Bristol Cars Limited is a low volume manufacturer of luxury touring cars based in Filton, near Bristol, in the United Kingdom. Bristol Cars was founded shortly after World War II and was initially organized as a division of the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Their intention was to employ their skilled workforce after wartime aviation contracts began to dwindle. Bristol assumed the right to produce a pre-war BMW designed six cylinder engine and this formed the basis of their first car, the 400.
As the six cylinder engine became inadequate for Bristol's needs in the late 1950's, they moved to Chrysler's V8 engines after abandoning the development of a new six cylinder engine. Around this time, Bristol was made indepedent from its parent company (which was subsequently absorbed by British Aerospace). The cars continue to this day to be made to special order with Chrysler's V8 and V10 engines. Their current models are the Fighter and the Blenheim.
Arnolt produced a Bristol
engined car during the 1950's from their
plant in Warsaw, Indiana making it, perhaps, the only American Bristol.
Arnolt ceased operations in the mid 1960's. Arnolt built a
number
of other "specials" in conjunction with Bertone and British car
manufacturers such as MG.
This site focuses on Arnolt-Bristols and Chrysler-engined Bristols.
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on the left. Categories are Gallery
(images of the cars), Technical Data
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information), Resources
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board), Merchandise.