Thread: Bristol Cars is Bankrupt

Bristol Cars, best known for its quirky range of Chrysler powered hand-crafted cars has been put into bankruptcy.

Founded in 1945 when the Bristol Aeroplane Company teamed up with AFN, which made Frazer Nash cars, its early models were powered by its own engines and cars like the 400 featured sleek aerodynamic coachwork; the engines were so successful that in the 1950s the two-liter version powered Formula Two Coopers.

From 1960, Bristol was run by ex-racer Tony Crook who took a somewhat eccentric view to running the business never allowing substantial road tests and barely recognizing the media as a whole. Annual sales were so small that no official figures were ever registered.

Although the factory was in Bristol there was a single show room in West Kensington (London) not far from the Olympia exhibition center, with servicing undertaken in nearby Chiswick.

Crook sold out to Toby Silverton in 2000, but a decade later the harsh reality of keeping a bespoke car business afloat struck home and 22 of Bristols 27 employees have been made redundant. Recovery specialists, RSM Tenon are hopeful of finding a buyer.