Bristol

The history of Bristol Cars goes back to the end of World War II, when the Bristol Aeroplane Company teamed up with AFN Ltd, producers of Frazer Nash cars, and planned a joint venture to enter the automotive manufacturing business.

After a director of the Bristol Aeroplane Company visited a bombed BMW factory in Munich, he started planning to take BMW cars back into production in the UK alongside with a BMW chief engineer.

The first car

The company's first car was the Bristol 400, unveiled at the 1947 Geneva Motor Show, it had a BMW 326 based engine and chassis and the double-kidney grille was also used. The Bristol 400 was, however, revised and delivered a performance that could only be matched by competition cars.

The following years

Bristol continued to stay away from mass production in order to deliver luxurious hand-built cars. An example of that is the Bristol 401 launched in 1949 of which only 24 units were produced. In 1953 Bristol unveiled the 403 with an improved engine that would be used in the 450 that raced the 1953 Le Mans, but Bristol ended up being involved with racing for only two years.

In the years that followed the company launched the 405 in 1954, the 406 in 1958, the 408 in 1963, the 410 in 1966 and the 411 in 1969. All Bristol cars up until 1961 featured derived BMW engines, from 1961 onwards the automaker used larger Chrysler V8 engines.

Recently Bristol launched a series of new and modern models such as the Blenheim and Fighter which still continue to be hand-built and produced in low numbers.

On March 2011 Bristol Cars went into bankruptcy but was quickly saved when it was acquired in April 2011 by the Kamkorp Group.