After owning a 1977 Chevrolet Corvette for more than 20 years, I was getting to an age whereby the ʻrolling outʼ of the car – as opposed to the more elegant ʻstepping outʼ – was proving rather embarrassing in pub car parks. It was time to find a replacement, then, but it had to be a right-hand-drive classic with a V8, an automatic gearbox and power steering.
After looking at various Gordon-Keebles and Jensens I decided on the Bristol 410. It has a 5.2-litre Chrysler V8 and met my other criteria, too. When my wife, Pat (Your classic, August 2022), saw it she said it was “an old manʼs car”, to which I said: “I am an old man!”
My Bristol was purchased from a chap in Kent. The trip home, between snowstorms and along A-roads, was troublesome in that the automatic ceased to engage when trying to exit a lay-by on the A303 (according to the supplied invoices, the car had received a rebuilt ʼbox six months earlier). The RAC resolved the problem within 10 minutes: a split-pin at the base of the gearlever hadnʼt been replaced correctly and was lying atop the gearbox.
The car came with little history so I tried contacting various previous owners, albeit without much luck. That said, one guy, who had owned the car between 1989 and 2005, sent me an original ownerʼs handbook and Motorola radio operatorʼs manual.
We used the car for a year and attended various classic shows, but I couldnʼt live with the state (and dark-green colour) of the bodywork, which had numerous issues around the doors, wings and wheelarches with corrosion of the aluminium. Following recommendations from friends, I took it to a bodyshop in Somerset, a one-man enterprise who could not only weld aluminium but was also an excellent painter. He had the car for a year, during which time he cut out all the rot and welded in new metal, plus he replaced the headlining.
I had sourced a number of replacement parts, including a new windscreen and rubbers (this was particularly challenging because Bristol went bust a few months after I bought the car). Numerous items were rechromed, including both bumpers; the dash went to a guy in Wales for new burr walnut and burr oak veneers.
The decision on body colour was difficult. It had to be red, but which red? Finally we espied a Chrysler PT Cruiser in a local garage and enquired after its colour: it was Chrysler Inferno Red Pearlescent, so we chose that. (I had no qualms about changing the
