Bristol Cars goes Bust

Bristol Fighter - Bristol Cars are in Administration

Bristol Cars has gone in to administration. Administrators hope to find a buyer to take on the Bristol factory and Kensington showroom.

I know, you didn’t even know they still existed. They do, but for how much longer is anyone’s guess as Bristol Cars calls in the administrators.

Which is a real shame; a proper, eccentric British car maker finding it impossible to make enough sales to pay the bills, when there seem to be enough batty billionaires to buy the worst atrocities the world’s pimpers can muster (much the same problem afflicted Overfinch).

Without a buyer we could see the end of Bristol production in Bristol (you’d never have guessed) and, if it all goes really badly, the end of their lone showroom in Kensington High Street.

Maybe times have moved on and Bristol’s rather eclectic clientèle have either died or moved on too. True, Bristol has moved on a bit from the days of Tony Crook, but for many – and that includes many potential buyers – they are still the slightly barking mad outfit, so loved by LJK Setright, making rather mad cars you had to almost beg to buy.

In some ways it would almost be better for Bristol to die than to be re-born as a chavvy outfit attaching bling to a Bristol Fighter, or dropping the glorious lumps (the Bristol Fighter has an 8.0 litre V10) for a turbodiesel (which would have Setright spinning in his grave).

But hopefully a buyer can be found, a buyer who perhaps need only dig deep enough to actually market Bristol Cars to find new sales without having to change what Bristol makes.

Bristol rarely gave cars out for review and were happy to ban anyone who made even the slightest disparaging comment – just ask Clarkson. So perhaps some simple marketing could make enough buyers fall in love to make Bristol viable.

Here’s hoping.