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I used to ride past the Bristol showroom everyday. They always seemed to have one of those dreary things you posted last in there - never anything in the least bit desirable.
There really isn't much to recommend it... I can see a smattering of Aston V8 in the grill, and Capri in the front quarters, but there's quite a bit of Volvo in there too..
I always assumed that there was some section of old school nobility somewhere that kept them afloat maintaining the car their grandfather bought, and that they'd somehow look alright outside a country pile in the home counties.
It's been a couple of years since I went past - shame they've gone.
christianSpaceman-
They could have at least hired a designer. I think your Aston and Capri comparisons flatter it, maybe the front looks like a bad XJ6 rip off, but that's as good as I can manage for a compliment.
The rear end looks like a droopy old Vauxhall Senator with a whiff of Saab, like you say, hardly setting the pulses racing. I've no idea how much one of those was new, sure it was an eye watering amount, which for all that fuglyness is just too much.
Sad they are confined to just another footnote in UK automotive history, but it seems at least partly self inflicted.
user75204
I noticed today the Bristol showroom in Kensington was all closed up, and seems they went into liquidation earlier in the year. Can't say I'm surprised, I've never seen anyone in the place, I'm amazed they kept going as long as they did.
Its lockdown, its Monday, I'm bored, so lets play 'nice arse, shame about the face', which could be written on the Bristol cars tombstone. That is based on the ones I've seen.
The earlier cars were better looking, and always better looking from the back. Two arses but only one winner here.
The front is good for a Bristol, but not a nice as the rear.
A later version with little fins on the rear.
Again not as nice at the front, this was the only 4 door one they made.
Whoever was in charge of the exterior styling of the cars over the years, seems to have been ordered to concentrate on the good looking bits to make them look shitter, and slowly design all the beauty out of it until eventually you're left with a total dogs dinner.
In the 70's the cars started looking like the front and the rear ends were designed by two different people. They still looked alright from the rear....
But they stumbled upon this gopping front end look, thought they'd nailed it, and decided to keep it for decades. The front and rear proportions just look all kinds of wrong.
They kept fucking with the arse end, again looking slightly worse but still passable.
The front still looks wrong, this car looks like a Hillman Avengers fat older brother.
And today I saw the culmination of this automotive evolution of a minger. It took many decades but they finally achieved a car that looks shit from both the front and rear, and undoubtedly the most hideous one they ever made. The most modern Bristol I've ever seen in the wild, from 2001, yes honestly, behold....