Words in the July 2011 issue of Motor Sport

[lansdownplace]

Surely it is the chassis that is the common DNA to all Bristols (other than the Fighter). Why not start with the chassis and drivetrain from your favorite Bristol driving experience package and build a one off body to your own design on it? Jeff Marsh is about to offer this option from his new enterprise in Bristol I believe.

I did wonder if it would have been a good product line for Bristol to offer before the big change. You buy a complete rolling chassis, and then you get your design built in CAD so you can see what you are getting and can tweak it accordingly, a buck gets built and the body is coachbuilt in traditional British manner for you. Porsche and Ferrari do this, for a fee of about a million quid, but I suspect that in the real world a Bristol of your own would cost 150 to 200k and would last your lifetime.

Personally I would avoid fiberglass on any car that is intended to have a prestige element, the big trend in replicas now seems to be aluminium due to reductions in tooling costs and the wider availability of superforming for small series production as well as customer demand. This further reinforces the need to avoid fiberglass which is very much associated with kit cars. It is a bit of a false economy and it just doesn't provide a class A paint finish which is one of the other defining features of Bristols.

P