Bye bye Brian’s Bristols
Brian May was one of the country’s bestknown Bristol specialists, becoming a fixture in a close-knit scene. When he died at the age of 86 in the spring of 2020, he had only stopped working on his own large assembly of classic Bristols a couple of years previously. More than 20 cars remain on his land near Shirley, south of Birmingham, but the time has come for the collection to find new homes. ‘Collection’ is the wrong word though, as Brian’s daughter Fiona explains, ‘These weren’t bought and collected as toys, they’re a mix of cars he was restoring, or that he used for parts to keep customers’ cars going.’
Brian’s speciality was six-cylinder Bristols, the models from 400 to 406. What’s left at the property varies from stripped bodyshells resting in the grass via restorable cars in barn-find condition in a polytunnel, to near-completed examples in garages and outbuildings. The bulk falls into the middle category. The numbers include two rough 400s, a 401 and a 401/403 prototype, a further stripped 403 and two more smart ones, a 404 bare-metalled for restoration, five 405s including stripped-down cars and one converted into an unlikely drophead, four unrestored or part-restored 406s and two near-mint rarities: a 401 saloon bodied by Beutler of Switzerland, and a Touring 401.
Fiona says, ‘In the Fifties, Mum and Dad had a win on the Premium Bonds. She bought a washing machine, he bought his first Bristol – someone told him it would do 100mph, was made from aluminium and wouldn’t rot, and would cost him £100.’
Fiona is now managing the task of finding homes not only for the cars, but for the many spare parts Brian assembled too. See bristolsbristolsbristols.co.uk.