|
The First Art Newspaper on the Net |
|
Established in 1996 |
|
Saturday, November 23, 2024 |
|
1948 Bristol 400 for sale with H&H Classics at the Imperial war museum Duxford |
|
|
The car has been extensively restored during its current eighteen-year ownership.
|
LONDON.- If you are the owner of the fabled British Bristol marque and your wife asks for a new car what do you do? You provide this blood red 1948 Bristol 400!
Diana Whites husband George S.M. White effectively founded Bristol Cars and remained its chairman until 1973. She was a successful artist and designer and joined Bristol's Advisory Board as a consultant.
The car has been extensively restored during its current eighteen-year ownership including a bare metal repaint, interior re-trim, engine overhaul and fitment of a close-ratio gearbox. Something of a wolf in sheeps clothing with its tuned engine and close ratio gearbox, this striking 400 is made doubly special by its White family provenance. Offered for sale with V5C Registration Document and history file.
The engine has been uprated by Nicholas Finburgh Ltd: nitrided crankshaft, high-lift camshaft, 10:1 compression ratio, new flywheel Bristol long rods and Cosworth pistons.
The Bristol 400 is an impressive machine for its time. It was a joy to drive, spritely with an engine that offered 80hp and could achieve over 90mph a phenomenal speed at the time.
The car is a second series 400 saloon complete with aluminium spare wheel cover and optional top-hinged opening rear window, chassis 421 was allocated new to none other than Diana White whose husband George S.M. White had effectively founded Bristol Cars. Thought to have been initially road registered as BAC 1 (Bristol Aeroplane Company), the four-seater is understood to have subsequently belonged to P. Buckley and to have spent time abroad before being re-registered as JSV 823 on August 13th 1982 when in the custody of D. Stephenson. Acquired by the Ball family during 1990, the 400 then passed to Channel Islands resident B. Ching from whom the vendors late husband bought it in November 2002.
Despatched to Bristol Car Services Ltd of Chiswick the following October for some £6,000 worth of brake, suspension and back axle fettling, a further £3,619 was spent with the same company on repairing a blown head gasket and renewing the water pump etc. An ex-Works Porsche driver, the vendors late husband decided to contest various historic rallies aboard JSV 823 and to this end he enlisted the services of classic car restorer and race preparation specialist Nicholas Finburgh who had learned his craft at his fathers renowned firm Classic Autos of Kings Langley. Accompanying invoices for the ensuing engine overhaul total over £24,000 including a Farndon Engineering nitrided crankshaft, high lift camshaft, chromed rocker shaft, bespoke head gasket, Bristol long rods, Cosworth pistons / rings, new bearings, valves, Vokes air filters and titanium valve caps, not to mention multiple specialist repairs to the cylinder block and head. Running a 10:1 compression ratio there is mention in the history file of the uprated engine developing 150bhp. However, there are no dyno sheets on file to confirm this output.
The engine work took two years to complete (2005 2007) and in the meantime the vendors late husband had the 400 completely re-trimmed by Tony Fairweather of Fairweather Restorations in an authentic mixture of Red-piped Cream leather and Brown cloth (Bristol intending the latter to bear the brunt of any scuffing) at a cost of circa £10,000. New front and rear wings were sourced from Vintage Wings and Radiators of Manchester and the car then treated to a bare metal bodywork restoration by Dennis Wright Body Repairs of Norfolk between 2007 and 2008 at an estimated cost of £20,000. A close-ratio (Type CR2) four-speed manual gearbox was obtained from Bristol Cars for £2,232 in January 2008 and a new clutch installed by Nicholas Finburgh that May. The front brakes were overhauled in 2009 and the fuel tank flushed by Classic Restorations Ltd of Bedford during September 2011 (£1,051.88).
Having covered a mere 1,500 miles or so over the past decade, JSV 823 is currently running and driving and may well be driven to the sale but would benefit from some recommissioning / servicing.
Model Background: With the support of the War Reparations Board, the rights to manufacture the BMW 326, 327 and 328 and their famed six-cylinder engine were secured by the Bristol Aeroplane Companys fledgling Car Division in 1946. Place a pre-war BMW 327 alongside Bristol's first offering, the 400, and the ancestry is self-evident, but there were many differences. The decision to make it a four-seater saw it based on the longer chassis of the 326. The aircraft grade Bristol body was more streamlined than that of the 327, while Bristol developed the already impressive 328 engine into one of the finest 2-litre units of the period, which powered not only all Bristol models until 1961, but various sports and racing cars from AC, Arnolt, Cooper, Frazer Nash, Lister, Lotus and Tojeiro. The 400's interior trim was an unmistakably British blend of leather and wood. With its lithe 1170kg kerb weight, rack and pinion steering, independent front suspension, torsion bar controlled rear axle and four-wheel drum brakes, the Bristol was among the fastest and best handling saloons of its generation capable of humbling rivals with far larger engines. However, such excellence did not come cheap and only 487 examples of the 400 were made.
|
|
Today's News
October 5, 2020
Postponed Artemisia Gentileschi exhibition now open at the National Gallery
Britain's Royal Opera House to sell Hockney painting to raise funds
Kenzo Takada, first Japanese designer to conquer Paris fashion, dies aged 81
Why this artist is paying bodegas with 120,000 pennies
The Städel Museum opens an exhibition of Netherlandish drawings of the eighteenth century
Extraordinary discovery of neurons in the vitrified brain of a victim of the 79 AD Vesuvian eruption
Victoria Miro announces representation of Paula Rego
Page Bond Gallery opens an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Peri Schwartz
French star Jeanne Moreau's dresses to be sold
Phillips announces highlights from the October auctions of 20th Century & Contemporary Art in London
Initio Fine Arts opens exhibition of works by Anna Horváth and Reda Amalou
Rare 13th century Islamic gold coin estimated to fetch £200,000-300,000 at Morton & Eden
Exhibition considers artistic explorations of scale, material, and process
James Cohan now represents Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian
Oil painting by David Burliuk brings $39,100 at Weiss Auctions
Barack Obama's historic basketball jersey and Michelle Obama's iconic dress head to Julien's Auctions
Ideals of beauty, female figure explored in Nelson-Atkins exhibition
Virginia Bianchi Gallery opens an exhibition of works by artists Wednesday Kim and Giuliana Rosso
'Everything crossed over': Michael Clark's cheeky world of dance
Solo exhibition of new work by Rivane Neuenschwander on view at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
Artcurial to offer over 1500 items from the Roméo Collection
Sotheby's announces highlights included in its inaugural annual "Halloween" Spirits sale
1948 Bristol 400 for sale with H&H Classics at the Imperial war museum Duxford
Bodleian Libraries celebrate visionary female photographer Helen Muspratt with retrospective
|
|
|
|
|
Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography, Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs, Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, . |
|
|
|
Royalville Communications, Inc produces:
|
|
|
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful
|
|