Bristol Cars

[@phmwu7368]

Bristol 405 was an amazing British car... extra headlight in the nose.

[@germainprime4602]

I thought Bristol cars had a chassis which was very similar to the BMW 327 chassis. It's an easy mistake to make.

[@mrdanforth3744]

The BMW engine started in the early thirties as a conventional pushrod OHV straight six with valves all in a row. To get more power they changed the cylinder head to a hemispherical design which required a Heath Robinson lashup of pushrods and rocker arms. It was a compromised design that was already obsolete when Bristol started making it. Why they wasted money tooling up for such a bad design is beyond me but the British motor industry is full of such blunders. To their credit they made it work but at what a cost. From what I hear they were a beautifully built car. Something like a Rolls Royce, a triumph of careful workmanship over bad design.