V8 Bristol 401
I am unsure whether this posting should be destined for the 6's or V8 section of the forum. Members might be interested in this 2012 article on a V8 engined Bristol 401 project, which was undertaken by the Brabazon company before their demise. The penultimate photo is a video and the final photo has a link beneath it which, when clicked, shows another video.
http://www.dep-o.co.uk/features/new-project-car/
Dave Dale.
In recent years have failed without success to find this car hints have been dropped to me it still exists, while others say it was scrapped so if anyone reading this owns it am prepared to offer between £15k to £25K for it depending on how close it still is to when filmed and how much work to make it usable. must still retain all the chassis mods.
Alternatively £1000 finders fee for first introduction that results in successful purchase.
Geoff.
I imagine it would be quite a lively drive Geoff. Maybe the ultimate "Rat Racer" for Bristol Lovers.
I would suspect it to be very near in performance to the 411 on which the mods are based, in my field is the remains of a 603 so in theory we could do it our selves but the main problem I have is my helpers don't have the time or more to the point won't make the time to work on my hobby cars, human nature I suppose because they see these as fall back jobs whereas I see them as urgent. I am not overly worried about the back end what I am not sure in terms of this conversion is the transition from 401/403 front cross member to V8 cross member.
I have a friend who is a very gifted engineer who could pull this off but has had two of my cylinder heads for nearly 18 months now so our time scales on projects are no longer compatible. I have just turned 64 and would like to be on the road in this type of car before I am 65 on their basis I would be lucky to see it and drive it by 70!
It seems likely that this car no longer exists but on on the off chance it does I have made this open offer , the bottom line is I know there are a few firms able to do this conversion for me but the costs would be prohibitive and knock the project on the head before it started.
This may remain a pipe dream but something else is beginning to gel, in the early 80's someone put a corvette engine and box into a 411 series 1 or 2, the same gearbox was used by Rolls Royce and Bentley and I happen to have a rotten but apparently mechanically good Shadow 2 in the field next to the scrap 603. Anyone got an enginless 411 going spare?