Tag Archives: Crook

Braving The Elements – Bristol 450

Bristol Cars introduction to motor racing came as a supplier of 2 litre 6 cylinder motors which were used by chassis manufacturers that included AFN who produced Fraser Nash cars, Cooper, Lister, Lotus and smaller operations like Warrior.

Bristol 450, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

The first use of a Bristol 2 litre engine at Le Mans came in 1949 when Norman Culpan drove his Fraser Nash High Speed from Yorkshire to the La Sarthe circuit where he was joined by AFN director HJ Adlington and the pair recorded a third place finish 11 laps down on the winning Ferrari 166MM driven by Luigi Chinetti and Lord Selsdon, after the race Norman drove his car back to Yorkshire and AFN produced a run of 34 cars known as Le Mans Replica and Le Mans Mk II’s, these cars have also since been replicated by Crosthwaite & Gardiner, Werner Oswald and others.

Bristol 450, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

In 1952 Percy Kemish and Stan Ivermee were responsible for setting up the Bristol’s Racing Department which included employees Ken Evans, Rupert Gildersleeve, and Stan Sparks.

Bristol 450, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

The chassis for the first Bristol 450 Le Mans challengers were based heavily on the Bristol powered ERA G-Type, an open wheeler with an unusually wide chassis and offset driver which had been bought from ERA proprietor Leslie Johnson at the end of the 1952 season, while the aerodynamically tested coupé body appeared remarkably crude with lights that looked like they had been added as an after thought.

Bristol 450, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

Two Bristol 450’s made the grid for the 1953 Le Mans race one retired when a connecting rod broke causing the car to skid off the Mulsanne Straight on the 30th lap and the second retired after a crankshaft balance weight sheered through the sump and exhaust causing a fire after completing 70 laps.

05 Bristol 450_4569sc

With the crankshaft balance weights removed Peter Wilson and Jack Fairman drove a 450 to a 2 litre class victory and 5th place overall in the Reims 12 hour race in July 1953.

Bristol 450, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

For 1954 the 450’s received refined coupé bodies with faired in headlights and two pronounced tail fins, this time the team finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd in class at Le Mans as Peter Wilson with Jim Mayers, Tommy Wisdom with Jack Fairman and Mike Keen sharing with Tommy Line brought their cars in 7th, 8th and 9th places overall, at Reims the 450’s came home in 10th, 11th and 12th places overall, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the 2 litre class.

Bristol 450, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe

For 1955 more speed was sought by taking the roofs off the cars and running them with a screen for the driver who now had to brave the elements and deck over the passenger seat as seen in these photos taken at last years Autumn Classic meeting at Castle Combe.

Running with the same driving squad as 1954, the now 150 mph cars achieved exactly same result at Le Mans as in 1954, this time with Mike Keen and Tommy Line pipping Tommy Wisdom and Jack Fairman for 8th place.

The teams prize monies for the 1955 race were donated to the fund set up to help the victims of the 1955 Le Mans disaster and the Racing Department was disbanded before the Bristol Cars Division was separated from the Bristol Aeroplane Company in Autumn 1955.

The teams cars were all broken up bar today’s featured car, which is said to have been built up from the best parts of the broken up cars but without one of the motors built for the 450 racing programme, for many years this 450 belonged to Bristol Cars proprietor Tony Crook.

Thanks for joining me on this “Braving The Elements” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a 1990’s Mercedes Benz Le Mans Challenger. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Clash Of The Eccentrics – Bristol 412 S1

In 1975 Bristol replaced it’s 411 model with the 603 featuring a completely new body, a second new car was scheduled to appear on Bristol’s Earle Court Motor Show stand in October 1975 however despite pre event publicity the targa topped 412 model featured today was not ready and so did not appear as promised in the press.

Bristol 412 S2, Pistonheads Sunday Service, BMW Plant, Cowley

The 412 has been described as a clash of automotive eccentrics by some commentators because the body was designed and built by no less an eccentric company than Carrozzeria Zagato wih whom Bristol’s Tony Crook had earlier worked as their UK Concessionaire and Importer. The distinctive head light clusters appear to have been sourced from the second generation Opel Commodore.

Bristol 412 S2, Pistonheads Sunday Service, BMW Plant, Cowley

The first Series 412’s were built with the 300 hp 6.6 litre / 400 cui Chrysler B series V8’s but the second series introduced in late 1977 were fitted with the smaller 5.9 litre / 361 cui Chrysler motor.

Bristol 412 S2, Pistonheads Sunday Service, BMW Plant, Cowley

Series 2 412’s have front suspension modifications as a result of the lighter motor, improved ventilation for the cabin and redesigned seats. From the date of first registration, March 1977, and engine size it would appear today’s car, seen at a Pistonheads Sunday Service meeting held at the BMW Plant in Cowley a couple of years ago, is a Series 1 412.

Bristol 412 S2, Pistonheads Sunday Service, BMW Plant, Cowley

Apparently when Tony Crook went to see the the prototype 412 at Zagato it featured an even bluffer front end and was some 18 foot long, before Tony intervened.

Bristol 412 S2, Pistonheads Sunday Service, BMW Plant, Cowley

The appearance of the 412 divides opinion like few others, as can be seen on this linked Pistonheads thread, one either gets Bristol ethos or one does not their is little middle ground.

Bristol 412 S2, Pistonheads Sunday Service, BMW Plant, Cowley

In 1982 the 412 was fitted with a turbocharger and slightly face lifted which included twinned headlight clusters and called the Beaufighter production of around 27 of these continued until 1993. It is thought just one export only fully convertible versions of the Beaufighter with an electric roof, known as the Beaufort were built along with two non turbocharged US spec 412 known as the 412USAs.

Bristol 412 S2, Pistonheads Sunday Service, BMW Plant, Cowley

It is thought 24 412 Series 1’s were built and 34 Series 2 412’s. Of the 88 Targa tops and one Convertible it is thought 76% are still extent.

Thanks for joining me on this ” Clash Of The Eccentrics” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at something a little more agricultural. Don’t forget to come back now !

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‘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.’

Bristol 407 Viotti, Greenwhich

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.

Bristol 407 Viotti, Greenwich

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.

Bristol 407 Viotti, Greenwich

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’.

Bristol 407 Viotti, Greenwich

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 !

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30% More Power – Bristol 411

The first blog I did on a Series 3 411 has been lost in the mists of Rowdy but a couple of photo’s remain.

Today’s model is a first series Bristol 411 built from 1969 to 1971 the first Bristol model to feature a big block B series 335 hp 6,277 cc / 383 cui motor with 30 % more horsepower than the previous model that gave this car a 140 + mph capability.

The original series 411 models featured slightly enlarged windscreens than the 410 an almost imperceptible difference that can be seen in this photo of a 411 in the foreground and 410 to the left of the photograph.

Sir George White one of the three Directors in Bristol Cars in 1969 suffered serious head injuries in a road accident in September 1969 so it was left to his partner Tony Crook to take over the reins at Bristol in Sir George’s absence a process that ended with Tony buying his partner out in 1973.

To help feed all that power to the road the rear axle was fitted with a limited slip differential (LSD) that allows some difference in angular velocity of the output shafts as long as there is some traction available on at least one of the wheels.

With thanks to the PistonHead who kindly brought this car to the recent Sunday Service at the BMW Plant at Cowley and to Cristopher Balfour who’s book ‘Bristol Cars a very British story‘ provided many of the insights in today’s blog.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s TV detective edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Going it alone – Bristol 407

Just 88 Bristol 407’s were built between 1961 and 1963.

The 407 was the first Bristol model launched after ownership of the Bristol Car Company had been taken over by the Bristol Aeroplane Company founders grandson Sir George White 3rd Bt in partnership with Bristol’s preeminent retailer Tony Crook in September 1960.

The exterior of the Bristol 407 is distinguished from its predecessor the 406, which I have yet to write a blog about, by a horizontal bar across the radiator grill at the front and twin exhaust pipes at the rear.

Underneath the car could not be more different, the 407 is powered by a Canadian built 5130 cc / 313 cui Chrysler V8 connected to a push button operated Torqueflight transmission, a combination which first came to the attention of of Sir Reginald Verdon Smith the Bristol Aeroplane Company director in the 1950’s on a private visit to Canada.

Bristol attempted to develop it’s own aluminium block V8 in the 1950’s but, insufficient experience casting aluminium and lack of capital thanks to the spiralling cost of aircraft development elsewhere in the Bristol group of companies meant that the V8 never got beyond an underdeveloped prototype stage at which crankshaft main bearing housing distortion presented an obstacle to production.

Changing to the Canadian V8 from the hitherto BMW inspired straight 6 necessitated replacing the former transverse leaf front suspension with a pair of coil springs and replacing the highly praised rack and pinion steering with Marles worm driven steering.

The chassis was fitted with Dunlop disc brakes all round and the aluminium body production was moved from Jones Brothers to Park Royal Vehicles in London.

The 407 chassis set out the basic architectural features for all Bristol’s with many incremental modifications right through to the introduction of the Bristol Fighter in 2004.

This particular model photographed at a Loton Park VSCC meeting is registered in Sweden, notice that it is a Right Hand Drive model, Sweden switched to Left Hand Drive in September 1967 to bring it into line with it’s Scandinavian neighbours.

My thanks to Christopher Balfour who’s book ‘Bristol Cars a very British story‘ provided many of the insights in today’s blog.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Marles worm driven steering edition of ‘Getting a lil’ psycho on tyres and that you’ll join me again tomorrow for a look at the even rarer Bristol 410. Don’t forget to come back now !

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