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The Bristol Fighter, a British V10 Supercar You Almost Never See

We remember seeing the Bristol Fighter in auto magazines a few years ago. On paper, it seemed to combine everything a petrolhead could ever want, including a V10 engine and the potential to have over 1,000 horsepower thanks to a turbocharger.
Bristol Fighter 1 photo
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube
Of course, it never turned the Fighter into a household name, not even in Britain. The company only managed to find a handful of clients who wanted to break away from the Italian establishment.

The point is that the Fighter is about as rare as honest people in politics, so we thought it would be a great idea to share this video with you guys. After all, a bit of novelty once in a while can't hurt us!

This particular car was filmed at the recent Wilton Classic & Supercars 2015. At the 30-second mark in the video, you can listen to Tiff Needell explain how the Fighter was allegedly the first-ever supercar that did 200 miles per hour. We don't think that's true since we can't forget the 1987 Ferrari F40 or the Bugatti EB110 that came after that.

Bristol started as a company that made airplanes. If we remember correctly, their World War I bombers were very good. However, if your business revolves around people killing each other, there could be a problem.

After WWII, they made the Bristol 400 using blueprints that were… commandeered from the BMW factory in Germany. It had the engine from the 328 in the body of the 327.

Personally, we don't like the Fighter very much. It looks like the fake Alfa Romeo, that TZ3 Stradale. Everything about it screams kit car, and there's no tradition like you get from Morgan.

Part of the reason very few people know about Bristol has to do with Tony Crook, who died last year after nearly half a decade at the helm. He was an odd chap who hated the automotive press and sent a letter to everybody who criticized Bristol.

Stories surrounding the type of stunts he liked to pull survive to this day. For example, it's rumored that he paid a hobo to sit on the Rolls-Royce stand and put off potential customers. Or that he dressed up as a sheik and pretended to buy every car Frazer-Nash had for sale.

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About the author: Mihnea Radu
Mihnea Radu profile photo

Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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