Table of V8 Bristol car part sources and commonality with other non-Bristol cars.
A member in Germany has compiled a list of equivalent parts for his 411S5 and other V8 cars. He has kindly allowed us to put it on the website.
Exhaust manifold gaskets for 603
Geoff Kingston sent the following on manifold gaskets. The set from Real Steel cost me £18.44 inc vat and p&p, the part number is BYMS12268 and they are listed on the invoice to fit the 360/340/318 engines but note for the 318 it is post 75 engines for the earlier cars they have different gaskets listed.
Availability of Pegasus Parts
There is an updated list of readily available spare parts on the website on the page Pegasus Parts. Please complete and submit the enquiry form to check on availability and cost.
Book about Bristol racing wins “Publication of the Year” Award by Octane
Congratulations are due to Michael Barton and Simon Charlesworth as Aero Dynamic has just won the Octane Magazine historic motoring awards Publication of the Year, a well deserved result for the publisher and author for a very compelling and special book.
400 sidelights
The Bristol 400 side lamp was Lucas type 1145 and part number 52070A (chrome plated body). That was a continued use of a pre-war design of lamp (type 1145, sometimes with a black finish body), which itself was a variation on a similar but larger/longer lamp of the same style that was introduced in about 1935 (Type 1150, usually chrome plated body – used by Humber on their 12 and 18 HP models from 1935 to 37)
A similar lamp was used by Ford on their English built V8 models from about 1935 onwards. That was probably made by Butlers and is quite like Lucas 1145 at a glance but shares no parts with it (Lucas lenses are horizontally ribbed, Ford lenses have raised lumps on either side of a central groove)
Lucas 1145 was used as follows for production models (other occasional uses would probably have been seen from coachbuilders or on specials):
- Bristol, to 1950
- Commer, 30 cwt and 2-to-6-ton, normal control (Superpoise), 1939 to 1947 (with a likely pause in the use of that lamp during the war on the equivalent military requirement models)
- Lea-Francis, 1948
- Vauxhall Big Six, 1934 to 1936
(Note that the non-Lucas information has not yet been checked against documentation)
I have attached two small photos showing out of date images from eBay auction listings.
Hugh Boultbee
Jensen C-V8 Alternative Parts list
I just came across it and although it is for the Jensen CV8 some parts common to Bristol are mentioned and the other alternatives are interesting as they are listed in the groups that mention Bristol.
However do not assume that all parts in the list fit our Bristol cars!
Geoff Kingston
http://jensencv8.weebly.com/c-v8-alternative-parts-list.html
Bristol 400 in The Automobile magazine
In the November 2022 issue of The Automobile…
NO ORDINARY BRISTOL Ordered new by the chairman of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, then driven for a decade by arch-enthusiast Christopher Balfour, then uprated and campaigned in hill climbs and sprints by its next owner, this 1948 Bristol 400 is now in the hands of a young enthusiast. Toby Bruce tells its story……..
