BRISTOL REVIVED

WILL BRISTOL CARS make a comeback? They will if UK property developer and Bristol enthusiast John Wharton has anything to do with it.

Like us, you've probably seen more than one of these brave plots surface over the years. Someone boldly announces the revival of an historic marque, but the whole thing soon ends in tears and often in court. So we forgive any cynicism on your part.

However there is a twist in this story, which suggests it's not just your average bold plan consisting largely of smoke and mirrors and not a lot in the way of funding. Wharton's first step is to establish a business headquartered just outside Bristol city restoring or even remaking and selling the existing fleet of historic cars.

The post World War II history of the company, which of course has its foundation in aviation, is a fascinating one and its product has always tended to be a little different. That of course implies tiny production numbers and steep prices.

However the marque has if anything experienced a strong revival in the last decade or so, to the point where they have, in the case of a few models, become seriously valuable cars. And that means there's probably a business in restoring them.

While we've seen some wild and woolly projections on what a new Bristol model might look that, it seems Wharton is more interested in looking first at the back-catalogue of designs and seeing what could be reasonably revived as a modern re-invention.

One potential target is the Fighter twoseater produced by a revived version of the firm across 2004-11, and the other the more traditional 411 from 1969-76 and then 2010s.