Cars

The Bristol 401-403 was outrageously expensive for a 2-liter sedan at the time – only Bentley, Rolls-Royce, and Lagonda were more expensive in 1949 – but it looked like a spaceship compared to most of its contemporaries. A rigid chassis, efficient suspension, smooth and powerful engine, and a lightweight yet well-insulated body combined to give the car a sense of tension, liveliness, and sophistication. Some will say that Bristols only declined from there, losing their aerodynamic style, gaining weight, and retaining ‘advanced’ engineering until it became archaic. The heart of the car’s success was its pre-war BMW-derived inline six-cylinder engine with a hemispherical head, a superb unit, intelligently developed by Bristol, which was sought after for sports and racing cars at the time. But Bristol made the most of it in the 401. The first production 2-liter sedan to reach 160 km/h, its all-aluminum body was exceptionally aerodynamic, aided by push-button door openings and internal hood and trunk releases. Bristol adopted Carrozzeria Touring’s Superleggera construction well before Aston Martin. Even the aluminum gauge varied: 16 for the top of the front fenders and hood, where pressure could cause dents in a thinner gauge, and 18 elsewhere. The profiled bumpers, body-colored with chrome inserts, mounted on the chassis via rubber blocks, were decades ahead of their time. Other clever details include a hood that opens sideways (which is safer) in both directions, or can be removed by undoing a bolt, and a trunk lid with a spring-assisted strut. A total of 618 Bristol 401s were produced. This example is from the 3rd and final series. Recent work carried out:

• new Vredestein Classic tires
• dashboard repolished with a buffer
• electric fuel pump (mechanical pump still in place)