Wanted - Owners Views for University Design Project

[gjaf]

Hi,

I am a university student currently in the early stages of a final major project to design a new car for Bristol. In order to gain a greater understanding of the Bristol cars and their drivers, talking to current owners is a source of invaluable information.

As such, I was wondering if Bristol owners would be willing to fill out a questionnaire. I am specifically looking to gain insight into why you chose to own a Bristol, what first attracted you and how you became aware of the company, what you believe the marque stands for and if you think the values of the company have changed over the years, for better or worse (or perhaps if you believe they should have changed, but haven't).

If you would be interested in helping me, please send me a message, and I will send you an email which will include the questionnaire in a more user-friendly format.

Thank you very much and I look forward to hearing from you soon

Gordon Farquhar,

Transportation Design Year 4, Northumbria University

[Bellerophon]

Gordon,
Not an easy task, as the cars have changed over the years, but when I
bought mine 48 years ago it was light years ahead of anything else, and even now
is a car to be reckoned with.
In 1951 The Motor said, "The Bristol 401 possessed a combination of virtues
which may not be equalled by any other car."
L.J.K. Setright the journalist of great renown, having looked at every car
available found that there was only one car which stood out from all the
rest and that was a Bristol 2 litre, and he drove one most of his life. Find
a copy of his last book in a library, Long Lane with Turnings, and this
will explain his reasons for buying a Bristol.
Hope this is of some help.
My regards,
Alan Blackwood

[gjaf]

Thank you for your reply Alan!

I have actually already got hold of a copy of Setright's "Bristol Cars & Engines" from 1974, but I will get hold of a copy of "Long Lane With Turnings" as well.

I appreciate that there is a lot of car-specific information and so i was looking to investigate what each car has progressively said about Bristol Cars as a company, how this has changed, and if there are common themes which i need to be mindful of in designing a new model. Is there a "true Bristol" ethos that the company has deviated from? Revolutionary quality and "ahead-of-its-time" factor are examples of the criterions i am attempting to accumulate. I am sure that Setright's book will help with this. but talking to current owners I think will help also. Information on specific user experience in buying their first car and hearing about the brand, be this 48 years ago or 2, is of really great use to me, but i will be sure to put each experience in the context of time.

Would it be okay for me to ask you to answer a questionnaire?

Thank you very much

[Kevin H]

Gordon, your question is a very interesting one which has been posed many times.

Would you be willing to post your findings here when you conclude your survey, (minus personal details of respondents) ?

If you are looking for any critiques of your designs you will get plenty if you post them on here!

To send a message to Gordon, just click on his username at the top left hand corner of his post and you will see the option to send him a private message.

[gjaf]

to Ibrowning:

I'm sorry for filling up your email inbox. I had just tried to post the topic in the most relevant thread. I had the same problem as you with receiving emails when i first signed up, and i think it's because i was subscribed to the threads.

If you go to the left hand bar of the forum, go to the email subscriptions section and select "edit forum subscriptions" you can choose not to get email updates from this message thread, i think. that's how i was able to fix the problem. I hope that helps clear things up, and if you would be willing to answer the questionnaire, please send me a personal message

thank you

Kevin:
I will happily post my findings and the results of my findings (which will hopefully be a number of designs) and it would be fantastic to get some critique on them, especially in terms of validation of the project from a consumer perspective. Thank you very much for all your help so far

[browning l]

Thank you, Gordon.

Please post your email address for a direct response.

Lou B.

[gjaf]

Thank you for your idea about direct responses, Lou.

Here is the questionnaire
Just a little information: It is perfectly acceptable for you to be honest and to-the-point; there are no "right" answers. The answers to some questions may overlap, but it’s okay to put the same/similar answers twice, or refer to one answer in the response to another question. I leave the amount you would like to write for each question up to your discretion.

1. Which Bristol car(s) do you own? (please list Bristol cars you previously owned where applicable)

2. Do you own another car that you use more than your Bristol: a primary vehicle ?
Yes / No

3. In which year did you acquire your first Bristol car?

4. How did you first become aware of Bristol Cars?

5. What attracted you to the company when choosing to buy the car?

6. What were the criteria used in deciding to buy the specific Bristol(s) you have owned?

7. What do you believe that Bristol, as a company, stands for?

8. Is there anything that you consider to be unique about Bristol?

9. What values of Bristol do you particularly like?

10. Has your opinion of Bristol cars changed (for better or worse) over time, either due to your experience, or a change in the brand itself?

11. Is there anything you think that I should know when designing a Bristol car?

If responses could be sent to my alternate email e_typejaguar@yahoo.co.uk, that would be greatly appreciated

Thank you for everyone that has been commenting so far!

[408Berlin]

Hello Gordon,


nice idea - good question - what type of people are driving a
Bristol??I am interested to answer your questions but I am also
interested to see the results.

My privat Email address: hajo.woite@berlin.de, Bristol 408 in Germany.

Best Hans

[Nick Challacombe]

I will gladly participate.
.
Nick

[dave dale]

Gordon,

You can send your questionnaire to the email address above.
BTW, I received 5 identical emails from you - one questionnaire
will do !

Dave Dale

[pasini s]

Hello,

please count me in if the views of a lonely Italian customer might be of
any interest for your researches. I have the honour of having helped several
other University students get their degrees, so I am very pleased to help
you, if only in this very minor way.

Thanks

Stefano

[John Keighley]

Gordon,
I reside in Australia where there is a very healthy Bristol following. I can complete your questionaire if you can send it to me.
I will also email you some information on Bristols generally.
Kind regards, John Keighley.

[dave dale]

Gordon,

Forgot to mention BTW, there are two other Bristol Owners forums.
The bristolcars.info one is run from Australia and is relativly
small. Most owners read the other two forums - the official BOC
forum ( http://boc.net/cms/modules/newbb/ and the Yahoo forum
( http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/BOCForum/ .

You can register and join the yahoo forum, then post your
request. I am rather busy but you could ask one of the members to
post for you on the boc.net forum. ( you can't post unless you
are a member ).

Dave.

Dr. David E E Dale.
bristol@davedale.co.uk

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted by dave dale

Gordon,
Forgot to mention BTW, there are two other Bristol Owners forums.
The bristolcars.info one is run from Australia and is relativly
small.

I'm not sure why Dave feels the need to put down this site, nevertheless I think reality check is required.

The fact that this site is run from Australia is completely irrelevant, evidenced by the fact that the vast majority of members are in the UK, mainland Europe and the USA. On the internet there are no geographical boundaries.

Small? - I don't really know how you can say 315 members joining in the first 12 months is "small", particularly when it comes to Bristol enthusiasts. The BOC itself only has about 800 members, of which about 5%-10% are actively involved in their two forums.

As for the BOC forums Dave mentions, I'll leave you to be the judge of the value of the content on the different sites.

Try posting the images of your designs on the official BOC forums

[irienz]

Additionally, as the "Australian" forum is not moderated, and was created to allow freer expression of views than was permitted on the BOC forum, you may obtain a wider range of views on your queries, some of which are at least potentially controversial, than on this forum.

[browning l]

That may well be, although there is an ongoing conversation about the BOC consitutution at their site, that shows some pretty strongly-worded conclusions, with which no one seems to be interfering.

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted by browning l

That may well be, although there is an ongoing conversation about the BOC consitutution at their site, that shows some pretty strongly-worded conclusions, with which no one seems to be interfering.

ah yes, a fascinating discussion between 3 of their 800+ members, one of whom is one of the moderators on the site PROPOSED CONSTITUTION [Forums - General] - Bristol Owners' Club

I guess that demonstrates the care factor for the topic among the membership, and/or their level of participation in their own forum.

There's one thing you definitely won't see us arguing about here - the BEEF constitution!

(BEEF - the Bristol Enthusiasts Email Forum is what evolved into this site)

[browning l]

Mate, I count more than a couple of non-sequiturs in your post, but that's OK.

[dave dale]

Kevin,
There was no intention to offend anyone - I'm sorry that you have taken my posting so badly. I was trying to be helpful to Gordon who may not have known of the existence of the other forums. If the Bristolinfo forum is indeed relatively as large as the other two forums then I am happy to stand corrected. The mention of Australia was, of course, incidental and only to identify this forum as opposed to the UK based forums - no harm in that and nothing else implied. If anyone inferred a ' put down ' please be assured that none was intended.
Dave Dale.

Originally Posted by Kevin Howard

I'm not sure why Dave feels the need to put down this site, nevertheless I think reality check is required.

The fact that this site is run from Australia is completely irrelevant, evidenced by the fact that the vast majority of members are in the UK, mainland Europe and the USA. On the internet there are no geographical boundaries.

Small? - I don't really know how you can say 315 members joining in the first 12 months is "small", particularly when it comes to Bristol enthusiasts. The BOC itself only has about 800 members, of which about 5%-10% are actively involved in their two forums.

As for the BOC forums Dave mentions, I'll leave you to be the judge of the value of the content on the different sites.

Try posting the images of your designs on the official BOC forums

[browning l]

Dale, it's just that those down in Oz are so sensitive.

Don't worry about it.