The death of Bristol Cars

Behind the scenes of the last days at Bristol

After teetering on the brink for years, Bristol Cars Ltd – an offshoot of the 1946 Car Division of the Bristol Aeroplane Company – finally closed its doors in 2020.

Following a sale of the firm’s goods and assets, groups of volunteers from the Bristol Owners’ Heritage Trust and the Bristol Owners’ Club rescued original body bucks, parts and body panels from the company’s former headquarters in Windlesham.

Fortunately for us, top-class photographer – and Bristol owner – Sam Frost was there to capture the moment.

The body beautiful

The body bucks – here (from left) for the 411, 410 and 406 – have all been acquired by the Bristol Owners’ Heritage Trust, and in September 2020 members of the Trust headed to Windlesham to rescue them. 

“The spectacular headquarters, set in a Masters of the Universe-type building had become semi-derelict,” says BOHT chair Stefan Cembrowicz, “with pigeon droppings and roof leaks creating the setting for a kind of dystopian horror movie.”

Enthusiasts to the rescue

All seven of the firm’s factory wooden body bucks were liberated from the basement at Windlesham. Originally called horses, these elegant structures were used by the craftsmen at Filton to build every Bristol car from the Type 401 to the 603 – from 1950-2000. 

In the foreground here sits the ‘Project 409’ special, alongside the bucks for the ‘Aerodyne’ 401/3 and the 404/5 that replaced it.

What’s next for Bristol’s bucks?

Mindful of the company’s troubles, the Bristol Owners’ Heritage Trust had been raising funds in preparation for several years, and now plans to find suitable homes where the bucks can be displayed – preferably where they could also be accessible for working exhibits. 

Pictured together here are (from left to right) the later 603, the Zagato-styled 412, the 411, 410 and 406.

Traditional craftsmen’s skills

The buck for the Bristol 404 and 405 is among the prettiest, but all reflect a different era, when aluminium body panels were hand-formed over their well-worn surfaces. 

“These bucks exemplify the aero-engineering artisan skills that were carried across from the parent Bristol Aeroplane Co,” says BOHT chair Stefan Cembrowicz, “using woodworking skills inherited directly from the Bristol Boxkite and other wood-framed aircraft.”

A new angle on Bristol curves

“We had successfully bid online for the six-cylinder types 401/3, 404/5 and 406,” explains Cembrowicz. “But we also acquired the 410/11, the 412 Zagato and the enormous 603.”

These more angular designs are pictured here, from left: the 603, introduced in 1976; the 1975-’86 412; and the 1969-’76 411. All of these elegant expresses featured effortless Chrysler V8 power and Bristol’s uniquely hand-finished feel.

Aerodynamics in action

The aeronautical influence from the Bristol Aeroplane Company is clear to see in the discreet tailfins of this 405 saloon buck – the company’s only four-door model. Some 265 examples (plus 43 drophead coupés) were built from 1953-’58.

In the background, the more reclined, streamlined shape of the 411 (furthest from the camera) can be compared to the earlier, more upright 410 (middle).

From the air to the road

The 406 (left) and 404/5 (right) were styled in-house by Bristol’s chief designer, Dudley Hobbs.

While their contemporaries featured ornate chrome grilles, the cleanly designed 404, 405 and 406 boasted a distinctive air intake modelled on those found on the wings of the Bristol Brabazon airliner.

Contrasting styles

An intriguing juxtaposition in the Windlesham basement, as the last of the ‘classic’ Bristol shapes, the smoothly styled 411, sits alongside the body buck for the angular 412, styled by Italian carrozzeria Zagato in Milan.

A heartfelt farewell

On the side of the 411, scrawled across the area where the windows would be on the finished car, has been chalked the message ‘Good-Bye-Dolly’ – presumably a farewell message from one of the craftsmen who used to work on these bucks before the company shut down.

Back where they belong

Volunteers from the Bristol Owners’ Heritage Trust prepare the body bucks for transport from the former Bristol Cars headquarters in Windlesham back to Filton, where they will be stored temporarily in the Brabazon Hangar, just a short distance from where they were made.

A Great Briton with a Latin twist

While most Bristols were designed by the in-house team, there were a few special-bodied exceptions in the early years when Italian styling houses such as Pinin Farina and Zagato were employed. 

For the 412 of 1976, Zagato was called upon once again – this time for a production model originally featuring the 6.3-litre Chrysler V8, later a 5.9. The same body style was used for the Beaufighter and Beaufort, and the original buck still wore its Italian factory label as it was loaded for transport to Filton.

Ready to go

After some heroic work with a forklift, the hefty timber bucks were loaded on to trailers before being driven in convoy up the M4 behind Bristol Owners’ Heritage Trust members’ cars to the famous Brabazon Hangar, next to their Filton birthplace. 

Here the 410 buck is strapped down and ready to hit the road.

Stacks going spare

In addition to the body bucks, the sale of the company assets included a huge number of parts, racks and racks of which were acquired by the Bristol Owners’ Club. 

Approximately 100 tons of parts and spares were purchased by the club from the liquidators, which were then packed, palletised and shipped to a temporary storage facility to be catalogued.

Design legend lends a hand

The new owner of the former Bristol Cars headquarters – originally built in the shape of an oxygen molecule, as the global headquarters of the British Oxygen Company – is the Gordon Murray Group. 

When the club realised the mammoth task of sorting the jumble of body panels, mechanical components and more, chairman Mark Alford spoke to the car-designing legend Gordon Murray himself, who kindly let the club have an extra few weeks to complete the operation.

Harvesting a bumper crop

The pile of parts – including this clutch of bumpers – was acquired following a donation from one of the club’s members, and as they are sold they will generate income that will be reinvested to commission the production of new parts for Bristol cars.

Following the death in 2020 of two long-standing suppliers, and the demise of Bristol Cars, there are now no other specialists in Bristol parts; a new company will be formed to manage and sell the stock.

Quality craftsmanship

As well as smaller panels, the parts included the complete front bodywork for a 603 and a 406, plus the nose of a 409. 

The whole haul took several weeks’ work to pack up and shift, and is now being sorted and prepared for sale to enthusiasts; some of the items that weren’t worth saving were sent off for scrap. 

Moving into the modern age

The body panels collected by the club weren’t only traditional hand-formed aluminium items, but also carbonfibre panels for the Fighter super-GT, launched in 2004.

Here, pairs of carbonfibre ‘gullwing’ doors for the Fighter sit alongside spare-wheel wells and wheelarches. 

Sting in the tails

More carbonfibre panels for the Bristol Fighter, this time rear tailgate surrounds, await cataloguing before finding a new home with an enthusiast.

Heavy metal

A stack of rear axles and V8 cylinder heads in the basement of the old Bristol Cars headquarters. 

In the end, the Bristol Owners’ Club removed 16 articulated lorry loads of spares and parts from Windlesham, weighing in at approximately 80-100 tons in total.

Hiding under the stairs

There were parts literally everywhere across the basement in Windlesham. 

Here’s a stash of doors, bonnets and bootlids from various Bristols that was uncovered in what was literally a cupboard under the stairs.

Giant jigsaw puzzle

The scattering of brightwork and spare body panels resembled an enormous Bristol jigsaw puzzle – only with too many pieces…

Exhaustive supply

Just one of the many boxed-up crates ready for removal by the Bristol Owners’ Club – this one containing a pile of exhaust systems for the 411.

On a wing and a prayer

At least five of the lorry loads of components were made up of body panels, both brand new and secondhand – in this case freshly made wings for the 412 Zagato – and they are now safely in storage, while the club puts together a parts list.

This could take up to six months to complete.

Work of artisans

More Bristol wings, this time for earlier models, once again reveal the traditional skills of the craftsmen at the Filton works. 

It’s remarkable to think that these panels were hand-formed over the very bucks that were salvaged by the team from the Bristol Owners’ Heritage Trust.

Numbers up

A selection of numberplates adorned the walls of the Windlesham basement, taken from Bristol cars. 

P30 BOL was a Bristol Fighter, which explains the usual shape of this particular plate.

The ultimate all-wheel-drive?

Not part of the Bristol Cars auction, but still in storage in the basement, was this bizarre eight-wheel-drive demonstrator – a product of Bristol sister company Frazer Nash Ltd’s research into electric vehicles. 

The prototype uses a motor in each wheel hub, with an electronic ‘differential’ that controls how the power is distributed to each wheel, depending on available grip.

Forgotten prototype

Another intriguing relic from the last days of Bristol Cars was the prototype Bristol Bullet, which lay surrounded by Morgan chassis at Windlesham. 

The Bullet was built on a Morgan Aero 8 chassis, with bespoke carbonfibre bodywork, and at the time of writing the entire project is still being offered for sale by the liquidator. 

The one assembled car has never been homologated so is currently not road-legal, though it probably could be made so.

Doing a jig

Outside the basement, these industrial-looking pieces of metal turned out to be Bristol 603 production jigs. 

In the foreground is the jig for the side panels, with the chassis jig in the background.

Unfinished symphony

Incredibly, the Bristol V8 chassis production jig at Windlesham still bears a chassis, which may be a Blenheim that was still in production when the Filton factory closed in 2010. 

Perhaps the last Bristol that never was?

The end of the road

In the grounds of the Windlesham headquarters sat an accident-damaged Bristol 410 and the remains of a 401/3 body, awaiting collection by the scrap man.

Under the skin

Where the wing has been cut away following an accident, you can see the sturdy steel structure beneath the aluminium skin of this sad 410.

Off to the scrapheap in the sky

Unfortunately the crash-damaged Bristol 410 couldn’t be saved, so it was sent away to be scrapped along with the remains of the 401/3 shell beside it.

Lightweight techniques

Looking beneath the roof of the scrap 401/3 ‘Aerodyne’ body, you can clearly see the ‘Superleggera’ method of construction, with aluminium panelwork over a delicate tubular steel frame, which was licensed by Bristol from Touring of Milan.

Not worth their weight

Along with the Bristol 410, a quantity of spares that were in poor condition or not worth the cost of shipping and storing were also sent for scrap, including several dead V8 engines and gearboxes (but no parts for the desirable and valuable 2-litre cars).

End of the line

Bizarrely, some of the parts that were sent for scrap had actually been scrapped once before, when the factory originally closed in 2010. They were sold as scrap but then found their way to a new Bristol specialist who took on several of the former factory employees. 

When that enterprise later closed down, Bristol Cars bought its stock of parts and cars, and found that it had bought back some of its own scrap!