cars a week for decades. Couple this with the economic downturn and you have a company that cannot possibly recoup the costs. It's a shame, as I thought that they were starting to go in the right direction with the 411 S6. They should have ditched the ugly Blenheim bodyshell and just started reproducing these.

[Eric Brumenil]

Greg , this is funny that you try to show that you know everything about everything
If it's that case , you have read the report made by administration , you know everything about property lease , stock , info about BCL ( the real one )..... etc
And if it's that case , you should confirm that what I have previously written is the truth

[GREG]

Eric,

If I had the administrators report I would have had to sign the NDA and it would be illegal for me to mention anything on the report, such as stock values !!

So by breaking the law you confirm yet again your limited understanding of the real World.

But then again, it seems you love the occasion of being in Court -- enjoy :-)

[lansdownplace]

Originally Posted by GREG

Eric,

If I had the administrators report I would have had to sign the NDA and it would be illegal for me to mention anything on the report, such as stock values !!

So by breaking the law you confirm yet again your limited understanding of the real World.

But then again, it seems you love the occasion of being in Court -- enjoy :-)

Greg,

You should be nice to Eric as he could be the new owner of BCL as that is the best way now for him to avoid an action for breach on the NDA (I am of course assuming that Eric has signed an NDA and got the prospectus from the administrators rather than just making his 'facts' up)

The relevant section of the NDA is

(a) We will not (directly or indirectly) at any time, without your prior written consent, disclose or reveal or permit access to or discuss the Information, in whole or in part, to or with any person other than such of our directors or the Designated Persons who need to know such Information for the express purpose of considering, and advising upon the acquisition of the assets, tangible and or intangible, of the above named concern

Which means you can't reveal the privileged information you have been given or blurt out opinions on the WWW. EVER. Or anywhere else for that matter.

[GREG]

- Quote -Eric Brumenil

They expect more than £4.000000 ......
For springs , shims , bolts , hubs . They have a lot of Blenheim parts
I don't think they will get more than £100000 for everything -Quote -

Oop's , It seems that Eric or a friend of his has already let slip confidential information !

Maybe the administrator will forgive you if asked nicely and choose not to prosecute and Kevin will remove your posts for you --- again !

Good luck as I am sure you meant well !

[Eric Brumenil]

Originally Posted by GREG

Eric,
you confirm yet again your limited understanding of the real World.

Yes by chance I am not in your world

[Eric Brumenil]

you can see the company detail here
I

BRISTOL CARS LIMITED incorporated 08-01-1947, registered company number 00427126. Credit report, annual accounts from Companies House and free company monitoring available

[GREG]

Nice try :-)

But you wouldn't have obtained details on parts for particular models from accounts !

[TBC]

I think whatever the truth is, and it is probably a mixture of factors touched upon, either BCL dies now or will be bought by a wealthy, and good meaning individual, and will die in a few years or wil be purchased by a corporation who view the name and imagine of a luxury car maker will be good for their image, except that the company will be changed forever.

The Fighter was undoubtedly a huge drain on BCL's precarious resources, however without bringing something new to the market BCL would slowly become nothing more than a servicing, restoring and secondhand dealership for its previous models, as building one or two Blenheims a year barely qualifies it as a manufacturer; they spent as much time, if not more on restoring 411s etc.

If I was in a position to buy BCL, very rich and more than slightly insane, then I would scrap everything except the Series 6 range and the Fighter, which needs further development to make sure it remains competative.

The quote "If you want to make a small fortune making cars start with a large furtune" seems to apply.....

[The Baron]

Someone will buy some aspect or aspects of Bristol I would imagine, but the company as it stands is a basket case. The Fighter has bombed, they don't appear to have jigs to make any more Blenheims and the series 6 and speedsters are a king's ransom to buy and only really of interest to a tiny number of very wealthy Bristol afficionados. The spares business is pretty small beer really and I hear that they sold most of the hard to get stuff years ago. Add into this the fact that Bristol owners are an ageing bunch, the key staff are well past retirement age and they were operating out of 3 seperate expensive sites and the coffin looks well nailed shut to me.
It was a small miracle that Mr.Crook kept the company going for as long as he did and for that I personally salute him. Toby Silverton was no fool either and risked everything on one last gamble, presumably seeing no other option.
All the same, it'll be interesting to see what emerges from the wreckage as a return to car manufacture will involve an eye wateringly large capital investment with no obvious demand to justify it.
I only hope that the Bristol marque doesn't get too tarnished by these events.

[GREG]

Between the half a dozen or so Bristol Car specialists, they must of employed a lot more people than Bristol Cars ! I wonder how much revenue Bristol Cars lost because of this.