'It should be a convertible !' - Bristol 407 Viotti Convertible

Among the many tales in Bristol Cars folklore several are connected with the actor Peter Sellers who one day after filming at Shepperton Studio's approached Tony Crook, Bristol Cars sole retailer, with a Buick asking if some improvements could be made to the handling, when Tony replied that he couldn't do much with the Buick Peter said 'Well I'm going to leave it here.'



Eventually Peter Sellers bought a Bristol 407 coupé but he soon returned to Tony with it saying 'It should be a convertible !'. Tony went to some lengths to explain that Bristol Cars did not make any convertibles, though in fact he was preparing one with coach work by Viotti for his daughter Carol.



Legend has it that Carol Crook was part of the London 'in' crowd and counted among her friends Britt Ekland, who posed with the Viotti 407 at Earls Court. Peter some how found out about this car and persuaded Tony to let him become the Viotti 407's first owner.



Tony Crook says that Peter, notorious for regularly acquiring new cars and leaving them with Tony who had two mechanics and a service bay dedicated to maintaining Sellers cars, 'drove it a bit - not an awful lot - and then we sold him other cars and we took the Viotti back'. All of this appears to have occurred before Peter Sellers had met the model who posed with the Viotti 407 at Earls Court his future wife Britt Ekland.



The unique Viotti 407 was very much a prototype, the suspension had not been modified to cope with the extra weight of the all steel body, the 88 other 407's had lighter aluminium bodies, when Peter Sellers had the car, however when Tony Crook got it back the suspension and brakes were upgraded to later Bristol 410 specification, and his daughter Carol owned it for many years when it was seen with the registration number 'AC 1'.



From what I can work out Tony Vaughan, seen in the Viotti 407 here at last weeks Bristol Owners Club Concours held at Greenwich, is the fourth owner of this car.

The one off styling exercise Viotti 407 appears to have strongly influenced future Bristol designs from the 408, 409, 410 and the early series 411.

Thanks for joining me on this Viotti edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres', I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

DIY with a Fiesta - Quantum 2 + 2

Mark and Harvey Wooldridge founded Quantum Sports Cars in 1987 to produce a Coupé kit car designed by Harvey to take Mk 1 Ford Fiesta running gear, 17 examples were built.



In 1991 Quantum introduced a saloon model with pop up headlights designed around Mk 2 Ford Fiesta running gear .



The 2+2 model seen here was also designed around Mk2 Ford Fiesta running gear and introduced in 1993. To date it is thought around 400 examples have been built, 2 + 2 kits built by Quantum Kit Cars Limited of Bristol are available from Quantum Heritage.



This particular Quantum stated life as a Mk 2 Fiesta with a 1600 cc / 97.6 cui motor in 1985/85 first registered in Shrewsbury. I am not sure when the car was given the Quantum body but it's driver informed me that it recently had a 2 litre / 122 cui engine installed as have many others of the type. Notice the smoked rear light clusteres which were sourced from the Ford Sapphire parts bin.



If you'd like to know more about the marque I'd recommend getting in touch with the extremely active Quantum Owners Club.

I hope you have enjoyed today's DIY edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres' and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don't for get to come back now !

Mission Possible - Bristol Cars Ltd

Last Monday 27 employees of Bristol Cars Ltd passed through these gates on their way to work.



This morning only 5 employees will return through these gates as the manufacturing arm of Bristol Cars Ltd has been placed into administration with RSM Tenon.



Tom Maclennan of RSM Tenon is quoted as saying " There have been a number of immediate redundancies due to the financial position of the company, (but) we are maintaining the sales and service operations so customers will continue to be supported."



Though not without some criticism over the way the company has been run in the past, there has been a significant amount of support for Bristol Cars Ltd on the internet, in the light of this unfortunate development, from owners and non owners alike as evidenced by threads on pistonheads.com, The Nostalgia Forum and particularly on the Bristol Owners Club forum where members recall many of the Bristol Cars Ltd team with fondness having known them for many years.



One member of the Bristol Owners Club, Teb Marius from the Netherlands with professional experience in handling these types of financial situations is calling for professional assistance from members and non members in the UK to investigate the possibility putting together a Bristol Owners Club led Consortium to negotiate a viable future for Bristol Cars Ltd with the administrators. Send Teb an e-mail if you can offer any such professional assistance.



Alternatively for anyone with the financial muscle who wants make a bid for the manufacturing division of Bristol Cars Ltd, Tom MacLennan and Trevor Binyon at RSM Tenon have been appointed joint administrators of the business and would be interested to hear from you.

In anticipation of good news about the future of Bristol Cars Ltd I hope you'll join me again at "Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres". Don't forget to come back now !