Meridian Date - Bristol Concours d'Elegance

Yesterday I travelled 2 degrees, 35 mins 45.25 seconds East to the Meridian line at Greenwich in London with Florian, my guest from France, to see the Bristol Concour's d'Elegance, where a fine selection of Bristol Cars and a single Fraser Nash BMW, representing over 60 years of automotive history was accumulating in the grounds of the Old Naval College.



Oldest car at the show was this 1939 Frazer Nash BMW 321, Frazer Nash were in partnership with the Bristol Aircraft Company when the latter diversified into the automotive market after WW2.



Several Bristol 400's, the manufacturers first model, were present all in immaculate condition, this 1971cc, 120 cui six cylinder being maintained by Bristol Owners Club (BOC) member Derek Hughes.



Among many Bristol models I saw for the first time was the 402 of which only 23 examples were built, this one belonging to Richard Weale.



I know the father of one GALPOT regular used to race an Arnolt Bristol so it was a particular thrill to see and above all hear this car being started up by Kenneth Andrén who brought this car over from Sweden.



There were several Bristol 406's, which featured roof mounted indicator lights, present this one belonging to Edward Anderson.



Chrysler supplied the motor's for all Bristol models starting with the 407 in 1961, this is the 6277 cc / 383 cui big block Chysler B series V8 fitted to the 411 Series 2 belonging to Jamie Davenport.



In 1976 the 603 model was introduced a car that owed no heritage at all to the Bristol 407 that had been continually upgraded from 1961 and formed the basis of a succession of new models. This is the cockpit of the 603E belonging to Fergus Taylor-Gregg.



Newest of the Bristol's present was the 2009 Blenhiem (603 Series 4) of Richard Levine.



91 year old Bristol Works Director, until the factory closed earlier this year, the sprightly Syd Lovesy was amongst those who handed out the prizes at the end of the day. Syd is seen here with Richard Vaughan and the unique 1963 Bristol Viotti 407 styling exercise that once belonged to comic actor Peter Sellers.



Concours d'Elegance award winning cars included the 400 of Ashley James, the 403 of John Manley, the 405 of Cyril Milward, the 411 Series 2 of Jamie Davenport, a 412, the Arnolt of Kenneth Andrén, and the last one I can positively identify in the line the Fraser Nash BMW 321.



Car of the day for me was definitely the Arnolt, hats off to Kenneth bring this car over from Sweden, thanks to everyone at the Bristol Owners Club who made this a day for Florian and I to remember.

Thanks for joining me on this Meridian edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you'll join me again tomorrow to see how the Aluminium Buick 215 V8 came to impact the British motor industry. Don't forget to come back now !

How many are there - Bristol 400 Cabriolet ?

I have made a bit of a mess of my original idea of celebrating the Bristol Aeroplane Companies Centenary celebration by setting out to post a blog about each model in the order they were released with the most basic mistake of confusing a 401 with a 403, now that has been rectified I find there was a version of the Bristol 400 which I did not even know about until John Lomas kindly pointed out I had a photograph of it !



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This Bristol 400 cabriolet appears to be one of two built that never entered full production. If I had known just how rare it was when I took the photograph I would have waited for an opportunity to take a photograph of the front of the car, but that as they say will now have to wait for another day.

It would appear that Pinin Farina also built a Bristol 400 convertible but director Tony Crook cancelled any plans for it to go into production allegedly because of the inferior quality of the bodywork. According to the Bristol Owners Club, despite this decision there may be as many as 10 Pinin Farina Bristol 400's. A quick search on Google images reveals one of the Pinin Farina 400 Cabrilolets to be a dark blue while another is eggshell blue.

Slightly off topic it was lovely to see Kevin Harvick keeping his composure after his pit crew dropped lug nut yesterday at Phoenix. Somehow Kevin managed to come back from 19th to 6th behind Jimmy Johnson and now sits 46 points behind Hamlin who after leading most of the race ran low on fuel at the end and wound up coming in just 12th.

Kevin is certainly the underdog going into Homestead Miami next weekend, but he certainly won't be the first underdog going into the final race of the season to lift the Cup. Go Harvick ! Go #29 ! Go Happy !

Finally a word to some visitors from Germany, schoen Gruss an alle Morgan Freunde von http://www.morgan-club.de die dem letztens 'Gettin' a lil psycho on tyres' besucht haben.

Thanks for popping by, looking forward to tomorrow's blog already, don't forget to come back now !

Happy 100th Birthday British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, Ltd !

What better way to celebrate the start of my blogging career, than with a centenary celebration in honour of the company that started my local exclusive vehicle manufacturer, The Bristol Car Company.

Unfortunately I missed the celebrations at Filton this weekend where 200 odd Bristol's, nearly 5% of all Bristol's ever made, were on display but have already made arrangements to be at the 101st birthday party.



Above is a photo taken at the Prescott VSCC meeting back in August of what I believe to be one of the 487 Bristol 400's made between 1947 and 1958.

The Bristol 400 featured a 1971 cc ohv straight 6 which, along with the chassis and bodywork, was based on the pre war BMW 327.

Some great snaps, by my friend Tim Murray, from the centenary celebrations can be seen at The Nostalgia Forum here.

Hope you enjoyed my first blog and as they used to say on one of my favourite TV show's 'y'all come back now ! Hear !'