Bristol 400 drophead coupé: open season

By Emma Woodcock

| 21 Feb 2024

Classic & Sports Car – Bristol 400 drophead coupé: open season

So you want to be an automobile manufacturer, in a market thick with established competition?

Two paths lie before you: either your fledgling firm glories in its independence – specifying and producing down to the smallest component – or pragmatism can take hold, sending would-be builders to the establishment with cap in hand.

Artisan Ettore Bugatti sits at one pole, make-it-fit maverick Carroll Shelby at the other.

This classic Bristol, chassis number 400/1/004, is the fourth and final pre-production prototype from the marque’s early days

And then there’s George Stanley White.

When founding Bristol, he had decided to do both.

Wings sweeping into the distance, straight-six purring crisply, soft-top bundled out of the way, the one-of-two Bristol 400 drophead coupé endorses his approach.

The double-kidney grille recalls 1930s BMWs, an impression only strengthened by the flexible but rev-happy responses and unusually high-geared rack-and-pinion steering.

Bristol cars was founded by George White

Hands and feet abuzz with bleeding-edge Bavaria, I’d expect a body-hued Art Deco dash, dials verging on abstract and bright white Bakelite as far as the touch can prod.

But no. Solid timber shoulders across the bulkhead and Connolly hides splash through the cabin, forming a defiantly English perch.

Both more refined and more conservative than the German source material, the Bristol drophead’s cockpit is a very pleasant place to sit.

With the double-kidney grille up front, it’s no secret that the Bristol 400 drophead coupé was largely inspired by pre-war BMWs

Blue rushes overhead and greens blur past my peripherals to create an intoxicating sense of space, underlined by windows that drop all the way down into the doors.

Once the glazing has gone, you can even prop an elbow on top of the generously thick wooden seam that remains.

Wind barely buffets anywhere else, the semi-aerodynamic bodywork and close-set windscreen combining with floor-height seat squabs to keep driver and front passenger well out of the airflow.

The Bristol 400 drophead coupé’s straight-six engine was built in-house at Bristol Aeroplane Company

Banishing the fusty claustrophobia of an ordinary 400 saloon, the convertible prickles with joy.

By lifting the gloom usually imparted by thick pillars and bijou windows that hinge or slide sideways – but do not wind down – this cabriolet predicts the post-war sports-car boom that would sweep through Jaguar, AC, Aston Martin, MG, Triumph and more across the following years.

Where fixed-head Bristols are lithe and lean but thoughtfully refined, the drophead seasons these merits with peppy enthusiasm, regaling with a bitingly rich exhaust note and the swirling aromas of an engine worked hard.

The Bristol 400’s spare wheel is kept in the boot, unlike later models which have it stowed in the front wing

This cream machine is a triumph – and a significant slice of British industrial history.

Built in the earliest months of 1947, bearing chassis number 400/1/004, it alone spans the gap between a Bristol Aeroplane Company exploring the challenges of automotive production, and a newly asserted Car and Light Engineering Division that sold vehicles to the paying public.

Trial run, international motor-show star and first pound notes in the till alike, this fourth and final pre-production prototype began the legacy of one of Britain’s longest-lived and most eccentric car manufacturers.

The Bristol’s thin windscreen pillars aid the excellent vision from the cabin

On the surface, the move to motoring bordered on inexplicable.

BAC had long been one of the nation’s foremost and largest aircraft manufacturers, growing larger still when the Second World War broke out.

Cranking out Beaufighters and Brigands by the thousand, the workforce swelled to 70,000 people.

But George White, installed as Bristol’s general manager after leaving Cambridge, wasn’t convinced that a shift back to civil aviation alone would keep his employees earning after the war was won.

This Bristol 400 drophead coupé has a six-figure mileage, but it’s joyful to drive

He wanted to diversify – and he favoured automobiles.

By 1941 he was penning missives about a Bristol takeover of marques such as Alvis, ERA and Aston Martin.

Promoted to joint managing director in 1945 – a role he shared with his cousin, Reginald Verdon-Smith – his push for corporate variety grew ever more urgent.

Helicopters, prefabricated buildings and the Freighter commercial aircraft soon started rolling down BAC production lines, but White stuck fast to his motoring convictions: he was going to build a car.

Stepping into the Bristol 400 drophead coupé, you’re greeted by rear-hinged doors finished in Connolly leather and a well-appointed interior

In May, his aims reached the ears of a Ministry of Aircraft Production inspector named Don Aldington.

Whether engineered or fortuitous, the conversation revealed that Aldington had more than a decade’s experience in car sales and production.

In 1929 his brother, Harold – known as ‘Aldy’ – had inserted himself as managing director and majority stakeholder of AFN Limited, moves that brought Frazer Nash under Aldington control.

The Bristol 400 drophead coupé’s full-width wooden dashboard meets matching door tops

Together with a third sibling, Bill, they had run the sports-car maker since – and Aldy kept forging it forwards.

After a little-known German roadster destroyed the Nash team in the 1934 Coupe Internationale des Alpes, sales-savvy Aldy had driven straight to its Munich factory and secured an audience with the people who mattered.

By the time he drove home, Frazer Nash was en route to abandoning its ‘Chain Gang’ home-brews.

BMW had granted the Aldingtons an exclusive concession to market, sell and construct its entire product range in the United Kingdom.

The Bristol’s straight-six engine has ample torque for cruising

Stylised as Frazer Nash-BMW, though localisation changes were few, the revived marque sold more than 600 cars before war severed supply lines.

Six years later, with hostilities winding down, the family still had a handful of the venture’s sportiest cars to hand.

White jumped at the chance to try them.

Over the following weeks, the youthful heir talked to his company’s board, persuading the firm to use the best of pre-war Bavarian technology for the Bristol car.

Following a stint as a beach car in the US, this Bristol 400 drophead coupé returned to the UK in the late 1980s

He succeeded, sparking a whirlwind of hirings, negotiations and corporate reorganisation.

Before the summer was out, BAC had taken a majority share in AFN and the major figures from both firms had visited the old BMW factory via Stirling bomber.

They travelled home with blueprints, copious parts and defecting BMW engineering genius Dr Fritz Fiedler.

Styled and developed by a nucleus of home-grown talent, the 400 gradually emerged over the following year and a half, synthesising and reimagining a trio of late-’30s BMW designs into a distinctly British whole.

The Bristol 400 drophead coupé’s canvas top protects passengers from wind roar

A parts count can prove it. The Bristol Aeroplane Company made an overwhelming majority of the 400’s components in-house, not least the engine, transmission, body and chassis, calling on local firms such as Lockheed and Lucas for the few areas beyond its own expertise.

German suppliers were notable only by their absence.

Frazer Nash-Bristol, as the team initially styled its endeavour, planned a limited run of 500 cars, split equally between £1000 fixed-head saloons and drophead coupés at a £250 premium.

Now they just needed to build one.

The Bristol’s heavy roof is a two-person job to raise or lower

Drawing inspiration from the wide range of BMWs on hand – including an ex-factory 1940 Mille Miglia entrant – the engineers toiled over the task of wrapping an ash-framed, mostly steel body inspired by Bavaria’s 327 over a box-section 326 chassis, before installing a revised 328 straight-six for power.

In May 1946 BAC constructed its first engine, followed shortly after by a pioneer 400 prototype.

Equipped with chassis number 400/1/001, the first Bristol appeared in select magazine articles during late 1946 before it gained 400/2/002 – another test saloon – for company.

The Bristol 400 drophead coupé’s windows drop fully into the doors, adding to this classic car’s fantastic sense of space

Focus at the Filton, Gloucestershire, factory then pivoted to the model’s other body style, constructing the convertibles 400/1/003 and, finally, this car, 400/1/004.

Raising its roof, the prototype feels nothing like the experimental sketch you might expect.

Heavingly weighty on its solid wooden frame, the hood takes two people to lift but operates simply, hinging smoothly up and forward to land accurately atop the windscreen.

Three simple latches click the canvas to the ’screen’s surround.

“I always marvel that this 76-year-old machine can fire straight up and sweep down the A2, fuss-free at 70mph”

As we then return to the road, the mood alters radically.

The cabin turns into a shaded cocoon, the view blinkered by the minute rear window and a complete absence of rear-three-quarter vision, although plenty of headroom remains and the hood shows no signs of wind roar or ingress.

Strident intake and ripping exhaust overtones take a step back, too, although the canvas seems to amplify the remaining engine note to leave an uncluttered, deep-chested burr that mimics 1930s land yachts: think more Park Ward than the earlier roof-down Prescott.

The curious bumper overriders are to Bristol’s original design

Driving morphs to suit, shifting earlier and trickling on ample torque.

The car could gallop far away, spanning the Continent with ease, hood up or lowered. The trip would be nothing new.

In March 1947, this drophead pointed its cream coachwork and then red roof towards the Geneva motor show.

All eyes were on the cabriolet when it reached Switzerland.

Stylish indicators on the Bristol 400 drophead coupé’s sweeping front wings

Forming an exhibit with one of the prototype saloons, 400/1/004 made Frazer Nash-Bristol’s global debut.

The pair stole headlines, yet this was actually the second time the final prototype had led the way.

Just under a month earlier, chassis four had become the first Bristol ever to be sold.

Liquorice magnate Alan Marshall was the lucky buyer.

Flaps open to help cool the Bristol 400 drophead coupé’s cabin

The long-time BMW enthusiast received a 16.2% discount, offsetting a list price rise to £1500, before settling a bill for £1669 13s 4d once delivery and Purchase Tax had been factored in.

Perhaps due to his personal friendship with Harold Aldington, he let his new car disappear to Geneva free of charge.

It was back by summer and rapidly accumulating miles, clicking into five figures by the end of the year.

The following spring, the car made an appearance in print, when an image of two women, the 400 and an Alpine pass illustrated the contents page of The Motor issue 2432.

The Bristol Aeroplane Company plate reveals this 400 drophead coupé’s provenance

A six-figure mileage, multiple owners and rebuilds, a crash, a repaint into blue, a return to cream and various modifications filled the ensuing decades, before marque enthusiast Dr Andrew Blow spotted the drophead in 1972.

He suspected he’d found something special, so set about proving it.

Between research trips to Cambridge and Oxford universities and a return to Bristol Cars, where developmental markings were uncovered on the steering rack, the car’s prototypical provenance slowly emerged.

And then, in 1976, he sold it.

The Bristol 400 drophead coupé now enjoys weekly use

Shipped to Long Island, 400/1/004 spent the following decade deteriorating, until Robert Sillerman picked it up at auction.

The New Hampshire businessman enjoyed the Bristol as a low-stakes beach car and chewed over what to do next.

In December 1988 he found the answer, when Dr Blow sent him a letter.

The former owner had long regretted parting ways and agreed to buy the car back for $15,000.

The Bristol’s 1971cc straight-six engine makes 80bhp at 4200rpm, just before the redline

Appearing as a discovery in C&SC soon after (July 1989), his cabrio began the long trip home, reunited with its original SMG 72 registration in 1991.

Either side of the millennium, the 400 finally received the renovation it deserved.

Alterations made to the car both during and since that five-year overhaul stop me short of drawing total conclusions, but my convictions are growing stronger by the mile, especially once I re-stow the roof.

Important gauges are behind the Bristol 400 drophead coupé’s three-spoke steering wheel

Beneath the later, more powerful 100A engine, 1950s 403 BWCR transmission, servo-assisted disc brakes, door mirrors and overdrive, chassis four still has its considered, luxuriously usable bones intact.

It’s no accident that current owner Steven Parker drives it every single week.

“I always marvel that this 76-year-old machine can fire straight up and sweep down the A2, fuss-free at 70mph,” he says.

As charming as it is soothing, versatile and satisfying in equal measure, the 400 drophead coupé is an utter delight.

‘Both more refined and more conservative than the German source material, the Bristol drophead’s cockpit is a very pleasant place to sit’

Bristol should have stuck to its guns.

Instead, the original open-top 400 fell casualty to a messy divorce.

Always on-trend and frustrated by the company’s conservatism, Aldy dispatched a brace of bare Bristol chassis to Italy in November 1946, briefing carrozzerie Touring and Farina to craft modish new bodies that would better catch buyers’ eyes.

The first of them produced a slippery coupé to its Superleggera stressed-panel tubular framework principles, which BAC would ultimately redevelop into the 401 for 1948.

The Bristol’s cockpit remains free from buffeting wind, despite the stowed roof and lowered windows

A convertible along Lancia and Alfa Romeo lines emerged from the second coachbuilder, and met with a frostier reception.

Tensions escalated. By April 1947, Frazer Nash-Bristol had dropped its first two names and become Bristol, reflecting an immediate untangling of BAC and AFN.

George White led his dream into production reality that summer, with BAC constructing 425 complete 400s to 1950.

Every last one was a saloon.

A missed opportunity? The Bristol 400 drophead coupé never reached production

Retaining their role as the new marque’s London agent, the Aldingtons went back to car sales and, steadfast in his convictions, Harold offered his Italian designs to order.

Among it all, the 400 drophead coupé fell through the cracks, with neither party making good on its prototype promise until Bristol leapfrogged to the 401-based 402 cabriolet.

As first link and missing link, 400/1/004 shows how much they were missing out on.

Images: Max Edleston

Factfile

Bristol 400 drophead coupé

Sold/number built 1947/2
Construction steel, aluminium and timber body on box-section steel frame
Engine iron-block, alloy-head, cross-pushrod 1971cc straight-six, triple SU carburettors
Max power 80bhp @ 4200rpm
Max torque 106lb ft @ 3500rpm
Transmission four-speed manual, freewheel on first, synchromesh on top three gears, RWD
Suspension: front independent, by wishbones, transverse leaf spring rear live axle, torsion bars; lever-arm dampers f/r
Steering rack and pinion
Brakes drums
Length 15ft 3in (4648mm)
Width 5ft 4in (1625mm)
Height n/a
Wheelbase 9ft 6in (2895mm)
Weight 2604lb (1181kg)
Mpg 21.4
0-60mph 14.7 secs
Top speed 94mph
Price new £1500 plus Purchase Tax
Price now £200,000*